A fall baking must: Apple Scones! Gluten free, vegan-friendly and topped with a delicious cinnamon streusel. Perfect for brunch and apple season.
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September is flying by and it’s hard to believe we only have three more months left of this year! I’m kind of freaking out which has resulted in some stress baking…
It had been what felt like FOREVER since I made a good batch of scones and when I tested these apple scones with hopes of them turning out for the blog, I was reminded (again) just how easy scones truly are. And also that my base recipe is pretty bangin’.
And if you haven’t made scones yet don’t fret – I shall walk you through the process.
Apple Scones Ingredients
- brown sugar
- baking powder
- salt
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- frozen butter or coconut oil
- milk of choice (dairy, cashew, almond, etc.)
- apple cider vinegar
- vanilla
- apples
How to Make Apple Scones
Most of my scone recipes on Fit Mitten Kitchen are dairy-free, made with frozen coconut oil. But for this apple scone recipe I was feeling butter. Sometimes you just can’t beat the flavor. But for this recipe you can use organic grass-fed butter, conventional butter, vegan butter, or coconut oil (tested and works fine).
The one thing I will say is for more traditional scones, you need a really cold fat (butter or solid coconut oil) for the best scone texture. I like to freeze my butter or coconut oil (see tips here for coconut oil version) and then grate it if making the recipe in a mixing bowl, or it can go right into a food processor bowl if you’re making the dough in there.
The food processor method is less messy and quicker, but if you’re mixing my hand using a box grater to grate the frozen butter will make for much easier mixing. It does have to be frozen though if grating or it will melt.
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour
For this recipe we’re using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking flour – I often get asked if my scone recipes (typically made with a whole wheat white flour) can be subbed with a gluten-free flour and this blend is my go-to. It works like a charm and the texture comes out super similar. I don’t think anyone would actually be able to tell these apple scones were gluten-free unless you told them.
So if you’re baking gluten free and need an easy substitution when working with whole wheat flours, I can’t recommend this gluten free baking flour enough. It worked wonders in this gluten free bundt cake.
I’ve been a long-time user of Bob’s Red Mill products and I love that you can count on any of their
Mix the wet and dry ingredients
All of the dry ingredients get mixed together (except the apples) and then the milk mixture gets poured into the bowl and stirred together.
Once the dough comes together it’s time to add the diced apples.
And don’t be afraid to use your hands at the end to get all those apples mixed in – you’ll be using your hands to work the dough into a circle here anyways.
Shape the dough into a circle and bake
Oh and top with cinnamon streusel if you’d like. I got a little “extra” with this recipe (as the kids say these days) but it kind of makes these scones special. My base recipe for scones isn’t super sweet so the streusel topping was a nice flavor and sweetness addition.
Another thing I do with my scones is I pre-cut them into 8 triangles (not shown) so that they bake with slices in them. And then I re-cut them, pull them apart and bake them again for 5-10 minutes more separated, so the scones get crisper edges but keep their soft middles. It’s an extra step that is 100% worth it to get the perfect scone texture.
cut scones and cool on baking sheet
And because I feel like sometimes scones just aren’t complete with a teeny bit of glaze – I went all out here. I just couldn’t help myself. I mean, I warned you I was stress-baking. And when I stress bake I often just keep adding little bits and pieces to the baking puzzle until I feel the recipe no longer needs messing with. And I’m a bit obsessive compulsive at times but it’s fine.
Be sure to comment on the blog letting me know if you make this recipe! I love hearing from you. You can also share with me on Instagram #fitmittenkitchen.
Xx Ashley
Gluten Free Apple Scones with Cinnamon Streusel
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour
- 3 TBSP brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup frozen unsalted butter or coconut oil, see notes
- 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup diced apples, equal to about 1 medium apple cored and peeled
Streusel
- 1 1/2 TBSP unsalted butter, softened (or coconut oil)
- 1 TBSP brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1Baking Flour
- 2 TBSP Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.
- Grate frozen butter (or coconut oil) into large bowl of dry ingredients. Using dough blender, work butter into flour mixture until a grainy, meal texture forms. If using food processor, pulse dry ingredients with butter or coconut oil until pieces are broken down.Remove blade before moving on to the next steps.
- Make the streusel: in a small bowl combine butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon until combined – mixture should be able to clump together.
- Gently stir in the milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla to bowl of dry ingredients – be careful not to over work the dough. Gently fold in diced apples – dough should come together and be somewhat sticky but not too dry. If it feels on the drier side, add a splash of milk.
- Shape dough into large circle, about 8″ in diameter, on prepared baking sheet. Using a large, sharp knife, make 8 triangle slices into dough. Bake for 17-20 minutes, then remove from oven to re-cut slices and pull apart triangles slightly. Bake for another 5 minutes, until edges and tops are lightly browned.
- Let scones cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Scones will stay fresh in airtight container up to 3 days.
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