Okay, so this isn't really otaku or even Japan-related. But scones are wonderful delicious little treats, so don't complain! I've been reading Diana Wynne Jones's House of Many Ways aloud to my parents lately, and there is so much mention of Afternoon Tea, crumpets dripping with butter, and Mr. Baker's amazing pasties that I couldn't take it anymore. I spent a good twenty minutes looking online for vegan scone recipes. I'm not vegan, but I can't do dairy. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to post healthy vegan recipes. What's with the craze for healthy?? When I eat a scone it's for the yummy flavor. So, I tore apart about three recipes, pieced the best bits together, and added a few tweaks of my own. Here's the patchwork result. Oh, and there's no reason why you have to stick with non-dairy. Go ahead and use real butter and milk if you prefer. That being said, these scones are truly decadent as-is.
Blueberry Scones
2 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
¼ cup shortening
1 cup blueberries (I used fresh but frozen works too.)
½ cup soy milk
½ tsp. vinegar (I was out of apple cider vinegar and used rice wine vinegar instead.)
1 egg
1 lemon
Preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment you can oil the pans. I'm lazy and prefer less cleanup—parchment can just be thrown out and pans put away sans scrubbing.
Now, in a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients, including the brown sugar. If you're really meticulous you can sift things I guess, but like I said, I'm lazy. Just try to get rid of as many brown sugar lumps as you can. Next use a fork (or pastry cutter!) to cut in the margarine and shortening until the mixture clumps in pea-size lumps. Go ahead and toss the blueberries in at this point.
In a smaller bowl, mix the milk and vinegar. Actually, if you have foresight you might want to do this first, since you want to let it sit until it curdles—about 5 minutes or so. Then you can get the dry ingredients together while that rests. If you're like me and lack foresight use this time to grate your lemon zest. I use all of it. Okay, now whisk the zest and egg in with the milk/vinegar.
Turning back to your dry ingredients, form a bit of a hole in the middle. Pour the liquids into this and use a fork to combine it all. Don't over mix, just make sure you've scraped all the flour off the bottom of the bowl. It should be fairly sticky. Take big spoonfuls of dough (about ¼ cup worth) and drop them onto the cookie sheet, two inches apart. Flatten them out so they're around ¾ inch thick.
Now they're ready for the oven. If you're feeling fancy (I was) you can brush the tops with a little extra milk and sprinkle pearl sugar on top. Gorgeous! Or not. Bake 'em for 15 to 18 minutes, till they start to turn golden brown. When they're done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool. Now it's time to make the glaze!
Lemon Glaze
¼ tsp. vanilla
lemon juice
confectioners sugar
I juiced the whole lemon, straining the pulp out, and found this made way more glaze than I needed. Oh well, I'll find another use for the leftovers. You could probably get away with just a tablespoon of juice. In any case, it's not an exact science. Just continue whisking in confectioners sugar until the glaze is creamy smooth and drizzle-perfect.
You can either wait until the scones are completely cool and use a spoon to drizzle the glaze on—in which case the glaze will form a tasty white crust—or you can drizzle it while they're still warm—there will be a lot of runoff and the glaze will form a thin sheen on your scones. I make it sound like it's a carefully calculated matter of aesthetic preference, but I really just got impatient to try one and drizzled it on while the scones were still hot. So good! Of course, scones are always best with a strong cuppa.
Scones are relaxing and stress-free to make, since they're so simple to tweak. Just look at the base ingredients and choose different flavors however you see fit. For example, maybe chocolate and hazelnut are more tempting at the moment? Instead of blueberries throw in chocolate chips, don't add lemon zest, and then make a glaze with hazelnut extract and milk instead of lemon and vanilla. You could even chop up some hazelnuts to throw in the batter. Also, it shouldn't be too hard to convert these to vegan if that's your thing. I'd probably replace the egg with about a ¼ cup of liquid or vegan yogurt. Finally, if your batter ends up being dry enough you can shape it into a large disk about ¾ inch thick and then cut into triangle wedges for a more traditional scone shape.
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