no, really. i asked for recipe suggestions to work on and megan said she would like to see something with apples. the rest is history...or will be after i publish this post and everyone rushes to try these scones for themselves. then, and only then, will it be history.
if you want to make blueberry scones instead of apple cinnamon, leave the cinnamon and apples out and fold in about 2 cups of frozen blueberries...while they're still frozen. and add a little more lemon zest, perhaps a teaspoon. after you've added the soy yogurt and have kneaded the dough, let it rest for about 5 or 10 minutes to let those blueberries soften up a bit before placing them in the oven. and i would sprinkle the tops with sugar before baking too, but that's just me.
i adapted this recipe from a lemon ginger scones recipe i found while learning how to properly make scones on joyofbaking.com. apparently, leaving eggs out of a scone is perfectly acceptable and using soy yogurt and earth balance was all too easy...it's as though scones want to be vegan. the dough was a bit sticky when i was being very careful to not overwork it so i sprinkled some flour on top of the dough, as well as the counter top, and that seemed to bring it together nicely. i think coating my hands with flour would've been a good idea too - at one point i looked like this:
ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
**plus extra for kneading the dough
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of double acting baking powder
1/4 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) of vegan margarine (earth balance), very cold and cut into cubes
1 med-large (about 1 1/2 cups) granny smith, or another good baking apple. peeled, cored and diced small
**plus another 1/2 cup of apples for the tops of the scones (about 1 1/2 apples total)
a pinch of lemon zest
2 tsp of cinnamon
**plus another 1/4-1/2 tsp for sprinkling over the top
2/3 cups of plain or vanilla soy yogurt
preheat your oven to 400F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
peel, core and dice your apples. set them aside in a small bowl.
in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
add your chilled butter pieces to the flour mixture and blend using a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
stir in 1 1/2 cups of the apples, 2 tsp of cinnamon and the lemon zest.
add the soy yogurt and stir just until the dough comes together. be careful to not over mix your dough.
transfer the dough to a **lightly floured surface. cover your hands with flour and knead the dough 4 or 5 times. if it's too sticky sprinkle a little flour over the top as you're kneading.
form the dough into a disc about 7 inches across and 1 1/2 inches thick. sprinkle the **remaining 1/2 cup of apples on the disc and lightly press them into the dough. sprinkle the **remaining 1/4-1/2 tsp of cinnamon over the top.
cut the disc into 6-8 even wedges, like pie slices, and transfer them to the baking sheet.
bake on the center rack for 20-25 minutes, until they feel firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.







