Switching to using coconut oil and coconut milk creates vegan scones that are easy to make and every bit as good as the original afternoon tea classic.
So I accidentally made vegan scones, I didn’t really mean to it just sort of happened by accident. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to experiment more with alternative ingredients and a couple of weeks ago I started wondering what would happen if I substituted coconut oil for butter in my scones. Finding myself with a free hour to fill I got to work testing it out. Seeing as I had some coconut milk in the fridge from some breakfast smoothie making, I figured if I was getting rid of the butter I might as well go all the way and get rid of all of the dairy.
My expectations weren’t too high as I’ve had my fair share of ingredient substitution baking disasters. It turns out that making Yorkshire puddings with quinoa flour is a horrible, horrible idea – one to never be repeated, and my garlic crisps are legendary for all the wrong reasons. But these scones worked, first time, no adjustments necessary, and they’re really good. As a non-vegan you can trust me that this isn’t one of those “well I couldn’t make the original so I’ve settled for the next best thing” type recipes – it’s honestly on a par with my original afternoon tea scones.
I’m so excited by the results I can’t wait to start switching butter for coconut oil in all sorts of other recipes – I think pastry is next, but I’m also really interested to see how it goes in custard and caramel.
I’d say the flavour and texture of these coconut scones are very similar to the original, with a subtle hint of coconut coming from the oil and milk. If you wanted to make the coconut flavour really stand out then you could also mix in a couple of tablespoons of desiccated coconut after rubbing the dry ingredients into the coconut oil. I also toyed with the idea of drizzling over some melted chocolate (dairy-free of course) as any Bounty lover will know that coconut and chocolate are made to go together. It’s definitely something I’m going to try at some point in the future 🙂
I served these with some really yummy blackcurrant jam, and if you really wanted to go all out and have a vegan/dairy-free afternoon tea then you could whip up some coconut cream to go on top too.
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Coconut Scones AKA The Best Vegan Scones Ever!
INGREDIENTS
- 250 g self-raising flour - + a little extra to help shape the scones
- 50 g coconut oil - + a little extra for greasing
- 30 g caster sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 140 ml coconut milk - the sort you find in a carton in the alternative milks fridge, not the one in a can
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan.
- Lightly grease a baking tray with coconut oil (I use bake-o-glide sheet so this isn’t necessary for me).
- Put the self-raising flour (250g) into a large bowl. Add the coconut oil (50g) and gently rub the coconut oil into the flour until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
- Add the caster sugar (30g), baking powder (½ tsp) and salt (¼ tsp) and mix well to ensure they are evenly distributed.
- Make a well in the centre and add most of the coconut milk (keep a tablespoon or two back to help bring the mixture together at the end). With as little action as possible, mix the coconut milk into the other ingredients until it comes together in a ball of dough. If there are any stray bits of flour at the bottom of the bowl, add the coconut milk you kept back to help collect them.
- Lightly flour a work surface, lay out the dough and pat it flat to a thickness of about 1½ inches (don’t use a rolling pin). Either form it into a circle and use a sharp knife to divide it into 6, or if you prefer round scones, use a cutter to cut out your scones. Place them onto the prepared baking tray.
- Pop into the oven for 12-15 minutes until the are cooked (I check by tapping them on the bottom to see if they sound hollow – like you do with bread).
- Once they’re cooked, remove them from the oven and pop them onto a wire rack to cool.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans
- Egg-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Fish-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
Laura says
Made these swapping about 40g of the wheat flour for coconut flour and using a bit more coconut milk, they turned out lovely! The coconut flavour is subtle but they make nice plain scones. Thank you for this easy recipe 🙂
Rena says
I’ve made this recipe numerous times and it always turns out great. I use oat milk since that’s the non-dairy milk we usually have. They’re delicious hot out of the oven so they don’t last long. 😉
Eva says
This is now my go-to scone recipe. Super quick and easy and they come out no different to ones made with butter.
Eilish says
These were ace!
I used coconut milk from a can and it was fine
Karen says
Great scones! This is from someone who typically has a heavier hand with dough and turns out scone ‘bricks’.
The oil was so easy to mix with the flour, unlike butter which seems to take an age. I made 2 batches to take to a party and they were well received.
Easy, quick and great flavour, these will go into my book of trusted and repeatable recipes.
Thanks so much.
Irene C Sanders says
There are egg/dairy allergies in our family and baked goods and desserts are the hardest! These are fantastic! Every bit as good as more traditional recipes. Today I am making them for July 4th strawberry short cake dessert with coconut cream whip. Thanks for a great recipe.
