Sometimes when I get a craving for a little something… something sweet but controlled, indulgent but healthy, a muffin or a cookie maybe?
I find common ground between a muffin and a cookie – a scone! Yes, I get quite happy with a delicious not-overly sweet indulgent scone… or two.
Luckily, I have a little pastry chef who is always excited to bake a fresh batch of goodies…
Meet Miss Gabriella in “Gabriella’s Kitchen”!
Love is Miss G’s secret ingredient. You can sense it and taste it with just one bite…
A perfect ending to a perfect wintery day… baking! The house smells so good and there are happy smiles and happy tummies everywhere…
ALMOND RAISIN SCONES
(vegan, dairy-free, egg-free | gluten-free, wheat-free)
- 1 cup vanilla vegan yogourt
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/3 filtered water, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 3 cups gluten-free flour*
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
- 1/3 cup grape seed oil
- Add in : 1/3 cup raisins
- Add in : 1/3 cup almond slivers or almond slices
* You can use a store-bought mix, but I usually use 1 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1/2 cup tapioca starch, and 1/2 cup chickpea flour – and have great success with this combination.
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the liquid ingredients (except for the water) : almond milk, yogourt, vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon juice and oil.
Add sugar to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Set aside
In a separate large bowl, sift in all the dry ingredients : flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt. Whisk them well to combine and make a well in the centre of the bowl.
Stir the wet ingredients again to make sure the sugar is mostly diluted, and pour slowly into the centre of the flour mix. Start mixing while pouring to have a constant mixing motion. But do not over-mix.
Fold in the raisins and almond slivers. Mix in some of the water if the dough seems too thick. (peaks should form when stirring and it should not look runny).
Flour your hands (so the dough won’t stick too much to your fingers) and scoop up a tablespoonful of dough onto the parchment paper. Be sure to keep the sizes all the same so they bake evenly.
Bake for about 15 minutes. Tops should be a light golden colour. Let cool completely before serving.
I hope you all enjoyed this special guest-blogger feature from my daughter ;) We do this quite often, yet I don’t capture so much detail, probably because my hands are too dirty to handle the camera… – but I so should ;) If not for the blog, it sure makes for a great keepsake ;) and more baking – means more delicious desserts to eat.
What I like about scones is that they are naturally low in sugar. They don’t need to be loaded with sugar like a cookie or a cupcake to taste good.
So while we still have these cold, dull days outside… it’s nice to warm up the home with baking some goodies… Oh, look at that, it looks like one of those days today ~ perhaps it’s a great day to bake something today! ;)
We have March Break here – so we have a whole week to relax and have fun. There’s a few play dates planned and family over and for sure some baking ;) We can’t wait!
Do you have March Break too? What are your plans?
Blogger, Recipe Developer, Photographer and Author. Loves healthy food, photography, sunshine and dancing in the kitchen with her two daughters. 
I feel like I am craving ALL your recipes lately! These are right up my alley. And love all the beautiful shots. Really and truly…what a sweetie she is.
These look delicious… but I’m a bit confused. I just came to your blog from an article you wrote for MindBodyGreen entitled, The Major Rule for Eating Fruit, where you say… ‘Fruit should be eaten alone or with other fruit on an empty stomach.’ The article goes on to explain that we should follow this rule because we won’t reap the nutritional benefits of eating fruit and we could suffer from digestive issues if we don’t. So… I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but there’s raisins in this recipe – which the last time I checked are fruit – plus yogurt, milk, nuts, flour, and so on, which are clearly not fruit. Why do you have recipes on your blog that break your own rules of nutrition? I find that much that’s written about nutrition is confusing so I’m genuinely interested in your answer. All the best…
Thank you Beth for your comment. It’s great that you brought that up.
The rule for eating fruit on an empty stomach refers to mainly fresh fruit.
This is a big difference because fresh fruit contain different enzymes and break down differently in the body.
Fresh fruit also contains lots of water which adds to a quick digestion of the fruit – which is why it was recommended to not eat fruit after large meals (especially with meat – because those take the longest to digest) and the fruit would have to wait that long for its turn to get digested (sometimes 10 hours).
Back to my recipe and why I have fruit in desserts. Simply because it’s a treat ;)
It’s meant to be eaten once in a while. We still like to mix the occasional handful of raisins or dried cranberries or even use fresh fruit in some desserts (especially my raw cheesecakes). It’s a once-in-a-while treat that is enjoyed. In the end, my approach to eating is based on pleasure… and while I do obey certain rules and avoid some foods (wheat, eggs, dairy, meat, yeast,) I still enjoy the beautiful creations that come out of my kitchen with pure best-quality ingredients I can find.
Generally though, my whole family; me (on a plant-based diet), my husband (on no-diet) and 5 year old child love fruit and eat it daily in between meals as a snack and we all feel great obeying this rule. And sometimes enjoy a little treat like raisin scones or fruit cup with yogurt and hemp seeds or a raw cheesecake.
In the end, what I recommend is for someone to try out separating fruit for about 2 weeks and see how they feel. Yougurt + fruit is a very mild combination because both digest quickly so it’s not going to give you the same problems. But because a lot of people have a large meal with meat, grains etc. for dinner and then plop down a big bowl of fruit right after. That mixture will give you more digestive problems as the yogurt and fruit you have for breakfast. So my focus for the article was to bring awareness to that eating habit.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. If you are going to try food ‘separating’ for a few weeks – please do let me know how you feel.
Best of luck to you,
Ella
Sweet mom and daughter pics. Yummy looking scones too. I didn’t do any baking this March Break. :(
Thanks Joann ;)
Oh it’s so cute when the little ones bake – and the mess is kinda cute too ;)
Not really! But it’s better when you know little hands that wanted to help you made it ;)
I’m sure something yummy will come out of your kitchen soon ;) it always does ;) xo