Tart and sweet, these Vegan Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones are a delicious seasonal sweet treat! Flaky, buttery layers with bursting cranberries – these plant based scones are great for breakfast, tea time, or dessert.
Scones are a baking favourite at TMG. They’re flaky, buttery, versatile and super easy to make – these Vegan Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones are no exception! The bright and vibrant orange and red colours are the perfect pair and the sweetness from the oranges balance the tartness of cranberries perfectly. Perfect for the holiday season (or any season) let’s get ready to bake!
Whether we need something delicious to share or want to whip up something quick for a fun little baking session – we love scones! This recipe comes together in about 20 minutes and with just one bowl… that’s baking we can get behind. Scones are perfect for beginner bakers as they are fairly forgiving and come together quickly. Still nervous? Rest assured, we’re here to help. Keep scrolling for our top tips for baking perfect scones every time.
Top Tips for Making Perfect Vegan Scones
Scones may seem intimidating but they’re actually fairly easy to make! Looking for some extra baking tips and tricks? We’ve got you covered. If you’re nervous about making these Vegan Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones, we’ve detailed our top tips for making delicious, flaky scones every single time.
- Keep the ingredients (and tools) cold! The most important tip for making delicious scones is temperature. For flaky scones that have a great rise keep all your ingredients and even your tools cold if you can. Chilling your bowls and prep tools is great for beginners, so if you take a little longer to bring your dough together the bowl is keeping your ingredients cold. The key here is to ensure the butter remains in chunks. If the butter starts to get soft place your dough in the fridge for about 5-10 minutes before you continue with the recipe.
- Weigh the ingredients. Baking is a science, especially for recipes that rely on specific textures. To ensure the dough is crumbly but not dry use a scale to weigh out all the ingredients according to the recipe.
- Don’t overmix the dough. This goes for a lot of baking recipes, but if you overmix scones you runt he risk of a tough finished product. Scone dough should be crumbly but hold together.
- Avoid using your hands. Body heat can cause the butter to melt and we don’t want that! For best result use a metal pastry blender and only use your hands when absolutely necessary and for as short as possible.
- The dough should be crumbly. The perfect scone dough is just hydrated enough to hold together but should still be a little crumbly. For a better idea of what you’re looking for, check out our video tutorial.
- Bake the scones from cold. For flaky scones with a high rise it’s best to chill the finished scones before baking them! Just place them in the fridge or freezer for about 10-15 minutes while the oven preheats.
About the ingredients and tools:
When it comes to ingredients scones don’t require anything fancy, depending on the flavour profile you choose of course. These are no exception! As long as you have some key pantry staple baking ingredients on hand you can make these delicious fluffy scones.
- Vegan Buttermilk – It’s the key ingredient in scones and to replace that in our vegan alternative all you need is soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Vegan buttermilk is an acidic ingredient so it reacts with the leavening agent allowing your scones to rise.
- Baking Staples – For this recipe you’ll need your favourite all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, icing sugar, and vanilla extract. Nothing fancy here, just your favourite brands should work.
- Vegan Eggs – To replace eggs in this recipe we’re using our go-to vegan egg replacement: flax eggs!
- Maple Syrup – To slightly sweeten the recipe we like to use maple syrup instead of sugar.
- Navel Oranges – Sweet with a low-acidity, navel oranges are the perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and tart flavours, perfect when paired with tart cranberries!
- Frozen Cranberries – Low moisture fruit is key for scones, which is why cranberries work so well! And frozen cranberries help keep the dough chilled and moisture from ruining the dough.
Recipe FAQ:
Can Vegan Cranberry Orange Scones be frozen?
Yes! Scones freeze super well before and after baking. To freeze them before baking, form the scones and store them in an air-tight container in the freezer. When ready to eat, you can bake from frozen (you may just need to bake a couple minutes longer) or thaw slightly then bake. To freeze after baking, allow the scones to cool completely and wrap or store in an air-tight container. Allow to thaw completely before eating.
Do you have to use vegan buttermilk?
We recommend using our vegan buttermilk. Without it you run the risk of scones that don’t rise and aren’t tender. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar on hand you can use lemon juice instead.
Is there a vegan butter substitute?
Vegan butter is key for flaky scones with a tender crumb so we’d advise you don’t substitute that ingredient. We used Becel plant based sticks for this recipe and if you have access we’d recommend using the same, but any vegan butter should work.
How to make Vegan Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones:
Vegan Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones
Ingredients
- 175 g (1½ cups) frozen cranberries, thawed
- 240 mL (1 cup) soy milk
- 15 mL (1 tbsp) apple cider vinegar
- 7 g (1 tbsp) ground flax seeds
- 170 g (¾ cup) cold vegan butter
- 360 g (3 cups) all-purpose flour, + some for dusting
- 12 g (1 tbsp) baking powder
- 3 g (½ tsp) baking soda
- pinch salt
- 30 mL (2 tbsp) maple syrup
- 5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla extract
- 6 g (1 tbsp) orange zest
Cranberry Glaze:
- 160 g (1⅓ cups) icing sugar
- 30 mL (2 tbsp) fresh orange juice
- 6 g (1 tbsp) orange zest
Instructions
Before you start: Place your scone mixture in the fridge whenever you’re not using. It’s important to keep the dough as cold as possible to ensure you get flaky layers.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- To a bowl combine non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar, ground flax seed, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Mix and set in the fridge until needed.
- In a large bowl combine flour, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined.
- Add cold vegan butter to flour mixture and using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. Having small chunks of butter in the mixture is what will form the flaky layers.
- To the flour/butter mixture, add the milk mixture. Mix until all the flour is incorporated into a dough. You may need to use your hands to gently fold, but don’t handle it too much or your body heat will melt the butter.
- Add in the cranberries and mix until just combined.
- If your dough is feeling a little sticky, generously flour a clean flat surface and turn out the dough onto it. Sprinkle some flour over top and gently knead 1-2 times and press it into a disk about 1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife cut the disk into pie slices – we opted for 8 total. Place scones on a lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Once baked, allow scones to cool about 10 minutes before serving.
- To make the orange glaze, combine icing sugar, orange juice and orange zest. Drizzle over scones and allow to cool an additional 5-10 minutes before serving.
Video
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