Notes: Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the white whole wheat flour.
For a gluten-free version, use the following blend: 1 cup (120g)
millet flour, ¼ cup (30g)
tapioca flour, ¼ cup (30g)
brown rice flour, and 1 teaspoon
xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like
this one!) will work as well, if they’re measured
like this.
It’s very important that your butter is cold, straight from the fridge. (Freezing it isn’t necessary for this recipe!) With very cold butter, it won’t heat up until you put the scones in the extremely hot oven, and it will create little air pockets and a very tender crumb when it melts.
Honey or
agave may be substituted in place of the pure maple syrup.
If you don’t have fresh buttermilk, then I highly recommend
this powdered buttermilk! It’s shelf-stable and keeps for ages, and it tastes exactly the same in basically all recipes that call for buttermilk. (It has the substitution instructions on the side of the container!)
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
As written, these scones aren’t overly sweet. If you prefer sweeter scones, substitute an additional 1-2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup for an equal amount of buttermilk.
In a pinch, coconut oil may be substituted for the butter, but the texture of the scones will be affected. Very cold butter is required to achieve their tender texture, and since coconut oil melts at a much lower temperature, the results will not be the same.
For a vegan version, I recommend
Earth Balance sticks in place of the butter, additional mashed banana in place of the Greek yogurt, and non-dairy milk in place of the buttermilk and nonfat milk.
In the glaze,
this is the confectioners’ style erythritol that I used. You can substitute regular confectioners’ style (powdered) sugar, but start with just 1 teaspoon of milk because regular powdered sugar is much more absorbent!
To see how these scones are made, watch my video
here (it's for a very similar recipe!).
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, vegan option}