These Vegan Chocolate Chip Scones have the perfect combination of soft centers with crisp edges. Made with ingredients like whole grain flour, lightly sweetened with coconut sugar, using coconut oil (or vegan butter!) and loaded with mini chocolate chips.
I first shared this vegan scone recipe many moons ago, and I thought it was about time I come back and share some more insight as to why you must not wait any longer to make homemade scones!
This chocolate chip scone recipe first made its debut back in 2016. Since then I’ve made so many variations. But these mini chocolate chip scones will always have my heart.
Simple Chocolate Chip Scone Recipe
I am going to show you how to make moist tender scones that have crisp edges and soft middles.
These whole wheat scones are not like traditional english scones, nor are they dry and crumbly. They’re like the perfect cross between a muffin and a biscuit!
Let’s go over the ingredients you’ll need to make the best chocolate chip scones.
Vegan Scone Ingredients
- whole wheat white flour – you can also use whole wheat pastry flour, or a mix of all purpose with whole wheat. OR a 1:1 gluten-free baking flour.
- baking powder – this helps give the scones their height!
- salt – to balance flavor.
- coconut sugar (or dry sweetener of choice) – whatever granulated sugar you’d like to use will work. (Just don’t sub with wet.)
- frozen coconut oil – this is the fat you’ll need to help get the texture of the scones right. And yes, it must be frozen! You can also use frozen (vegan) butter. More notes on that below!
- canned coconut milk – using canned coconut milk will give you a richer texture, but whatever milk you have on hand should work as well.
- vanilla extract – flavor!
- mini chocolate chips – lots of them.
- coarse sugar for sprinkling – this is optional but definitely gives these scones their bakery style feel.
Homemade Scones are EASY
For those wondering if it’s hard to make scones, it most certainly is not. It’s SO EASY. I’ll walk you through a couple different processes for making these vegan scones.
Using a Pastry Cutter
Before I had a food processor, I would grate the frozen coconut oil with a box grater, then work the frozen pieces into the bowl of dry ingredients with a pastry cutter (I like OXO dough blender). If you do go this route, I’d get frozen vegan / dairy free butter, as it grates much easier than frozen coconut oil.
My original vegan scone recipes calls for coconut oil as the fat – You can also use the same amount of frozen vegan butter. Either way, frozen is very important as it helps create more of a biscuit texture. If your fat isn’t frozen, the texture will turn out more like muffins.
Once the frozen coconut oil is worked into the dry ingredients, slowly add milk and vanilla, stirring until the dough forms, and stir in chocolate chips.
Then shape into an 8″ circle on baking sheet with parchment paper, pre-slice, bake and then fully cut and bake again. <– the double bake method gets nicely crisp edges with soft middles!
Using a Food Processor
If you have a food processor, these scones come together very easily.
First pulse the dry ingredients together in the food processor bowl. Then add in the frozen coconut oil, pulsing until little bits of coconut oil into the flour mixture are visible.
Remove the S-blade and pour in milk and vanilla, stirring until almost combined, then stir in chocolate chips.
Shape dough into an 8″ circle, pre-slice into 8 triangles, and bake. Then for the last 5 minute, re-cut and separate slices to bake for another 5 minutes.
NOTE: If you find your circle of dough and knife is sharp enough to fully slice and separate the triangles completely, you can also do this and bake just once.
Tips for baking the best vegan scones
- Make sure to use frozen coconut oil or frozen butter – I touched base on this above but it is very important! Frozen fat will give you the biscuit-like texture.
- If your dough seems too dry – add a splash of milk and use hands to continue to combine.
- If your dough seems too wet – add about a tablespoon of flour and use hands to combine. You want your dough sticky enough to hold together, but not so much that the dough is all over your hands and you can’t create a circle or cut into triangles.
- Move somewhat quickly from one step to the next – If you wait too long between steps, the dough will become soft (room temperature) and not bake properly. You can also place the shaped dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes before baking as well.
I hope you love these whole wheat chocolate chip scones as much as we do!
Let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a comment and review below! I love hearing from you and it helps others learn more about the recipe too.
PrintVegan Chocolate Chip Scones
These Vegan Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Scones have the perfect combination of soft centers with crisp edges. Made with wholesome ingredients like coconut sugar, coconut oil, and whole wheat white flour, you can’t say no to these scones!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: American Baking
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat white flour*
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or dry sweetener of choice)
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup frozen coconut oil, grated
- 1 cup canned coconut milk (lite or full-fat both work)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips
- turbinado/coarse sugar for sprinkling, optional but love the crunch it brings!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder, & salt. Whisk until well combined and set aside.
- Grate frozen coconut oil into large bowl of dry ingredients. Using dough blender, work coconut oil into flour mixture until a grainy, meal texture forms. (You may also use two forks to blend the frozen oil into the dough. OR feel free to use food processor to cut in the frozen coconut oil. Remove blade before moving on to the next steps.)
- Gently stir in the coconut milk and vanilla extract to bowl of dry ingredients, careful not to overwork the dough. Gently fold in chocolate chips The dough should be thick and slightly sticky. If dough is very wet still, add a couple more tablespoons flour. If dough feels dry, 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 15-20 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. (Using this technique will allow edges to get crispy.)
- 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, if they last that long… (You can also double wrap scones with plastic wrap and store in freezer up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature or in microwave.)
