Vegan Strawberry Cream Scones With Almonds

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar (use 1/2 cup if you like them sweeter)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh orange zest (or 1 tsp dried, see directions)
• 4 tablespoons earth balance vegan margarine
• 1 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 teaspoon rose water (or vanilla extract)
• 2/3 cup plain unsweetened soymilk, see directions

Recipe

• 1 first, finely cut up your strawberries and wash them-- make sure you drain them with and blot with paper towels to get the excess moisture out or else they won't bake right.
• 2 sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
• 3 add the fresh orange zest, or if you're using dried, hydrate 1 teaspoon dried orange peel with 3 teaspoons water and let sit for at least 10-15 minutes before adding to the mix.
• 4 stir in the zest, then cut in the cold earth balance or butter in very small pieces bit by bit-- like you're "whittling" it inches.
• 5 by hand or with a pastry cutter, mix the butter in with the other ingredients until the mixture is crumbly but coming together.
• 6 mix in the strawberries and almonds with the rosewater or vanilla.
• 7 add just enough milk or soymilk (almond milk etc.) to make the dough smooth but not too much or else it'll get too watery. if it does, just add a bit more flour to dry it back up. then you can divide the dough one of two ways. but first lay out some parchment paper onto a cookie sheet.
• 8 the lazy way (my way!) is to drop large spoonfuls of the mixture onto it, about 8-10 big globs. make sure they're spaced far apart enough!
• 9 or, extract the whole bowl's contents and knead on a floured surface until you can get a large disc and pat it down to the desired thickness, then slice into 8-10 pieces, laying them out on the parchment paper.
• 10 regardless of how you get there, bake for 20-25 minutes at 425f until golden brown. serve warm or cool. warning, they're quite addictive!