Blueberry, Walnut, and Lavender Scones

Who doesn't love a lovely baked good for a satisfying breakfast or to accompany a nice cup of chamomile tea? These scones are beautifully balanced with sweet blueberries, crunchy walnuts, and herbaceous lavender. They're a great way to start an in-home brunch and also work well as a light dessert. You can eat them as is, or with a little bit of your favorite plant-based butter!

---

Makes about 12 scones - best served fresh, but can keep for a few days (see notes)+

Ingredients

• 2.75 cups whole wheat pastry flour (see note for substitutions)++

• 1 Tbsp baking powder

• 3 Tbsp white sugar (plus more for sprinkling)

• 2 Tbsp brown sugar

• .25 tsp salt

• .25 cup coconut oil at room temp

• 2 tsp dried lavender+++

• 1.5 cups plain plant milk (soy and almond both work well)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• .75 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

• .5 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 450°F (about 230°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil) and set it aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, white sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Make sure it's all well combined. Chunk that coconut oil into the bowl, and use your hands to combine it with the dry ingredients - it should look kind of grainy and lumpy. Make sure there are no big chunks of oil left. Next, drop in that lavender and mix it in with a wooden spoon.

3. Make a well in the center of the mix and pour in the plant milk and vanilla extract. Mix it until it is almost all the way combined, but not quite. Fold in the berries and walnuts, being careful not to overmix the stuff.

4. Scoop the dough into about 1/2 cup measurements (you can eyeball it and use your hands if you don't feel like dirtying up another measuring cup) and drop it onto the baking sheet. No need to be super picky about the shape, unless you really want. Brush with a little bit of additional plant milk and sprinkle some sugar on top for an extra fancy finish. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until they're a bit golden brown on the bottom. Be sure to let them cool for a few minutes before you dig in unless burning your mouth is a thing you really enjoy.

Notes

+If you're planning to store these for a while, I recommend lining a storage container with a paper towel, layering in the leftovers, then topping them off with another paper towel. At room temperature, they'll keep for a couple of days, in the fridge you can expect 3 to 5 days of life. You can also freeze them for longer storage. Just start by placing fully cooled scones on a plate in the freezer for about an hour, then transferring them to an airtight container in the freezer for about 3 months. To reheat, you can individually wrap scones in a moist towel and microwave them in 10-15 second bursts, until warm to your liking. Alternatively, place them in a 350°F (about 175°C) oven for around five minutes.

++For a little while in 2020 it was really hard to find nearly any kind of flour, but especially pastry flour. If you can't find it, don't have it, or just don't want to go in on the stuff, you have a couple of options:

1. Use half cake flour and half all-purpose flour. This will approximate the protein content of pastry flour pretty well, and you'll get very close to the right texture.

2. If you don't have cake flour, use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot starch per cup of called-for pastry flour, combined with enough all-purpose flour to make a cup (in this case, you'd want to use 5.5 tablespoons starch). Your baked goods will be a little bit tougher because of the extra protein, but they'll still rock.

+++If you don't have or can't find lavender, don't worry too much about it. Not using it will, of course, change this recipe a bit, but I really just like including lavender to feel extra fancy (and I'm obsessed with the flavor...). Feel free to leave it out and add an extra half teaspoon of vanilla extract to make up for it.

Adapted from Bad Manners.