Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 12 minutes
Grandma Gale is what they call her. But I like to refer to her as my baking guru.
She'd never say agree. She'd give the credit to my Aunt Heather, who rightfully so, gave her most of her recipes & is very much a whiz in the kitchen.
But in my eyes, Gale humbly knows a thing or two about baking. I'll never forget my grandparents traveling down from Canada every Christmas with coolers full of ginger snap cookies, bran muffins, Nanaimo bar (my personal favorite), apricot scones, lemon scones, blueberry scones, lemon-blueberry scones, you get the point... Gale would supply us with months of baked goods. Well, in our family of scavengers, it was more like a week. But we thoroughly enjoyed every bite.
When I graduated high school, my grandma made me a cookbook of all the famous treats she'd ever made, as well as recipes from other family members & space to add my own as I experimented over time. It's easily one of the best gifts I've ever recieved. And when I open the cover, the first recipe I find is the beloved scone.
The recipe is incredibly simple & sometimes shocking to me how good it tastes considering the little effort that's needed to whip up a batch. The original recipe calls for your standard all-purpose flour, which to be honest, is probably my favorite way to bake them, but as I've gotten older & eat mostly gluten-free these days, I wasn't willing to kiss the scones goodbye. So, I experimented.
Over &
over &
over...
Because let me tell ya (though you might already know), gluten-free flours are VERY different from all-purpose flour.
First, I tried mixing almond & tapioca flour. I find that combining 2-3 flours is best for gluten-free baking as a single replacement is often too overpowering, too bland, too dense, or too whatever. Again, you can't beat the ease & variety all-purpose flour provides. Anyways, I've had some success with this combo in the past, a rich flavor from the almond met with a lightness from the tapioca... surely it would work.
Lol. That was a hot fail.
Do you know what tapioca flour does to a recipe? Makes it gummy. Chewy. Dare I say rubbery? Yes. Because that's exactly how the scones turned out. Flat discs with a rubbery bite, yum.
Round Two: Omit the tapioca & swap it for sorghum.
Why? To be honest, it's what I had in the pantry. Sorghum is a cereal grain that's quite comparable to corn. It's actually pretty high in polyphenols & antioxidants that can improve the bacteria traipsing throughout our gut. I haven't baked much with sorghum flour though so I was hesitant, but from what I've researched, it's fairly light & offers a nutty flavor - I could work with that.
The result? Better. But too dry & still flat as a frisbee.
I made it through a few more trials until finally, I found a combo. A good one at that. I added just enough tapioca to fluff it up & increased the baking powder to give it a lift. I was pretty happy with it.
I can't say they're quite as good as Gale's - a grandma has a special touch. But I think she'd be proud. I guess I'll have to bake them for her & report back.
Until then, if you give them a go, let me know what you think. And if you have a suggestion, I'm all ears. Hope you enjoy a glimpse into grandma Gale's scones.
kenn
I N G R E D I E N T S
1c almond flour
1c sorghum flour
1 1/4c coconut cream
1/3c + 1 Tbsp coconut sugar
1 Tbsp tapioca flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2c dried cranberries
1 Tbsp orange juice
zest of 1 orange
S T E P S
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Mix together the flours, coconut sugar, coconut cream, baking powder, orange juice, & sea salt until everything is well combined.
Add the orange zest (the more the better in my opinion) & cranberries then gently mix.
Line a medium pan with parchment paper & dust with a flour of your choice, I went with white rice flour.
Pour the batter onto the floured paper & shape into a circle. *See note
Place the entire pan into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Remove from the freezer & flour a pizza cutter. Cut the dough into 6 triangles, like you're slicing pizza. I find it's best to slice the dough in half, then make two more diagonal cuts to equal 6 pieces.
Flour a fork or small spatula & gently pull apart each slice, spreading them out on your baking tray. You don't need to worry about separating them too much as they won't expand.
Place in the oven & bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
NOTE: When shaping your circle, heavily use flour on your hands / tops of the dough as it's very sticky! Use your hands to shape it into a circle, rounding off your sides. You don't want to roll out the dough or flatten it, the dough should be an inch or two thick & go into the oven like that :)
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