Cozy Mornings

Since I am at work before 6 a.m. most mornings, I have enough time to imagine and re-imagine the perfect lazy morning: sleeping in until 8 a.m., an intellectual-trashy magazine (psychology today, runners' world, or vegetarian times) in my hand, a cup of black tea with just a drop of soy creamer, and a blueberry scone right out of the oven. Some mornings, it's a double ginger scone. Or, a walnut chai-spiced scone. Regardless of the flavor, a fresh scone is usually what I envision dunking into my morning tea. 

Cozy Scone Recipe:

2 cups flour

1 cup thick oats (not instant Oatmeal)

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick or 1/2 cup vegan butter

3/4 cup of full-fat soy milk or soy creamer

1 to 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Plus, whatever you want to add to your scones. 

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. 

Cut vegan butter into the flour mixture. The butter-flour mixture should be mixed together well, and there should be NO large butter chunks. 

At this point, add in spices, fruit, nuts, seeds, or whatever your heart desires. For double ginger scones, try adding in 2 tsp of ground ginger, a 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, and 3/4 cup of finely diced crystallized ginger. My flatmate, Jay, loves brown sugar, walnut scones. I usually add about a 1/2 to a cup chopped walnuts, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Jay has an incredible sweet-tooth, but if you are worried about the amount of sugar in this scone, simply reduce the amount of plain sugar by 1/4 cup. If you are planning on adding fruit, I would recommend you only put in about one cup if using frozen fruit or 1 1/2 cup if using fresh fruit. Frozen fruit tends to release more water in the baking process than fresh fruit does. 

After adding in your perfect flavor combination, in a small bowl whisk together the vanilla and soy milk. 

Now create a well in your butter-flour mixture, and pour the wet ingredients into it. The key to making scones is to NOT over mix the dough. This may take some practice, but even if you do over mix, you'll still get tasty scones. 

Once your dough is mixed, plop the dough onto a lightly floured, clean cutting board. Quickly mold the dough into a dome, and then flatten into circle about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Divide the circle into 8 wedges. Place the wedges onto a non-greased baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown. And, enjoy your cozy, lazy morning with your freshly baked scones!

If you only want one or two scones, you can freeze the remaining unbaked scone wedges. They will keep in your freezer for about a three to five weeks. When you bake the frozen scones, increase the baking time by 7 minutes or so.

Also, the soy milk and vegan butter can be replaced with unsalted butter and heavy cream. Either way, they are extremely delicious and should be eaten warm!