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Vegan Apple Scones with Almonds

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apple scones with almonds

These flaky, vegan apple scones will blow your mind: crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside! Topped with an apple glaze and toasted almonds, these guys are perfect with an afternoon coffee.

  • Author: Richard Makin

Ingredients

Units
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For the Applesauce Scone Glaze

  • 200ml water
  • 1 medium baking apple (200g when peeled and cored)
  • 1 unwaxed lemon

For the Vegan Scones

  • 370g plain white flour
  • 30g ground almonds
  • 1.5 t cinnamon
  • 1/4 t nutmeg
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 100g granulated sugar + 3T for dusting
  • 120g chilled vegan butter
  • 1 medium baking apple (200g when peeled and cored)
  • 190g applesauce
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 60ml soy milk + 3T for wash

For Decorating

  • 90g icing sugar
  • 2.5t apple juice
  • 2 T toasted flaked almonds

Instructions

To Make the Applesauce Glaze

  1. Place the water in a small saucepan and add a teaspoon of juice from the lemon. Using a potato peeler, remove two strips of zest and add to the water.
  2. Peel and core the apple then roughly dice. Add the apple directly to the lemon water while you continue to chop – this prevents it from turning brown.
  3. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and, stirring often, allow to cook until all the cubes of apple have lost their shape completely. Once you have a lump-free apple sauce, turn off the heat and transfer the apple sauce to a bowl and leave to cool.

To Make the Scones

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and 100g sugar.
    Add the chilled vegan butter in cubes and toss to coat in flour. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour so you’re left with large flat flakes of butter in amongst a rough sandy textured mixture. Place in the fridge to chill.
  2. In a separate bowl, place a few cups of water and a good squeeze of lemon juice (don’t worry about measuring anything here).
  3. Peel and core the baking apple then slice into very fine dice (less than half a cm big if possible). Place the cubes of apple into the lemon water to keep from browning.
    When the apple is fully diced, drain off the water and add the apple to the flour/butter mixture. Stir well to combine. Set aside.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the 190g apple sauce, vanilla extract, and 60ml plant milk. Whisk well to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the other bowl of dry ingredients. Fold everything together until just combined then place the bowl in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 200c and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
  5. Once the mixture is chilled, turn it out onto the lined baking tray and pat it roughly into a thick circle. Use a knife or bench scraper to divide the circle into 8 segments and separate them as much as possible on the baking tray to allow for expansion in the oven.
  6. Brush with the remaining plant milk and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating.

To Decorate

  1. In a small bowl, combine the icing sugar and the apple juice. Whisk well until smooth. Drizzle over the scones then top with the toasted flaked almonds.

Notes

Here are a few tricks for getting the perfect vegan apple scones.

Combining Flour and Butter

It’s important not to overwork the ingredients at this stage. The risk is that the butter will melt with the heat of our hands and activate the gluten in the flour. Too much gluten activation will make the scones tough instead of light and flaky. Try to rub the flour and vegan butter together just enough to combine them and flatten out the cubes of butter. It’s fine if there are still flecks of butter in the mixture – this will help the dough to stay light.

flour vegan butter

Keep Everything COLD!

Again, throughout this process, it’s important to keep all your ingredients as cold as possible. While preparing your little apple cubes to go into the scones, be sure to chill your flour and butter mixture. It’s also a good idea to chill your apple sauce if possible – and definitely don’t add it if it’s warmer than room temperature. If you’re finding the dough difficult to handle at any point, just give it a chill in the fridge for ten minutes before moving on.

apple cubes for vegan scones

Rough is Good!

The great thing about scones is that rougher = better! Don’t overmix your dough at any point as it’ll make everything tough and dry. Keep the dough shaggy and uneven textured. When Shaping your scones, don’t worry if they’re a little wonky and uneven. This is the best part about scones! The rougher the surface, the more craggy and crispy it’ll turn out. Oh, and don’t forget to brush with plant milk and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

vegan dough for apple almond sconesapple scones

Keep One Eye on the Scones While Baking!

The apple cubes have a tendency to protrude and can burn in the oven, so keep one eye on the scones while baking. If they look like they might brown a little too quickly, move them a little lower in the oven or use a pair of chopsticks to pull off the offending apple cubes before they burn!

vegan apple sconevegan apple almond scone

 

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