Notes
FLOUR: half unbleached all-purpose, half whole wheat flour may be subbed. If using ALL whole wheat flour, your scones will probably be more dense and possibly dry. I would add a few more tablespoons of milk if you go this route. Whole wheat pastry flour may be subbed, but I would add 2-4 more TBS of flour if using pastry flour instead of whole wheat white.
COCONUT OIL: You can also use frozen butter (vegan or dairy).
MILK: Using canned coconut milk will give these scones the richest texture, but another non-dairy milk will also work.
My vegan scones recipes are adapted from my Whole Wheat Coconut Scones, which originally calls for 1 egg. If not worried about keeping vegan, you can also go this route and use only 2/3 cup coconut milk (other milk will also work, but I personally prefer the texture with canned coconut milk as it has a higher fat content).
total time does not include freezing coconut oil
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8th
- Calories: 338
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 307mg
- Fat: 19g
- Saturated Fat: 15g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 35g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 5g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
Keywords: vegan scones, scones with coconut oil, chocolate chip scones
RECOMMENDED ITEMS USED
OXO dough blender
17″ flat cookie sheet
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Marie says
How long would these last in the freezer and what’s the best way to thaw them?
Thanks
Ashley says
Hi Marie! If wrapped tightly and kept in an airtight container, the baked scones should last about 2 months. You can allow the scones to come to room temperature, or if you’re looking to enjoy right away, you can pop them in the microwave, about 30 seconds or so depending. Hope that helps!
Jade says
My sister and I made these last night. The texture on them is AMAZING. OMG so incredibly good. Between her, my boyfriend and I, these babies aren’t going to last the day.
A couple things that we did differently/lessons learned:
– We only had coconut cream on hard so we mixed 3/4 cup coconut cream with 1/4 cup water and that worked well. I’m sure the fat content of the coconut cream only helped the texture.
– We added fresh strawberries because we had them and it sounded like a good idea. Turns out you have to almost double the cooking time if you add fresh fruit because of all the moisture. It still worked out and they turned out amazing, but a lesson learned!
Thanks!!!!
★★★★★
Ashley says
Ah I am so glad to hear you are enjoying the scones, Jade! And so exciting to hear your subs worked, that is awesome! I actually have blueberry ones up on the blog (fresh today!) and I also had to increase the baking time. Thank you SO much for sharing all of this, it means a ton. 😀
Stella @ Stellicious Life says
These look amazing! And I love that they are healthyfied! I’ve never made scones so far, always feared they were complicated, but all your scone recipes make me want to try my hand at them.
How do you grate the frizen coconut oil, doesn’t it soften in your hand?
Ashley says
Aw thanks Stella! You really ought to try it, truly easy. -The coconut oil does soften a bit, but not too much. I try to do it as quickly as possible. I have also roughly chopped the chunk of frozen coconut oil before too. Both seem to work as long as your coconut oil is frozen solid.
Christina Rice says
Do you know if gluten-free all purpose flour could be subbed? Or coconut flour? I’m dying to try these but I’m allergic to gluten!
★★★★★
Ashley says
My best advice is to try a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose. I hear Bob’s Red Mill has great one. I have yet to try the recipe out myself yet, but I will have to put it on my list! Let me know if you give it a try 🙂 –definitely not coconut flour though because of it’s unique properties absorbing liquid.
Julie M says
hi, I finally made these and they turned out terrible. I thought I followed your recipe to the T. I am thinking maybe my coconut oil wasn’t frozen enough? (I froze for 2 hours). it grated into a sloppy mess. i still worked it in and had to chop the rest as it would not grate. I also used canned full fat coconut milk and the coconut sugar. It was so wet (maybe I should have added more flour?). I used wheat pastry flour. I still baked it and had to cook it about 10 minutes longer. I thought well it will still taste good. NOPE. Very bland, hardly any flavor. So disappointed. Right now it’s sitting in my freezer thinking maybe I’ll use for a pie crust of some sort? 🙁 PS. I bought the Withings watch though because of the photo here. that girl should get some credit LOL .
Ashley says
Hi Julie! Thank you for taking the time to comment and let me know about the recipe! I really appreciate it. I am so sorry the scones didn’t turn out for you. The coconut oil should be completely solid before trying to grate, as it melts quite easily – as you found out :-/ If you have a food processor, you can also use that to cut in the frozen oil with the flour mixture and pulse a few times. I updated/made a note in the recipe for this! Did you use just 1 cup of the canned coconut milk? While I did use whole wheat white flour, the whole wheat pastry flour shouldn’t have changed things too much. But next time if it feels super wet, add another couple of tablespoons at a time until the dough is easier to work with. Again, really sorry you had trouble! Please do let me know if you try them again! <3
Chrystianne says
So I finally got around to making these and I have to admit, I was really skeptical at first. Coconut oil and coconut milk?! But O.M.G they’re amazing!!! Perfect amount of crumbly moisture. Delish!! Keep giving us scone recipes. 😉
Ashley says
Ah yay!! So glad you enjoyed Chrystianne 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to comment too! I really appreciate it 🙂
Becca says
The kids and I made these. Swapped the flour for gf and made the chocolate chips to keep it allergy safe.
Steph says
Hi if i have coconut oil in a jar how do i measure it out and then freeze?
Ashley says
If it’s softened enough, I scoop it out into a measuring cup. Then I put the measured amount into a lined bowl and freeze.
Hilary says
I love all of your scones! They always turn out perfectly ?
Angela Lindquist says
Great recipe! Just started doing a lot of vegan baking and this recipe was a hit!
Going to try making the grapefruit and ginger scones tomorrow.
★★★★★