These Irish soda bread scones are quick and easy to make. They make a great breakfast bread or a nice side with dinner and lunch. With butter and jam or syrup, they can even be eaten for dessert! The whole family will love them. If someone you’re feeding doesn’t like raisins, just leave them out or make only half with raisins.
I adapted this recipe from Jo and Sue. I veganized it by using plant based butter, making vegan buttermilk and using maple syrup with the vegan butter, rather than honey.
To make vegan buttermilk, use soy milk or almond milk (I haven’t tried any other types of plant based milk for this) and combine it with vinegar or lemon juice. The ratio is 1 cup plant milk to 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar (or lemon juice). Add the lemon juice or vinegar to the plant based milk and let it sit 2 to 5 minutes. While it sits, it will curdle. Then you can add it to your recipe as buttermilk. I’ve used this many times in vegan recipes and it works great every time. If you are veganizing a recipe, use the same amount of plant based milk as the buttermilk called for in the non-vegan recipe. Just add the acidic component and voila!
When making the scones, typically any dough kneaded and rolled more than two times makes the scones tough. Try to cut your scones as closely as possible the first and second time, to use as much of the dough as possible. That way, you’ll have very little dough left to re-roll and cut out. Depending on how you roll your dough, you should get 12 to 14 scones from this recipe.
I realized after making these that turbinado sugar, or any large grain sugar, would be perfect for sprinkling on the tops. If you have turbinado sugar, try it here as the topping and see what you think. Otherwise, regular granulated sugar works great.
Once these are baked, cover them and keep them in the refrigerator to keep them soft. We have a funny story in our family: one year I made scones for the entire family, (30 people or so), packed them nicely in little paper Christmas boxes, and put them under the tree the next day. Then we opened our presents that night. At first, everyone was complimentary, saying they’d never had scones and they were excited to try them. Then after they’d had a chance to examine them a bit, my dad asked if they were supposed to be that hard. They were like rocks! It was a good laugh! That story comes up most Christmases, unfortunately. Each year, my dad always asks me if I’m going to make scones, then he loses it laughing. Ha! Live and learn, right?
If your family has Irish heritage, bake these scones for their breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day. You might also like my colcannon and farmhouse soup recipes for your St. Patrick’s Day menu.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
scones
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- 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice to make vegan buttermilk, use apple cider or white vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups soy milk or almond milk to make vegan buttermilk
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup raisins organic, if possible
- 2 tablespoons plant based butter melted, I used Earth Balance original
- additional granulated sugar for sprinkling on tops
- 1/2 cup plant based butter, softened
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
Ingredients
For the scones:
For the maple butter:
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- In a glass measuring cup, pour the vinegar or lemon juice into the soy or almond milk. Let sit 2 to 5 minutes to curdle.
- Preheat your oven to 425 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and raisins. Stir to blend.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix the softened butter with the milk/vinegar mixture. Blend well. Once blended, add it to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. Stir until just combined. The dough will be slightly sticky.
- Turn the dough out on to a floured surface. Gently knead 2 to 3 times, until the dough comes together. Use additional flour on the dough if needed. Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thickness. Fold the dough in half and then gently roll it to 1-inch thickness. This will give you a center split in each scone, for easy opening after baking.
- Using a sharp-edged round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out the scones, getting as many as you can from the first and second times. Place each scone onto the lined baking sheet as you cut them out.
- Brush the top of each scone lightly with almond milk, then sprinkle it with sugar. Bake until the tops are golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or the scones will be too hard. (Mine took 20 minutes.)
- Serve warm or at room temperature, with the maple butter. Cover any leftover scones and store in the refrigerator.
- Stir the soft butter and maple syrup together until very well blended. Microwave if you need to soften the butter more. Leftovers can be refrigerated and then warmed for later use.
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