Finding Yourself Through Scones

Cherry and Walnut Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Scones

The world of FoodWise Nutrition has been so crazy busy that our poor little blog has suffered extreme neglect.  Turns out that opening a second practice is a touch time-consuming!  Combine a new practice with networking, meetings, patients, taxes, family and the flu, and all creativity for writing evaporates into thin air.  Never fear! We are back and ready to tackle spring with gusto!

In the midst of March madness, my inclination to cook went on vacation and took all my energy with it.  Last week I did make a lovely Chicken Chasseur (French chicken cacciatore) but mostly our household has subsisted on quick and easy dishes like baked fish tacos and pasta with sausage and blanched greens.  In fact, I'm so sick of pasta that there isn't any on the menu for the foreseeable future!

One lovely discovery during this cooking vacation is frozen Garlic Jim's Pizza.  Garlic Jim's is a semi-local pizzeria that makes gluten-free pizza, and they've recently started selling their products in our neighborhood grocery store.  I don't advocate frozen pizza as a daily occurrence in your healthy diet, but every so often life's little curveballs require food that can be heated in your oven in 12 minutes or less.  

Last night, my nutrition study group had its monthly meeting and as so often happens, the conversation devolved into food.  What's sorghum flour?  How much amaranth flour should you use in a recipe?  I started pulling out cookbooks and we stumbled across a lovely scone recipe that I've used before with success.  One of our members is dairy-free and we wondered what would happen if we replaced the cream in the recipe with coconut milk and the fat with coconut oil?

Well, we wouldn't be a nutrition study group if we sat on our hands and DIDN'T give it a try!  Your experimental dietitian is back, baby!

Walnut and Cherry Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Scones

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sweet rice four

1/2 cup oat flour

1/4 cup potato starch

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon xanthum gum

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coconut oil, chilled in freezer for 15 minutes*

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 eggs

1 tablespoon honey

1/3 to 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

* The scones came out just a bit dry.  Next time I make them (which will be very, very soon), I'm going to use 1/3 cup coconut oil.  Try it if you like!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, oat flour, potato starch, baking powder, xanthum gum and salt.  Make sure ingredients are thoroughly blended.
3. Place dollops of coconut oil into the flour mixture and work it into the flour with your hands.
4. Mix in dried cherries and walnuts.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and break the eggs into the well.  Add the honey and a dash of coconut milk.  Gently mix the wet ingredients together with a fork, then slowly incorporate them into the dry ingredients.  Add more coconut milk as needed.  Dough should stick together but not be overly wet.
6. Turn out onto floured surface and press into a round disc 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into 8 wedges and place on a cookie sheet covered with a silpat or parchment paper.
7. Bake 12 minutes or until the scones are slightly brown on top and cooked through.

Serve warm with a dollop of jam.

Recipe adapted from Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly

Enjoy!