Vegan Gingerbread Rye Scones

For my first post of December, I thought it would only be appropriate to share a holiday recipe! As I'm sure you've all noticed, as soon as American Thanksgiving was over last week, bloggers couldn't wait to get into the Christmas spirit, and I'm definitely one of those bloggers! 

My holiday baking started last week with our annual cookie swap at school, and even though I had just gotten back from a conference and didn't have much time to prepare for it, I couldn't miss the opportunity to try out a Christmas cookie recipe - and to sample everyone else's Christmas baking! 

I brought these cranberry apple crumble squares from Sweet Twist of Blogging, and I loved how they turned out! And for the record, I think it was our best cookie swap yet, everyone's treats were so good (as evidenced by the rate at which my stash disappeared afterwards)!

My second holiday themed treat so far this year were these gingerbread scones. These aren't your average fluffy white scones, since they're made with a mix of whole wheat and rye flour and use coconut oil instead of butter. I liked how the darker flours gave the scones a bit of a deeper flavour though and complemented the gingerbread notes well too.

Lightly sweetened with a bit of maple syrup and molasses and spiced with both ground and fresh ginger, these scones have a subtle kick to them. You could leave them plain to highlight the gingerbread, or you could add a few whole cranberries to each scone like I did to double up on the Christmassy flavours! 

Hopefully I'll have more treats to share with you in the next few weeks!

Gingerbread Rye Scones
Adapted from Gnom-Gnom

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup dark rye flour

1/2 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

Dash of salt

3 tbsp solid coconut oil

3 tbsp almond milk

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp molasses

1/2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice

1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp vanilla

~1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (optional; if frozen let them thaw a bit first)

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flours to salt). Add the coconut oil and use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut the coconut oil into the dry ingredients until it is fully broken down and the dry ingredients are crumbly.

In a separate bowl, mix the almond milk, maple syrup, molasses, vinegar, ginger, and vanilla. If your molasses is really thick, you can blend the ingredients in a blender until smooth (I used this method). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Transfer mixture to a clean surface and pat it into a thick round circle. Cut into four equal wedges. Press a few cranberries into the tops of each scone if desired.

Place scones on the prepared baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes, until they are browned on the bottom and firm on top. Let cool on a wire rack.

Best served warm, spread with a bit of margarine or vegan butter.

Makes 4 small scones (recipe can be doubled for a larger batch - just cut the dough circle into 8 wedges instead of 4).

Soy Nog Chai Scones

Now that December is practically here, I'm ready to start sharing some holiday recipes on the blog! As a lover of Starbucks holiday drinks, I usually focus on the following flavours when I think of holiday baking: eggnog, chai, gingerbread and peppermint.

These scones were my first holiday baking experiment incorporating two of those flavours: eggnog and chai. But instead of real eggnog, I wanted to try using my latest obsession: So Nice Noel Nog.  I actually like soy nog better than the real thing - even though it's not as thick and creamy, I love the taste! I've been drinking it on its own and adding it to my coffee, so I was excited to try baking with it too!

The inspiration for these scones comes from Mama Pea's vegan Vanilla Bean Mini-Scones. To get the holiday flavour I wanted, I used my noel nog for the milk, and added the contents of a chai tea bag, along with some cinnamon and nutmeg for more spice. I also used coconut oil instead of margarine (because that's all I had), and subbed vanilla extract for the vanilla bean.

The flavour of these scones was amazing! The eggnog taste definitely came through, and I loved the accent of the chai tea. As you can see, they weren't quite as fluffy as I wanted, but I may have rolled the dough too thin when I cut them, and I also overbaked them a tad! Despite my mistakes, I still loved them!

I also made a simple glaze by combining icing sugar with noel nog and cinnamon, and drizzled it over top of the scones afterwards to add some more sweetness. I liked them with the glaze as a treat, but feel free to leave it out for a more wholesome breakfast!

Soy Nog Chai Scones
Adapted from Peas and Thank You

1 cup whole grain spelt flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 chai tea bags
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter or vegan margarine)
1/2 cup soy nog
1/3 cup cane sugar (or other sugar)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the contents of two chai tea bags.  Add the coconut oil to the dry ingredients and mix in with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough is crumbly.

In a separate bowl, combine the soy nog, sugar and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined (do not overmix).

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two equal portions. Pat or roll each portion into a flat circle, about 1.5 inches thick. Cut each circle with a knife into six equal wedges (like a pie).

Place wedges on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until scones have started to brown and firm up (*Note: the instructions in the original recipe called for a baking time of 13-15 minutes for mini scones but since mine were larger, I increased the baking time to 15-17 minutes).

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Once cool, drizzle with eggnog glaze if desired (recipe below).


Eggnog Glaze
1 cup icing sugar
3 tbsp soy nog
dash of cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth. Add more icing sugar or milk to adjust the consistency if necessary.

Vegan Mini Peanut Butter Scones

On rainy, dreary days like we are having here today, all I want to do is stay inside in my pajamas and bake!

I actually made these scones a few days ago, but they would be the perfect little treat to cheer you up on a day like today - or any day for that matter!

There are a lot of good things I could say about these scones, but I have two favourites:
1) They are just so cute! I love miniature baked goods...plus cutting the dough into smaller pieces means I get to have more scones!
2) They are vegan! I used to think that butter and cream were essential ingredients for making proper scones, but now I know that you can get soft, fluffy and moist scones without either of these things!

I only made a small batch for myself, but you can easily double the recipe for sharing with others - if you can bear to part with them!

Vegan Mini Peanut Butter Scones
Adapted from With a Side of Sneakers

1/2 cup light spelt flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp ground flax
1.5 tbsp warm water
40 mL almond milk (I used vanilla)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp peanut butter

Mix the flax with water and set aside.

Mix the almond milk with lemon juice and set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add in the wet ingredients and the peanut butter and mix to form a dough. (I found it a bit difficult to mix in the peanut butter this way - I had to use my hands. I would suggest warming up the peanut butter in the microwave first briefly to make it a bit easier to mix in).

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Flatten into a circle and cut the circle into six equal wedges.

Places wedges on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool on a wire rack.

I thought these were a bit too plain to eat on their own, but they are perfect for spreading with peanut butter!

Or you can make them a bit more decadent with a glaze...Instead of the peanut butter glaze from the original recipe, I used this amazing peanut butter-banana combination from Oh She Glows - if you haven't tried it yet, you definitely should! It also went really well with these scones.

Peanut Butter Banana Glaze
Adapted from Oh She Glows

1/2 a ripe banana, mashed
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp icing sugar
pinch of salt

Whisk all ingredients together.

This should make about the right amount for the above scone recipe, but since I wasn't eating all the scones right away, I just kept the glaze in a separate container to spread on each scone whenever I ate one. The glaze also doesn't last that long in the fridge (1-2 days), so I didn't want to make too much and end up having to waste it (Although if you do have extra, I'm sure you could easily find other uses for it!)