Fluffy and Moist Dairy-Free Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones

Not going to lie, I’ve been on a Great British Baking binge – not the new show without Mary Berry, but like the old reruns with the original gang.  There is just something so absolutely stress-relieving and home-y about watching home bakers bake their hearts out.  I guess I should mention that I’ve been on a little bit of a baking kick lately as well, oops. I’m typing this as I have a banana bread going in the oven (I’m going to blame my overripe bananas) and a frozen loaf of zucchini bread in my fridge (I couldn’t let those go bad either, right?). 

Anyways, maybe you can guess, but I’m stressed.  It’s job hunting season and I swear there isn’t anything worse than pouring your heart into a cover letter and resume only to hear a big fat no.  Seriously, if anyone has any job hunting tips, please let me know!  I think that the transition from school to being a working full-time adult is always a little bit different.  Not only do you have loans, but the added stress of having to look for a job that pays a living wage and also the prospect of having to relocate and start making new friends kind of makes the whole deal a little bit of a downer.  Don’t get me wrong, I am suuupppperrr excited to be done with school (goodbye homework!), but transitions are hard, and I’m just acknowledging that.  

I guess for me, when things get hard, I always tend to gravitate towards ideas and things that remind me of home or warmth/hugs.  This was definitely the inspiration behind these cinnamon chocolate scones.  I happen to love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate.  Cinnamon provides warmth, while the melt-y pools of chocolate add lots of richness.  I definitely don’t recommend skipping out on the chocolate, especially since the chocolate I’m using here is dark chocolate and dairy-free (practically healthy!).  While I’m lecturing on what else not to leave out, I’ll take the time to mention, don’t leave out the cinnamon butter spread on top either! OMG it’s legitimately the most delicious thing ever.  Once its baked, it turns into this crackly, cinnamon-y, crunchy topping.  SO GOOD.  Growing up, my sisters and I always tried to make scones every weekend, so these goodies definitely hold a lot of nostalgia for me. 

Hey, if you’re having a hard week or day (and I’m sending hugs to you if you are) take some time for yourself tonight, or maybe this weekend and make these scones.  Or if cinnamon/chocolate isn’t your thing, check out these blueberry and cream ones, or raspberry white chocolate scones.  Hopefully the warmth and home-y-ness will remind you of good memories and the fact that good times are coming. And hey, I know for a fact that good times are coming, because who doesn’t love summer?

DAIRY-FREE CINNAMON CHOCOLATE SCONES | Makes 8 scones

INGREDIENTS

for the scones

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (omit if your dairy-free butter is salted)
• 6 tbsp dairy-free butter – chilled in the fridge before using
• 3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup coconut cream
• 1 egg

for the cinnamon spread

• 2 tbsp dairy-free butter at room temperature
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sugar 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 (F).
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl.
3. Add in dairy-free butter and using hands a knife/pastry cutter incorporate butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse sand (butter should be pea-sized).
4. Add in chocolate pieces making sure to coat each chocolate piece in flour (this will make sure they don’t sink to the bottom of the scone batter during baking)
5. In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine coconut cream, vanilla extract and egg, mixing thoroughly.
6. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour three-fourths of wet ingredients into the well.
7. Using spatula, fold wet and dry ingredients together.  Continue adding in remaining wet ingredients until a shaggy dough forms.  uDO NOT overwork dough.
8. Place dough on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pat into an 8″ circle.
9. In a small bowl, mix room temperature butter, sugar and cinnamon until a paste forms.
10. Spread the cinnamon butter paste on top of the scone, making sure to cover the whole circle (see picture above)
11. Cut circle into 8 pieces to help scones rise more easily in oven.
12. Bake for 25 minutes or until edges are just starting to turn golden brown and the tips of the scones feel firm to the touch.

Enjoy!!

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Vegan Lemon Orange Black Tea Cookies

 *Disclaimer: There are no “after” pictures on account of everyone eating them before I had a chance to take photos

What do you get when you give someone who doesn’t drink tea, tea bags?  They make cookies with them! Seriously, I’m not sure if it’s my Asian upbringing that prevented me from tossing these straight into the trash or the fact that I’m trying to live more sustainability, but either way, the end result was some pretty amazing cookies. These cookies are like having tea and cookies all in one bite.  Or like a drop of summer with the infused lemon-orange flavor. 

At first, I was a bit skeptical about trying to make tea infused cookies.  In my previous experience, they’re hard to do, even in regular cookies, much less vegan cookies.  Something always manages to go wrong, whether it’s the tea flavor being too strong, or too weak or too bitter after baking.  Luckily, by using lemon-orange tea, or any other sort of fruity lying tea you might have around, the citrus flavor is balanced perfectly with the black tea, so it doesn’t taste too bitter at all. 

I won’t lie, there’s a fair bit of time that goes into these cookies, mostly waiting around time, but still, time that you have to spend not having cookies in your stomach.  BUT, I can promise for being vegan, these are ENTIRELY worth it. The key to this recipe is giving your tea bag of choice enough time to steep in the water and oil, otherwise you’ll end up with tasteless cookies.  It took me about a million times to get the timing right, but lucky for you, it should only take one try 🙂

The vibrant color you see in the pictures are entirely natural. The lemony cream color is just from the black tea, while the more magenta colored ones are from being rolled in crushed freeze-dried raspberries before baking.  Again, the Asian part of me couldn’t bear to throw away too sour freeze-dried raspberries sitting in my pantry, and they turned out to be the perfect tartness needed for these cookies.

DO NOT OVER BAKE THESE COOKIES!!!!!! SO IMPORTANT, I can’t emphasize that enough.  Because there are vegan cookies, when you over bake them, instead of becoming golden brown with crunchy edges when you use butter, it ends up burning and hardening. If you’re unsure, err on the side of under baking.  I mean, their vegan, so technically no raw eggs = eat all the raw cookie dough you want!

As I’m writing this, I’ve got some beet (yes, beet) bread in the oven that I’m hoping will retain a nice, bright pretty color, so send me some good thoughts if you can spare them! I know it’s been awhile since I blogged my last post, but things have been busy around here! I’m finishing up my first year of grad school, which means doomsday (aka finals) is fast approaching.  Can you believe that they make people write 40 page papers? My hand is cramping up already as I think about it. After that I’ll be headed back to good ole’ MN for awhile before starting a environmental health summer internship.

What can I say? I’m excited for summer, the sunshine, and of course, more of these citrusy cookies! If you’e got a couple hours to spare, try this recipe out! Or add it to your meatless Monday dinner as dessert, I can promise no one will complain. 

VEGAN LEMON ORANGE BLACK TEA COOKIES | Makes 12-16 large cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup + 2 tsp neutral tasting oil
• 1/4 cup + 2 tsp hot water (basically as hot as you would normally make tea with)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tea bags of your choice (preferably a fruity tasting one)
• 1/4 cup crushed freeze-dried raspberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Measure out water and oil into their own bowl.  Add one tea bag to each bowl and let steep for 10 minutes. Take tea bags out of each liquid, making sure to squeeze tea bag thoroughly so you don’t mess up measurements.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.
3. Combine steeped water and oil, vanilla and white sugar and whisk until smooth.
4. Add flour into sugar mixture and just combine until no flour is visible.
5. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour (this is crucial as the mixture will be too soft to handle otherwise!) and up to 24 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 325 (F). Portion out golf-ball sized cookies and roll half in the crushed freeze-dried raspberries.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until centers of cookies start to look set/firm.
8. Cookies stay fresh for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Enjoy!