Are you one of millions of Americans who are challenged to live a gluten free existence? If so, this article will help you discover how to make delicious gluten free scones. There are many gluten free afternoon tea adaptations for a variety of favorite foods. In this article I have included two of my favorite scone recipes. The first is from King Arthur Flour and includes a recipe for creating your own multi-purpose gluten free baking mix. The second comes from an extensive source of gluten free recipes… GlutenFreeGirl.com
King Arthur Flour ‘s Gluten-Free Scones
These moist scones have delicately crunchy, golden-brown tops. We like to add dried fruit to these, but leave it out if you prefer.
*Note: thanks to some of your comments below, we’ve adjusted the amount of the brown rice flour blend, to make a firmer dough.
1 3/4 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour or 2 1/4 cups brown rice flour blend*
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, optional
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter
3/4 cup diced dried apricots, raisins, or cherries
2 large eggs
1/3 cup cold milk
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a divided scone pan, or grease (or line with parchment) a baking sheet.
2) Whisk together the flour or flour blend, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, and nutmeg.
3) Work in the cold butter till the mixture is crumbly.
4) Stir in the dried fruit.
5) Whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla till frothy.
6) Add to the dry ingredients, stirring till well blended. The dough should be cohesive and very sticky.
7) Drop dough by the 1/3-cupful into the scone pan or onto the baking sheet; if you haven’t added dried fruit, use a slightly smaller amount of dough, about 1/4 cup. Let the scones rest for 15 minutes.
8) Sprinkle the scones with sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, till golden brown. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes or so before serving. Best enjoyed warm, with butter and jam. Yield: 8 scones.
*Make your own blend: Many of our gluten-free recipes use our King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour, which includes ingredients that reduce the grittiness sometimes found in gluten-free baked goods. Our flour also increases the shelf life of your treats, keeping them fresh longer.The following make-at-home blend, featuring stabilized brown rice flour, works pretty well when substituted; and it tastes better than a homemade blend using regular brown rice flour.Whisk together 6 cups (32 ounces) King Arthur stabilized brown rice flour; 2 cups (10 3/4 ounces) potato starch; and 1 cup (4 ounces) tapioca flour or tapioca starch. Store airtight at room temperature. Note: You can substitute white rice flour for the brown rice flour if you like; it’ll make your baked goods grittier (unless you manage to find a finely ground version).
Recipe summary
Tips from our bakers
Note: For a dairy-free version of these scones, substitute margarine for the butter; and soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk for the milk called for in the recipe. Results may vary from the original.
Gluten Free Girl’s CURRANT SCONES
Scones seem intimidating at first. However, once you have made them a couple of times, you’ll see there’s a rhythm to them. Combine the dry ingredients and the butter. Freeze. Break up the butter, a bit. Combine the liquids. Add the liquids until a dough forms. Pat it down, cut wedges, do an egg wash. Bake. Cool. Eat.
You’ll see directions to put flours and doughs into the freezer. Don’t skip this step. Working with everything cold means you’ll have flaky layers and a light dough instead of the hardened clumps so often sold as scones in coffee shops.
390 grams whole-grain gluten-free mix
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon kosher salt
(1/3 cup) sucanat
(1/2 cup) currants
(1/2 cup or 1 US stick) cold butter, cut into 8 to 10 pieces
(1/2 cup) thick Greek yogurt or crème fraiche
1 cold egg1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons raw sugar
Preparing to bake. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Or, if you want your scones to puff up higher, grease a 9-inch pie pan (preferably not glass). Preheat the oven to 350°.Mixing the dry ingredients. Pour the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sucanat, and currants into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix them together on low speed until they are well combined.Add the pieces of butter. Put the entire mixing bowl into the freezer for at least 5 minutes and no longer than 15 minutes.Mixing the liquids.
While the bowl is chilling, combine the buttermilk, yogurt, and egg. Whisk them together well.Making the scone dough. Put the bowl back on the stand mixer. Mix on the lowest speed until the butter has broken down a bit. The pieces of butter should be the size of lima beans.Slowly, pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour-butter mixture with the mixer running on low speed. As soon as the dough comes together — with loose flour remaining on the bottom of the bowl — turn off the mixer.Forming the scones. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Turn over the dough with your hands. It will be a bit wet, with the loose flour at the bottom. Gently, turn the dough in the loose flour until all the flour is mixed in. Do not over-mix.
You want to keep the buttery layers in the dough.Dump the dough onto the baking sheet (or in the pie pan). Pat the dough into a 7-inch circle about 1 inch thick. Brush the egg yolk over the top, then sprinkle with the raw sugar. Cut the circle of dough into 8 wedges. Put the dough into the freezer for 15 minutes.Baking the scones. Slide the dough into the oven. Bake until the entire circle of dough is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 50 minutes. Allow the scones to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then slice the wedges.Serve.Makes 8 scones.
A few notes:
If you want to make cheddar chive scones, take out the sucanat and currants. Replace them with 84 grams of cheddar cheese, diced into ¼-inch cubes, ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika, and a good handful (about ½ cup) fine-diced chives. Use about 100 grams of cornmeal and 290 grams of whole-grain flours. Brush the top with the egg yolk and a pinch of coarse sea salt. All the rest is the same.
All scones are best the day they are made, but they will keep in an airtight container for 3 days. After a day, heat them in a 300° oven for 8 minutes or so. You can also freeze these — plastic wrap works best — for up to 1 week. A scone a day!
Gluten Free Girl is a great source for recipes and basic understanding of the gluten free lifestyle. Here is a helpful article on their website to help you get going: http://glutenfreegirl.com/new-to-gluten-free/
Tea Party Girl asks: Do you have a Gluten Free Scone recipe to share? Place it in our comments box!
