Week 21 Dish 1: Vegan Raspberry scones

I had an amazing workout today, first one of the new year! Need to regain my fitness after all the laziness and eating during Christmas. I really went full out, with my normal workout plus some interval training. Felt so good afterwards, nothing like an endorphin rush to start the day. I just hope I won't ache tomorrow, especially because I plan on doing the same workout again!

To carry on the trend of healthier bakes (however long that will last) I baked yummy vegan raspberry scones. I was so surprised that I managed to get really cheap fresh raspberries and blueberries (2 punnets for £1.50, and they were really sweet too) last week so I made the most of them! But of course you can use frozen ones too.

Makes 6-8
Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/3 cup honey/ agave nectar/ maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup hot water
1 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen) - you can replace this with other berries e.g. blueberries or blackberries
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder and salt. 
3. Add the oil, agave nectar and vanilla and stir until a thick batter is formed. Pour in the hot water and mix. Finally, gently fold in the raspberries until they are evenly distributed. If you are using frozen ones, let them thaw first.
4. Scoop 1/3 cup of batter onto the tray for each scone. Space them 1 inch apart to allow for spread and bake for 14 minutes, rotating the tray 180 degrees half way through.
5. let the scones stand for 15 minutes before removing from the tray and cooling completely on a wire rack. 

Original recipe: Vegan raspberry scones

Week 6 Dish 2: Vegan tear-and-share apple scones

Had such a good day today, started off with a bit of a lie in, went for a run in the morning and then watched the new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Elementary! I followed this with some cardio and gastro revision, and ended the day with some baking of course. Relaxing, fun and productive - what more can you ask for! This time I baked scones with a twist - tear-and-share. They are apple ones thanks to yet another bag full of cooking apples that my mum got as a gift. I added more apple than the original recipe asked for so I was a bit worried that they would turn out a bit soggy but they haven't. They are crunchy on the outside with a moist, soft inside and not too sweet which is perfect. Here's the recipe.

Makes 12
Ingredients
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp demerera sugar (or brown sugar)
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon (I double this from the original recipe but if you're a big cinnamon fan it could probably do with 3!)
1/3 cup softened coconut oil (from VB)
2 cups apples, peeled and shredded with a bit of the juice squeezed out and discarded to prevent soggy-ness
1/2 cup soya milk
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and cinnamon until well combined. Add the coconut oil and use your finger tips to combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Stir in the apple and milk. It should be a little crumbly but fairly easy to handle (not very sticky). If too sticky add a little flour and if too dry add a little milk. Form into two balls.
4. Gently flatten the two balls of dough into disks on the baking trays until roughly 1-1.5 inches thick. Sprinkle them with the demerera sugar.
5. Cut or score the disks into 6 triangles (they look like little pizzas as you can see from the photo above) and bake for 15-18 minutes or until the scones are nicely golden brown. Keep the scones touching as they bake for a pull-apart effect and moist centre. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Original recipe: Apple cinnamon vegan scones

Week 4 Dish 1: Vegan blackberry scones

Yep, more blackberry! Still have lots left in my garden so I thought I better use them to make yummy treats. There will be another jug of Pretty in Purple vegan smoothie for my family today too. Looking back at all my recipes, I've made a lot of muffins and cupcakes so I thought I need to branch out a bit. I don't really like making big cakes because smaller things are much easier to grab and go or take for lunch, which is perfect when you're quite busy. So that's why I decided to go for scones this time, though they didn't turn out exactly like scones....

(Yep they do look like muffins, explanation below)
Makes 18-24
Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 1/4 cup soya milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp agave nectar/ maple syrup/ honey if you're not vegan
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Mix the first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir blackberries with the agave in another bowl and leave to one side.
3. In a third bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. Gently fold the wet ingredients into dry. When partially mixed, add the berries and agave and continue folding in until just combined. Try to keep the berries as whole as possible. If you used frozen berries continue to step 3, otherwise jump to step 6.
4. Flour a clean surface, transfer dough onto it and press gently with your hands to flatten it out to 3/4 inch thick.
5. Using a cookie cutter, cut out the shapes you want, place at least an inch apart on a non-stick tray and bake for 15-20 minutes. 
6. If you have fresh berries like I did, when you fold them in they will all get smooshed, making the dough a lot more liquidy. This means that it can't be cut with a cookie cutter. Instead I spooned the mixture into about 20 small muffin cups almost to the top and baked for 25-30 minutes. But remember when you eat them, they aren't muffins, they are scones so you may want to cut them in half and use a bit of margarine. 

I don't want to leave things as late as I did last week so recipe two should be coming soon! I also updated all my past posts with where you can buy the more unusual ingredients from (in the UK), so if you were struggling it should be easy now :)