Beneath their crunchy exteriors, these cranberry scones are soft and buttery, complemented by a tart, sweet lemon drizzle.
Is anyone else in total spring mode right now? I know it’s more than a little preemptive, but lately all I want to do is drink green smoothies and wear t-shirts and go for long bike rides and runs (outside! in the sun!). The bright lemon and cranberry flavors in these scones make me feel like spring couldn’t possibly be that far away. I can practically hear the birds chirping! Oh, wait … that’s just the sound of my charming upstairs neighbors engaging in their weekly turn-up-the-Evanescence-and-scream-until-you-puke-and-then-fall-down-a-flight-of-stairs-and-puke-some-more tournament. My bad! (But you get the idea.)
Anyway, there’s nothing to these. I particularly love that these aren’t just glorified biscuits: a good scone should be rolled out and cut into triangles, and should have a crust and a little heft. Slicing this dough into triangles is no more work than scooping dough out of a bowl with a spoon, and it makes for a more appetizing product, too! These are best eaten the day they’re baked — with plenty of fair trade coffee, of course. (I think it’s going to take a lot of scones and coffee to get me through the next two-to-three months.)
- FOR THE SCONES:
- ½ c plus 2 Tbsp unsweetened vegan milk
- ½ tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 1¾ c flour
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2.5 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ c cold vegan butter
- ⅔ c dried cranberries
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- ½ c plus 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 2.5 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- zest from 1 lemon
- splash of vanilla
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a small bowl, stir together vegan milk and vinegar. Set aside to curdle.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Using 2 knives or a pastry cutter, cut vegan butter into flour mixture.
- Add milk mixture and cranberries to flour mixture and stir just until dough comes together. The dough should be relatively dry and not sticky, but if you can't get it to roughly form a ball, just stir in another tablespoon of milk.
- Form dough into a sphere and flatten slightly.
- Roll out dough to about 2" in thickness.
- Using a sharp knife, slice dough (like a pizza) into 6 or 8 even triangles.
- Arrange slices on cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the tops are just beginning to turn golden.
- Transfer scones to a cooling rack and let cool for a few minutes while you prepare the glaze.
- In a small bowl, beat together powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Mixture should be easy to drizzle -- not so thick as to require spreading, and not so thin as to be watery. Add a little powdered sugar to thicken it up, or another squeeze of lemon juice to thin it out as needed.
- Drizzle scones with glaze while still slightly warm.
16 comments
Marfigs says:
Jan 28, 2014
*swoon* these look absolutely delicious! I’m going to try make some for our weekend Settlers of Catan game to feed to our guests 😀
The Peace Patch says:
Jan 28, 2014
I’m counting each and every day until Spring finally warms us up…superyumful freshly baked breakfast foods straight from the oven really help! Hot scones and coffee would rock (in a good way, not in an Evanescence way). Many thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Christine (The Raw Project) says:
Jan 28, 2014
Wow, these look divine! Thanks!
claryn says:
Jan 30, 2014
Thank YOU for always being so encouraging, Christine! 🙂
Atl Vegan Girl says:
Feb 13, 2014
Awesome!!!! Just baked it and can’t stop making trips to the kitchen:) It’s so hard to find a good scone recipe. Truly happy vegan household!:)
Notes: It’s awesome without the glaze too (I couldn’t resist and had to try it before the final glaze touch). I used olive oil instead of vegan butter as well as the whole cup of cranberries (we loooove cranberries here). Everything was perfect! The whole cranberries scones operation was done under 30 mins (preparation, warming up the oven, baking, glazing). It’s very easy and clean. Definitely will be doing again (with a lot of variations like chocolate chips, raisins, different types of nuts etc.). It’s a keeper!:)
claryn says:
Feb 13, 2014
Hey, thanks so much for the feedback! Glad you liked ’em, and excited to hear they turned out well with olive oil. 🙂
12 Inspiring Vegan Food Blogs To Follow says:
Feb 15, 2014
[…] recipes you’ll ever need on Claryn’s site. Things like Walnut Lentil Beet Burgers and Cranberry Scones with Lemon Glaze will keep you coming back for more and since she posts a lot of “veganized” versions […]
Mihl says:
Feb 17, 2014
Your description of these scones and the photo seriously makes me wanna grab through the screen!
And yes, total spring mode here, too. This moring I didn’t freeze my hands off while carrying my daughter to daycare and on my way home I heard so many birds that I was all like “summer, now!”. It’s good to know that there will be an end to winter soon.
Phae says:
Nov 4, 2014
These were a hit, good thing I made a double batch! I subbed half whole wheat flour and added zest of one orange to the dough. Yum yum! Thanks!
AKR says:
Dec 6, 2014
These were just as good on a cold winter weekend! Easy and tasty – thanks for the recipe.
Anne says:
Oct 7, 2015
I made this and it turned out amazing……thank you so much. Absolutely delicious.
Baklava says:
Oct 23, 2015
Enjoyed this recipe. I added walnuts, dash of nutmeg & cinnamon, and a bit of lemon zest. Opted to spread my warm scones with earth balance & jam rather than go with the glaze. Easy, quick, hard to stop eating, perfect accompaniment to morning or afternoon cup of coffee. These are traditional biscuity scones rather than the muffin-sweet scones you find in american coffeeshops. Really enjoyed & will make again, thank you. Temperature may be a little high (mine were starting to burn on the bottom after just 10 minutes) so keep a close eye on them.
Dan says:
Nov 27, 2015
Made these–and served with tofu scramble for my adamantly carnivorous son for a Thanksgiving day breakfast. These are excellent. I liked that they are not the overly sweet Starbucks variety. A hearty, dense (in a good way) scone that I tweaked it a bit, because of what else I was making (cranberry syrup–not so good by the way) so I had leftover cranberry mush which I used instead of the dried cranberries (picked out the largest chunks until I had 1/3 cup) I also used some of the cranberry syrup (before I ruined it with vanilla) and added a bit to the lemon glaze–just enough to make it pink. All in all one of the best vegan dishes in my growing repertoire. (vegan for 5 years) Thanks for this really good homey recipe.
Anne says:
Dec 4, 2015
Made them with olive oil (didn’t have the earth balance on hand), lemon zest, grated ginger, and a dash or two of cinnamon. I was surprised at how sweet they were with only one TB of sugar & the dried cranberries. And they were super-easy and quick to make. The best vegan scones, ever! Haven’t had a scone this good in years (and I’ve made other vegan scones). Thank you for a terrific recipe.
taj says:
Dec 25, 2016
Instead of lemon, i used orange and added about a tablespoon of fresh orange juice. Also used fresh cranberries instead of dried, with an additional tablespoon of sugar. Needed to add a little more flour so the dough wasn’t too sticky, but it turned out great! Just what I wanted on Christmas Morning. Thanks!
Rose M says:
Aug 31, 2017
Delicious! I was looking for a recipe that would satisfy my grandson. He has multiple food allergies AND is a picky eater. 🙁 but he loves lemon and cranberries so I tried these amazing scones. They were a hit with the whole family! Easy enough to make before work and school too. As if that were not enough, they are very low sugar (I use some whole wheat flour too).