How to make easy vegan cheese scones. I love scones. The buttery, flaky, melt-in-the-mouth texture is so utterly irresistible. I love sweet scones, filled with sultanas, with a sugary crusty top, and then filled with coconut whipped cream and some delicious strawberry jam. The epitome of a summer’s day, a cream tea, so elegant and quintessentially English.
And then of course, there’s other scones. Plain scones, ready for whatever you want to throw at them, be it jam, or cream or just dipped daintily in tea, or even filled with cream cheese maybe. But then we have the cheese scone. Here’s how to Make Easy Vegan Cheese Scones
I honestly thought for many years that cheese scones could not be veganised, that vegan cheese was just not flavourful enough, that the shortening wouldn’t work and you wouldn’t pack a whole lot of flavour in them. I mean, I wanted a huge cheesy flavour in my scone!
To digress slightly, I have always wondered what the difference is between a scone, and it’s American counterpart, the biscuit. If you are a Brit, you will know a cookie as a biscuit, and a biscuit as a scone. And Cookie/Biscuits are nothing at all like scones.
However, the American Biscuit is like a flakier scone, they often come cut into wedges, rather than circles, and are found with a myriad of different flavours. And so I think the main difference is simply a ratio thing: there is more fat to flour content, so you have a much flakier dough. The British Scone is sturdier, less flaky and more primed to hold copious amounts of filling. Dawn Perry wrote a very funny article on Scones vs Biscuits for Bon Appetit, you can read it here.
When I was first vegan, some 10 years ago, plant-based cheese was not as entirely successful as it is today. It didn’t really melt and it could taste kind of funky. It is really amazing how much plant-based food has improved over the years, and I am so thankful for the vegan consumer market increasing and forcing this demand and quality to be constantly improved.
Today though, you can take your pick of vegan cheese, and use your favourite. There is blue cheese, spicy cheese, red cheese, greek-style cheese, you name it! I like a combination of blue and cheddar style cheeses for scones, they have the right amount of flavour and melt.
The recipe I’m using here is a version of Mary Berry’s, refined by the English Kitchen and veganised by myself. I originally used an online recipe for just vegan cheese scones and it turned out horribly. I won’t name the website I got the recipe from. I have an inkling that I had an ingredient issue (Flora Plant-Based Butter is not very good in baking) and an overworking issue. My mum sensed by inherent annoyance at a spoiled batch of scones (no rise, rock hard, still tasted good), and suggested “good old Mary Berry”, so that’s who I turned to.
My veganisations for how to make easy vegan Cheese Scones were fairly simple: the cheese and the egg, which I replaced with 1/4 cup of vegan yogurt (make sure to use plain, preferably not coconut, and as thick as you can get it). I also added an additional half teaspoon of baking powder (soda), to help with the rise. The result was a delicious, flaky (but not too flaky) scone, with a deliciously savoury flavour. They lasted a couple of days in the fridge, and are also freezable! I recommend if you want to keep them in the tin for longer, they will be fine, but will start to get a little dry, so just microwave them for 10-15 seconds or so and that will refresh them.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 1 tsp Self-raising flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Mustard Powder
- ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 2 tbsp Vegan Margarine very cold
- 1¼ cups Vegan cheese grated. (I like to use a mixture of blue and cheddar-style), plus a little extra for grating on top
- ¼ cup Vegan Yogurt unsweetened
- ¼ pint Soy Milk unsweetened
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220c
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, or lightly grease a non-stick sheet.
- Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
- Using a gentle rubbing motion between your fingertips, rub the margarine into the flour until you have a sandy texture. Work quickly and lightly so as not to melt the margarine.
- Stir in the cheese very gently.
- In a jug, mix together the yogurt and milk.
- Pour this into your dry mixture, and using a knife, cut into the mixture until it starts to form a crumbly dough.
- If you find your dough is still very crumbly and will not come together, add a little cold water, a half teaspoon at a time.
- Once the dough starts to form, turn out onto a floured surface.
- Roll it gently into a round, about an inch deep.
- Cut out rounds using a pastry cutter or even, as my grandma used to use, a glass! You may need to push the dough together to get 6 scones out of the mixture.
- Place on your prepared baking sheet and brush with some soy milk. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy warm and spread with some vegan butter!
Nutrition
Try my fruit scones here or Floured Frame’s amazing Sweet Vegan Matcha Scones here!
Perfect recipe to keep on hand. These scones go well with so many dishes or are delicious on its own!
This recipe looks great! I love a savory pastry!
These look great! Thanks for veganising!
I gotta try this vegan version of a biscuit ?
By the looks of your pictures, you’d never know the scones were vegan. They look delicious! It’s amazing that there can be so many healthy options for super yummy items like scones. Nice job!
I would love eating these! They look pretty easy to make too. I’ll have to try them soon!
These sound delicious!! I’ve made scones one time before and the recipe was so time consuming but this recipe sound so simple! I am saving this recipe to try soon!!
I want a scone. Right now. Those look delicious. So, I’m not vegan, but I think I could get down with these and would like to experiment with vegan cheese. Do you ever incorporate fresh herbs? What would you recommend?
Seriously, can you even go wrong when you start with Mary Berry?! I totally appreciate, that you worked on this recipe until you got it right. Thanks for putting together a recipe that all can enjoy.
I think I will treat my best friend with these. She can’t have gluten or dairy so will be using gluten free flour. Looks really good!
Okay, this sounds absolutely amazing! I’m not vegan but that definitely doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try them out for myself. I’m so excited to give them a whirl sometime soon.
I love the way you write. I laughed out loud at the vegan cheese that didn’t melt right and tasted funky. These scones sound yummy. I love sweet scones maybe with raisins or currants paired with jam and cream.
I love that you used the word veganized. that’s what my friend does with recipes all the time too!
Ooh yum! I love scones so much, and I have been trying to eat more plant-based, so perfect timing. I cannot wait to try these vegan cheesy scones.
I’m definitely more of a savory scone person and these look amazing. Cheese scones are too addictive!
Amazing flavor and texture!
Ugh I love cheese scones and these were so delicious! Totally hit the spot!
These vegan scones are irresistable! Perfectly sweet!
Yum! My first time making a cheese scone and it came out perfect! It’s the perfect snack.