A true British classic. The star of the much loved afternoon tea. It’s hard to beat a freshly baked scone topped with lashings of cream and jam! But the burning question is, which one goes on first?! These gluten and dairy free scones are just as wonderfully soft and golden as you’d expect from any ‘normal’ version, and can be made plain or fruity to your preference. So, there’s now officially zero reason to be missing out on this delicious teatime treat!
Top tips for perfect gluten and dairy free scones
- A slightly sticky dough is just right. Although it should still be workable, a good scone dough is fairly moist. This will give you soft, tender scones.
- Don’t overwork the dough. Handling it too much can prevent the scones from rising, so simply bring everything together until it forms a ball and don’t be tempted to keep squashing or kneading!
- Cut them thick. They’ll rise a little in the oven, but the raw dough still needs cutting to about 3cm thick for a lovely chunky scone.
- Make sure the oven is fully pre-heated. Due to the short cooking time, scones need to go in a nice hot oven to ensure they’re perfectly risen and golden.
- Check the date. Make sure your baking powder and self raising flour isn’t past its expiry date.
Best dairy free cream alternatives?
For the authentic scone experience, finding a great dairy-free cream to dollop on top is essential! My favourite is the Elmlea Plant Double Cream, which whips up amazingly and tastes just like the real thing. This can be found in most large UK supermarkets. I’ve also heard good things about the Flora Plant Cream, which can be bought online, or you could always go for coconut or cashew cream.
How long will they keep?
Scones are best enjoyed as fresh as possible, but will keep well in an airtight container for 3-4 days. If not eating them warm out of the oven, they’re great popped in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
Looking for more gluten and dairy free bakes?
Why not give these tasty treats a try:
- Sticky pineapple upside down cake
- Pear and ginger pudding with chocolate sauce
- Orange and almond cake
- Best ever blueberry muffins
If you give these gluten and dairy free scones a try, let us know how you got on by leaving a comment and rating below. You can also tag us in photos of your bakes on Instagram @BlueSkyEating. Enjoy! 🙂
Gluten and Dairy Free Scones
Ingredients
- 460 g self raising gluten-free flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 60 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 100 g hard dairy-free butter block (chopped into small cubes)
- 140 ml almond milk (or dairy-free milk of choice)
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g sultanas (optional)
- 1 extra egg (for the brushing on the tops of the scones)
Instructions
- In a food processor, whizz together all of the dry ingredients (minus the sultanas if adding) with the cubed dairy-free butter until it forms a breadcrumb texture.
- If adding sultanas, mix these through now – by hand or with a spoon.
- In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the eggs and almond milk.
- Gradually pour the egg mixture into the breadcrumbs, mixing with your hands until everything comes together into a dough.
- The dough should be fairly sticky, but still workable. If it's still far too wet, sprinkle in some extra flour. If it's too dry and falling apart, add a splash of milk. Once it has come together nicely, try not to handle the dough too much more.
- Lightly flour the surface and roll out/evenly squash your dough until it's about 3cm thick. Use a 6-8cm round cutter to cut out 1-2 scones at a time before re-rolling/squashing. You should end up with around 8-10 scones.
- Place the scones on the lined baking tray and brush the tops with some beaten egg.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until nice and golden.
- Serve warm with dairy-free cream and jam!
Please note that nutritional information is based on estimated quantities and therefore not always 100% accurate.
Absolutely delicious and easy to make!
I just made these and they turned out brilliantly, if I do say so myself!
I’m in the states and have never seen “self rising flour.” I use a mix of sweet rice flour, potato starch and tapioca flour. Do you know if that will work for the scones?
Hi Laurel, the self raising flour we have here in the UK is simply plain/all purpose flour that already has baking powder added. You can actually make your own by adding 1 tsp of baking powder to every 100g/3.5oz of all purpose gluten free flour. It’s always good to go for a cup for cup/all purpose flour blend that’s designed to replace ‘normal’ flour. 🙂
Hi, I would love to make these however I can’t eat maize which is an ingredient in the shop bought GF Self Rising Flour. Can you recommend a good flour mix which I could use to replace it?
Hi! Are you able to get hold of the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour? I’ve just checked the ingredients and there’s no Maize! Otherwise I would recommend making up your own flour blend from a mixture of rice flour, tapioca and potato starch (you can get all of these from Holland and Barrett). If you search DIY flour blend a few recipes should come up. To turn plain flour into self raising flour, simply add 1 tsp baking powder for every 100g you use in the recipe. 🙂