We’re heading towards the end of summer and the start of college football season. The start of college football means fall is around the corner. While I love the beautiful summer weather, I love the cooler fall weather more. Right around late September and early October, coffee shops around town begin to roll out their fall drinks. The shops are filled with the most fragrant apple and pumpkin spice smells weaved into coffee and lattes. The temperature drops quite a bit from hot and humid to cool and crisp. The leaves on trees begin to change colors from deep greens to a vibrant foliage of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. While fall isn’t here yet, the early mornings in Ohio have gotten much cooler. Just this weekend, the morning temperature hovered in the lower sixties. Mornings are when I feel the most refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead of me. My leadership certificate program has started again and I’m currently in the midst of my plant-based nutrition certificate program. Juggling work and school has been a bit tough at times, but it has also encouraged me to be more creative with meal prepping. Weekdays typically mean quicker meals. Weekends are reserved for more leisurely meals. I still like to spend my weekends letting my creative juices flow in the kitchen. Yesterday, I baked up a batch of the most wonderful coconut chocolate chunk scones. Since beginning my plant-based nutrition program earlier this month, I’ve felt inspired to recreate some of my favorite recipes using non-animal byproducts. One recipe I’m super excited to share is my recipe for coconut chocolate chunk scones. Scones are one of my favorite morning (or afternoon) treats. When I lived in New York City, my cravings for scones would always lead me to Alice’s Tea Cup in Manhattan. I would call up some friends and make a date to have tea and scones for brunch or afternoon tea at the nearest Alice’s Tea Cup from the Q line. Alice’s Tea Cup had the most scrumptious scones. I loved to order both sweet and savory scones along with some herbal tea. Once I moved to the Midwest just over a decade ago, I started attempting to recreate some of my favorite scones. My experimentation in the kitchen led me to developing a fantastic coconut chocolate chunk scone recipe. The coconut chocolate chunk scones reminded me of a cross between Levain Bakery’s over-the-top chocolate chip cookies, and the fluffy, slightly sweet scones at Alice’s Tea Cup. Best yet, these scones are completely vegan. I folded in refined coconut oil in place of the unsalted butter I typically use and substituted whole milk for almond milk. To make sure I wasn’t bias towards my own palate, I brought some scones over to Tommy and Court’s place to have some of Kevin’s friends try out the scones. Kevin had spent most of the afternoon playing Gloomhaven with some friends and they were eager for an afternoon snack. All of our friends enjoyed the scones and couldn’t believe the scones were completely vegan. At first, I wasn’t sure I could recreate truly delicious desserts without using dairy products, but the success of these scones has definitely changed my mind on what is possible in the world of vegan cooking. Kevin, while supportive of my adventures recreating vegan versions of our favorite foods, still prefers the versions with animal byproducts. He is still very open to trying the vegan version of our favorite dishes as long as there is a balance and he gets to have his favorite versions with meat as well.
For the coconut chocolate chunk scones:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 tablespoons baking powder
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· 5 tablespoons refined coconut oil
· ½ cup almond milk, plus additional tablespoon for brushing on scones
· 1 cup dairy free semisweet chocolate chunks
· 1 tablespoon of turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the refined coconut oil. Using a spoon, combine all of the ingredients together until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add the almond milk. Gently mix the ingredients until the dough starts to form. Fold in about ¾ cup of the semisweet chocolate chunks.
3) Lightly flour a working surface. Roll dough out and gently form the dough into a circle, taking care not to work the dough too much. Once the circle is formed, cut the dough in half vertically and again horizontally. Then, cut diagonally on both sides until eight equal triangle pieces are formed. Arrange the scones on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper about an inch from one another. Gently press the remaining ¼ cup of semisweet chocolate chunks on the tops of the scones. Brush the tops of the scones with the tablespoon of almond milk and top scones with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar.
4) Bake the scones for 18-20 minutes until the scones are puffed up, golden brown, cooked through.
Takeaways: The refined coconut oil worked just as well as cold, unsalted butter in this scone recipe. Typically, I use almost a full cup of whole milk when making scones, but I only used ½ cup of almond milk in this scone recipe. Without any dairy products, the scones still turned out wonderful and scrumptious.