Earlier this month, my mom, brother, and his best friend stopped by to visit on their way up to the cabin for a night of relaxation in the mountains. Since they arrived shortly before lunchtime, we chatted for a little bit before heading out to grab a quick bite to eat.
Because the rest of my family enjoys burgers more than I, my guy and I brought them to a tiny family-owned place about a mile up the road. A rather unassuming building about the size of an RV, the burger stand almost always has a line that snakes around the tables and into the parking lot, and after ordering, customers wait at least 30 minutes to receive their meals during the lunch and dinner rushes.
Yes, it’s that popular!
Although the burgers look fairly typical and come with all of the traditional toppings, my guy swears that their sides and sweets make it worth the wait. And since he chows down on burgers multiple times each week, he would know! Fat crispy onion rings, crunchy deep-friend zucchini, and thick creamy milkshakes made with real fresh fruit…
So when we treated my family, I easily convinced them to try the milkshakes. While my brother immediately knew what he wanted—a mix of strawberry and pineapple, two of his favorite flavors ever since we were tiny kids!—my mom hemmed and hawed over what to choose. She carefully read the menu board, scanning the flavors and prices, until she finally settled on the seasonal peach, although still slightly hesitant over its $2 higher price compared to the rest of the milkshakes.
After we picked up our big brown bags of food, I watched Mom take her first sip. And second. And third. And fourth. And… Her eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning as she drank through the straw. When I asked what she thought, she exclaimed, “It tastes like peach ice cream!” and proceeded to polish off the entire thing.
I must have inherited my love of peaches from my mom. Despite posting three peach recipes last week, I still have more to share, including these Clean Peach Scones! Super tender and stuffed full of juicy peaches, these quickly became my family’s new favorite breakfast treat.
Hint: I’ve posted step-by-step photos here and a video here on how to make the perfect scones!
To make these scones clean-eating friendly, we’ll start with white whole wheat flour. It’s lighter in flavor and texture compared to regular whole wheat flour, so it’s great for baked goods that require a tender texture. Whole wheat pastry flour has the same characteristics as well, so it would make a great substitute. (And for my favorite gluten-free option, see the Notes section beneath the recipe!)
Because of my grandma’s peach pie, every peach recipe I make now requires cinnamon. There’s just something about its warm, cozy flavor mixed with the sweet, juicy peaches… Mmmm, irresistible. And almond extract! My grandma always added almond extract to her peach pies, so I mixed it into these scones too. (It’s my all-time favorite baking extract!) Almond extract adds an elegant hint of sweetness in the background, but vanilla would work just fine too.
With only 2 tablespoons of butter in these scones, the rest of their tender texture comes from… Can you guess? It’s my favorite ingredient in healthier baking: Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it packs in a protein boost too. Be sure to stock up—almost all of my baking recipes use it!
Don’t forget the peaches! Lots and lots and lots of peaches. Because when you’re as obsessed as my mom and me, you just can’t get enough!
Now who’s ready for breakfast?
| Clean Peach Scones | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (180g) white whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter, very cold and cubed
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp (45mL) pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp + 2 tsp (40mL) nonfat milk, divided
- 1 tsp almond extract
- ½ cup (100g) diced peaches
- Preheat the oven to 425°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or the back of a fork until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Make a well in the center. Stir in the Greek yogurt, maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of milk, and almond extract. Fold in the peaches.
- Shape the dough into a ¾” tall circle on the prepared baking sheet, and brush with the remaining milk. Slice the circle into 8 triangular segments with a sharp knife. Bake at 425°F for 16-19 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
For a gluten-free version, I recommend the following blend: 1 cup (120g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, ¼ cup (30g) brown rice flour, and 1 teaspoon xanthan gum.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the maple syrup. Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk. Vanilla extract may be substituted in place of the almond extract.
Peaches that are fresh, frozen and thawed, or canned in 100% juice and thoroughly drained may all be used.
See here for step-by-step photos and here for my video on how to make the perfect scones.
{clean eating, gluten-free, low fat, low calorie}
I love the story behind these scones, family time at a small family-owned restaurant is the perfect way to bond, relax and eat with the ones you love. These scones are so delicious, peaches right now are so juicy and fruity, the perfect way to use them up, pinned!
Thanks for your sweet comment and pin Eve! It’s definitely true about family time. We love bonding over food!
Hi Amy!
These scones look amazing. I have a question though. If I used fresh peaches should I leave the skin on?
Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes!
: )
Karen
I truly appreciate your interest in my recipes Karen! I’m so honored! ♡ It’s entirely up to you! I’m generally not the biggest fan of their slightly fuzzy skin, but I’ve also been known to be really lazy and leave the skin on. 😉 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these scones!
These sound amazing and I can get fabulous peaches at my Farmers Market. How would plums be in this also. My mouth is watering at the through of either
Plums would be great too! I really hope you enjoy the scones!
My mom just made some peach scones, and while I’m not a big fan of peach in baked goods, I LOVE them as a stand alone fruit. Your version might change my mind though.
Great minds think alike Brittany! Tell your mom I said hi! 🙂 Peaches are definitely amazing just to eat. I wish their season lasted longer!
I don’t blame you for loving peaches — I eat one a day over the summer! These scones look dreamy, Amy!
That sounds like the perfect way to spend the summer Lisa! 🙂
We recently picked about 60 lbs of peaches and after canning a variety of jam, butter and salsa we still have about 20 lbs left. Searching for peach recipes I came across this one and tried it this morning. I mixed the dough (I used 75% bread flour and 25% whole wheat flour) and after folding in the diced peaches the dough was still very sticky so I worked in a touch more flour. I cut the pieces and put it in the oven, but I failed to truly separate the pieces (my wife reminded me it’s not a pie and the pieces need to be separated completely…oops) so they needed an additional 15 minutes of baking. Separated and finally done, they turned out OK. The flavor was good, but probably could have used more syrup or added sugar, even after topping them with Demerara sugar. But, I’ll chalk that up to my wonky interpretive baking technique :-). I’m going to try another batch now and will post an update after my second batch. All your recipes look great and I look forward to trying more. Thanks for sharing them and happy baking!
Oh my goodness, my entire family would be envious of your 60 lbs of fresh peaches Tim! We depend on the grocery store for ours, and our local stores haven’t had very many good batches this year. I’m glad you enjoyed the scones’ flavor! They actually aren’t meant to be very sweet, but I’d love to hear what you think of the next batch if you add more syrup or Demerara sugar. 🙂 I haven’t made these with bread flour and don’t know how that would affect the stickiness of the dough, but I always shape my scone dough with a spatula because it’s usually sticky enough to adhere to my hands. I posted a video in this blog post of a similar recipe, so you can see what the texture of the dough should look like at each stage of the recipe! (And if you’re still looking for more peach recipes, you can find more of mine here!)
We’re canning as fast as we can…freezing as fast as we can…and we still have 20 lbs left. HELP! 🙂 (seriously, we’re drowning in peaches…)
I made the second batch of the scones today with some slight modifications: I added 1/4 c. sugar, used much more flour (probably closer to 2-2.5 c), 4 T of butter and omitted the milk. The juice from the peaches creates so much extra liquid I had to counter with more flour just to make the dough workable. But, they baked for 20 minutes and were slightly sweet, perfectly moist and nicely browned. I look forward to trying more of your peach recipes! Happy baking!
That’s so great that those tweaks worked Tim! You know you have really good peaches when they add that much liquid to the dough. 😉 I’m excited to hear which of my peach recipes you try next!