Dairy Free Baking: Scones & Brownies

My last post about High Tea and The Royal Wedding, inspired Gina and I to want to have High Tea at our family gathering this past weekend.
There are a couple of family members who do better without dairy, eggs are OK, just not the moo juice. As you may know I am always up for a challenge. It's not High Tea without scones, so I decided to use my favorite scone recipe  with Earth Balance and coconut creamer in place of the butter and cream. I had thought of trying shortbread without butter but that seemed sacrilege, instead my simple brownie recipe came to mind.

I am happy to say that both attempts were very successful. I did neglect to take pretty photos of each item during the process and even afterward, sorry. You can look at both original recipes for more photos.
Here is the lovely table spread from our High Tea. You can see the brownies in the foreground on a platter with my chai shortbread, the scones were heating up in the oven.

Dairy Free Cranberry Coconut Scones



Ingredients

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons shredded coconut
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup dried cranberries
zest of one orange
1/2 cup coconut creamer
1 egg



1) Preheat oven to 400, line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat or nothing.

2) Sift together in a large bowl: 2 cups flour, 3 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 3 Tbsp. sugar and 3 Tbsp. shredded coconut.




3) Cut in with a pastry cutter or two knives until fine:  1/2 cup of Earth Balance.

4)  Add the cranberries and orange zest.


5)  In a separate small bowl beat the egg and coconut creamer together.


6) Mix carefully with a wooden spoon, then knead the dough a little until it sticks together, try not to over mix.

7) Form the dough into a flat disk about one half inch thick on waxed paper. Sprinkle the top with sugar or shredded coconut.

8) Cut into 8-12 triangles and place on the baking sheet.

9) Bake for 12 minutes until lightly golden brown. Serve warm with jam !

Dairy Free Brownies   

Ingredients
    •     ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    •    1/2 cup Earth Balance
    •    2 eggs
    •    1 cup sugar
    •    ¼ cup flour
    •    1 cup broken-up walnuts or pecans
    •    1 teaspoon vanilla
    •    pinch of salt

1.    Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch pan.

 

2.    Melt Earth Balance carefully in saucepan with cocoa and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minute.

3) Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla.

4) In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, nuts, and salt.

5) Add to the cocoa-Earth Balance mixture. Stir until just combined.

6) Pour into a greased 8x8 square pan. 

 

7) Bake 35-40 minutes. Do not overbake; they should be gooey. 

8) Here comes the hard part...let cool, and cut into bars. In fact I have found they are easier to cut once they have been refrigerated. 

 

               

High Tea in Santa Cruz, finally !!

For Mother's Day and a belated birthday treat, a friend took me to the Buttercup Bakery in downtown Santa Cruz for high tea.

I love high tea and I love the cupcakes I have had from this bakery. I was so excited when I saw they were offering high tea on the weekends.

First off the table was set with a beautiful fresh flower bouquet which nicely matched my hair. There were beautiful depression glass looking goblets, sweet china tea cups, silver and, of course, a crisp white table cloth.

 High tea is served on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 3:30, there are two options: the cream tea, which includes scones, lemon curd, jam, whipped cream and a pot of tea or the savory tea, which has a lot to choose from, including tea sandwiches, quiche, a daily soup and dessert !
Note: They offered several vegan and gluten free options.

We chose the savory tea which started with this delicate and tasty fruit salad of berries and whipped cream.

We each chose three sandwiches not quite understanding that the quiche and soup were also options ( next time.)

This photo does not do the sandwiches justice. I had the cucumber, cream cheese and mint, the BLT with candied bacon and one called Pretty in Pink: smoked salmon, herb cream cheese, pickled watermelon radish and lemon zest on sweet french bread. They were all exquisite, just the right texture of bread, the right amount of filling and the right size to make room for the rest of our meal.

These lavender lemon scones were to die for. I am a scone snob, no doughy, heavy scones for me. These were crisp and flaky, and the lavender which can taste soapy was only a pleasant hint on top.
The lemon curd and jam were great compliments to the scones.

If that wasn't enough along came dessert: a lavender vanilla cupcake, a petite four, a tiny fruit tart and a chocolate hibiscus cupcake. Luckily they were all mini size, wow !!

We left very sated and excited to come back for another tea time treat.

I was so inspired this evening I made two different kinds scones for a high tea luncheon this coming weekend with family. I'll post those recipes soon.