Cranberry & White Chocolate Gluten and Milk Free Scones.

First let me say, these are not the true "British" scones.  I decided it was too painful to eat a plain scone without being able to have the clotted cream (soy cream was just not going to cut it). So, I decided to try something with cranberries and margarine.   While shopping at my local Basic Bio Shop I was waiting in the long check out line and of course - this is where they put the chocolate.  One of the brands Bonvita caught my eye - It was made with Rice Milk.  So, I decided to grab a bar - I chose white as think it goes quite well with  cranberries :-)

I searched and searched to find some recipe that would work but did not like any of  them. They either had too much sugar, rice flour, milk etc.. and I really did not want to use soy in this recipe (which was actually my originally idea until I found the goat's yogurt).  So, I literally took 4 different recipes (some GF, some not) and combined what I  liked about each one.  They were all very different in the amounts of items they used.  They are not the award winning scones my friend Andrea baked ;-) but they definitely won the award of  best baked product on a first time experiment (ok, well, ties with my cornbread - but  I never wrote that recipe down :( 

The only thing I do not like about these, is they are dark in color (so may not look like your traditional scone). This is because all of the flours used were darker in color than the typical rice flours which most recipes called for. I would rather have the better taste & texture than better color - but that is just me.  They also did not raise as much as I had hoped.  I found recipes using anywhere from 2 to 6 teaspoons of baking powder (for relatively same weight of flour) - so I went with 4. I think I would perhaps use the 6 next time, or even add 1 teaspoon of soda - we will see.

So, here is the recipe I put together.

Cranberry White Chocolate – Gluten and Milk Free

Ingredients:
•    60g Millet Flour
•    60g Quinoa Flour
•    80g Teff Flour
•    40g Tapioca Flour
•    4 tsp Baking Powder
•    2 tsp Xanthan Gum
•    1tsp Salt
•    50g Sugar
•    115g Milk Free Margarine (I used Sanella)
•    1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
•    100g White Chocolate cut into pieces (I used Bonvita Rice Milk White Chocolate)
•    2 Medium Eggs
•    125g Goat’s Yogurt (I used Andechser Bio-Ziegenjogurt mild)
•    1 Egg (for the egg wash)
•    1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Raw Brown Sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions:
1.    Preheat the oven to 240°C.
2.    Sift the flours and remaining dry ingredients into a bowl.  Now shift them again. And one more time (I always shift the dry ingredients at least 3 times, especially when working with Quiona as there are sometimes small seeds still in the flour).
3.    With your hands – work the butter into the dry ingredients.
4.    Add the cranberries and the white chocolate and gently mix together with a wooden spoon.
5.    Whisk the 2 eggs, Vanilla and Goat’s yogurt together in a small bowl.
6.    Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. The consistency is a wet, yet not too sticky.  You may have to play with adding more yogurt or flour. This can also depend on the size of the eggs used.
7.    Turn onto a gluten free floured board gently knead the dough together (2-3 times maximum) and then flatten with your hands to about 3cm thick.  Use a round biscuit cutter or anything really (I used a Guinness pint glass :-)  and cut out your scones making sure not to turn the cutter – you want one straight cut (this helps them to raise).
8.    Place on baking sheet lined with baking liner and brush with the egg wash and sprinkle the brown sugar on top.
9.    Bake for 15 minutes.  You may need to bake a couple min less or more.  Check on them every 2 minutes after the 12-15 until they are nice and brown.
10.    Enjoy warm.  You can put margarine or jam on them – but with the cranberries and white chocolate – they are delicious all by themselves.


What I Did Right:
I used a combination of 4 flours this time, not sure why, just decided to - but it worked in the end.  I really am in shock of how wonderful these turned out. I wish  I had a picture of my face when I took them out of the oven. Really, they ARE that good!!!


What I Would Do Different:
I would use more teaspoon of baking powder, perhaps even some baking soda. I would also perhaps try it using soy yogurt - just to see how the taste would be different.