Charlotte Oates says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Your 4th July dessert sounds delicious!
Tina says
Love the recipe, however why can’t you use coconut milk from a can?
Charlotte Oates says
I find that canned coconut milk is thicker than the carton milk, changing the texture of the scones. I prefer the texture made with the carton milk.
janice says
These sound like amazing scones. I love the idea of substituting coconut oil and can imagine how great the flavour will be.
Jim Swift says
How do you “rub” the coconut oil into the flour, it just melts?
Charlotte Oates says
Try chilling the coconut oil first and it should be fine. I’ve never had the same problem as my kitchen and hands are usually quite cold, I’ll add in an extra note about chilling for anyone having the same problem.
Barbara Goodhew says
I don’t usually comment on these sites but I have to give credit where it is due. I am not a cook and for the last 2 years have been steering my family toward a vegan diet. These scones get the big thumbs up from us all .
Clare says
I made these today, I’m not sure what I did wrong but after 15 mins they hadn’t risen at all and were still raw so I upped baked them longer but they still didn’t rise :/ I think I’ll have to start again from scratch
Did anyone else have to bake them longer or at a higher temp?
Charlotte Oates says
Hi Clare, I’m sorry to hear they didn’t rise properly for you. How old was your self-riasing flour? Sometimes the raising agents don’t work properly if it’s older which could have impacted how it rose.
Frances Gibb says
I made these today and must admit to being a bit sceptical about them as have not made vegan scones before . They are so good I like them better than my usual ones.Will definitely be making these regularly Thanks for the recipe
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Jodie. If there’s any of my other recipes you’d like me to try and adapt to fit your children’s allergies then let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
MaryV says
Thank you for this fantastic recipe.
I’ve just used it to make the best scones I have ever made. I used soya milk as I didn’t have coconut milk.
My son is finding a vegan diet to be really helping his eczema so I’m looking for nice easy vegan recipies.
Thanks again.
Charlotte Oates says
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe Mary, it’s good to hear that you’ve found a diet that helps your son’s eczema. I have family that suffer a great deal from it and so I know how nasty it can be when it flares up. I’m hoping to add more vegan baking recipes to my site this year so keep an eye out for them.
Georgina says
I made these not long ago and used stevia instead of the caster sugar to make a lower calorie version as a test. They came out absolutely perfect! This is a great recipe and everyone who tried them absolutely loved them. As someone that cant have dairy, these are dare I say it better than the standard version. Making them again this weekend as per my friends requests 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Georgina, I’m really pleased you enjoyed them. It’s great to know that they work with stevia too.
Sarah says
I’ve just found this recipe and I am on slimming world and trying very hard to stick to plan but I am absolutely craving scones. I have no allergies but I use coconut products where I can for health reasons and I’m wondering if these can be made with coconut flour or if anyone has tried? It’s not cheap hence my asking and not wanting to mess about mess it up and waste ingredients.
Thanks for your help if anyone is still commenting as I noticed this is from last year. X
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not tried it with coconut flour but I’m not convinced it will work as coconut flour tends to work best combined with other flours rather than being used on its own. If you’d prefer to make them gluten free then you should be OK using a regular gluten free flour instead of the regular flour in the recipe. If you’re trying to reduce down the calories then I’ve been told that these work well with stevia subbed in for the sugar.
Kate says
I just made them with coconut flour, they are a bit more dense but taste lovely. I also added a bit of lemon to the coconut milk and left it to “curdle “ for an hour. So tasty.
Cathy says
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe I have just made the scones for my hubby and son (who has multiple allergies) and it is so exciting to fun new recipes and foods that are delicious and safe. I made the whipped coconut cream too and we had them with jam and the cream mmmmmm 🙂 one very happy household x
Charlotte Oates says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
María José Carreño says
I never seem to get the consistency right to get to the point 6. Do you have a picture of how it should look?
Charlotte Oates says
I don’t have any of my own pictures but I’ve had a quick scour through Google and this is about the same http://recipesmadeeasy.co.uk/scones/#jp-carousel-2704 I hope that helps.
Michelle says
Can I substitute coconut milk to soy milk?
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not tried it but I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how it goes if you do.
Midgie says
These look lovely – sugar & crumbs do an icing sugar flavoured with coconut & lime that and coconut flour added to the dough makes AMAZING coconut scones!!
Charlotte Oates says
Ooh those do sound good, I may have to rename mine! (I do like I slightly over the top title sometimes 🙂 )