Just in time for the new season of Bridgerton, these delicious, buttery, vegan scones are bursting with blueberries and vanilla goodness that will delight you and your family any time of the day.
Why You and Your Family Will Love These Vegan Blueberry Scones
Imagine biting into a crisp vanilla biscuit merged with a butter cookie.
That’s what the texture of these scones is like. They are just bursting with
buttery flavor without containing animal-sourced butter at all. That buttery vegan goodness comes from using good plant butters, like Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter or, for a second runner-up, you can also use Earth Balance Plant Butter.
I have two daughters, both of who are still in grade school, and both of
who love to have tea parties with me. Sometimes it’s a Barbie-themed tea party
with a whole Barbie tea set to boot, and sometimes, we use my big silver tea
service and do a real mock British afternoon tea–for these, my little girls
dress up and wear little white gloves with rhinestones on them that I studded
around the lace in their favorite colors.
For these sweet afternoons, after trying my hand at petit-fours, which ended
up with me cleaning my kitchen of fondant for a week (it was even on the ceiling fan,
folks), I’ve found these vegan blueberry scones to be a delicious,
much less labor-intensive way of bringing joy to these occasions as well as giving
me the joy of my two little girls made happy by a day of stories, giggles,
blueberries, and lots of Mommy-and-me time.
The Quest for a Non-Crumbling Vegan Blueberry Scone
I came up with this recipe after noticing that vegans everywhere were truly
clamoring for a vegan blueberry scone recipe that didn’t melt (and crumble) before
it hit their mouth.
So, I got out the best of my vegan baking books and discovered flaxseeds can
help lend scone dough the kind of height, heft, and structure that would
normally come from the lactic acid and egg proteins activating the gluten in
flour. I also discovered a new trick with plant-based butters that really
helps.
It’s All About Chilling, Chilling, Chilling Every Single Thing
Take your 8 tablespoons of (non-whipped) plant-based butter and, if it’s not
already in a stick format, take wax paper and shape it into a square–a pretty
flat one, about 1/4th of an inch thick. Now, freeze it. Because plant butters
don’t contain real milk solids that will separate, you can actually freeze this
butter and get it nice and hard–and that, my readers, is part of the secret to
making great vegan scones. Now, cut that butter into little squares, like 1/4-inch
cubes and re-freeze them in a baggy again until it’s time to crumble the frozen
fat with your flour.
If you feel your dough getting too warm and gluey, re-chill it. The goal is
very cold dough meets very cold plant butter so that butter will suspend in the
dough until it hits that oven. So re-chilling your scones after you cut them
into wedges is a must, too.
Keeping that fat cold, cold, cold will enable you to make the most
deliciously textured vegan blueberry scones possible.
How to Make Ahead and Store
You can refrigerate vegan scones and maintain their texture and flavor for at most 4 days in an airtight container. Microwave for 30 seconds to replenish their fresh-baked, moist, soft texture inside. Same goes for if you freeze them, which you can do, as long as you store them in freezer bags with all of the air pushed out of them. They will freeze quite well for 3 months!
Serving Suggestions
Serve this after a lunch or dinner of this Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Melt, and truly indulge in the best of baking from Britain and France. Scones are also great, my vegan readers, after a meal of my delicious Vegan Ravioli, another recipe designed just for you health-conscious, Earth-conscious, and animal-loving readers.
Vegan Blueberry Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons cold vegan butter or solid coconut oil
- 1/2 cup almond milk plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 to 1 cup fresh blueberries frozen can be used
- Optional: lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 1 cup powdered sugar for glaze
- 2 tablespoons almond milk for glaze
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract for glaze
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (204°C) and get a baking sheet ready by lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, ground flaxseeds, salt, and sugar.
- Cut in the cold vegan butter using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Gently mix in the almond milk and vanilla extract just until combined. If the dough is too dry, add a little more milk. Then, fold in the blueberries carefully.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead a few times, then press into a 1-inch thick circle.
- Cut the dough into 8 wedges using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife.
- Arrange the scones on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 22-26 minutes, or until they are lightly golden.
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