One of my favorite fall and winter flavor combinations spice up these gluten free scones. Our Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Scones are allergy friendly and perfect for holiday brunch or breakfast. These scones are dairy free, peanut free, vegan, and easy to make!
I think citrus flavored pastries and baked goods are more of a grown-up taste. At least for me anyway 😉
When I was a kid, I really disliked orange or lemon flavored baked goods. I considered it a crime if they weren’t my favorite chocolate or vanilla flavor. But now that I’m older, I like orange and lemon flavors in baked treats.
Now that I’m enjoying citrus flavors a bit more than I used to, I decided to remake that classic seasonal brunch staple, Cranberry Orange Scones, and make them allergy friendly. These scones are gluten free, dairy free, egg free, vegan, and nut free as well!
Scones were always a family favorite, but it’s taken me awhile to come up with a great allergy friendly version until recently. I figured out a way to adapt my Gluten Free Drop Biscuits into an amazing scone recipe.
Since I came up with an amazing allergy friendly base scone recipe, I’ll be sharing fun variations of this scone recipe over the next few months. Can’t wait to share some of my favorites! Chocolate chip, anyone?
How to make gluten free scones
Our scones are made just like a biscuit: you stir together the flour and dry ingredients and then cut in the cold dairy free butter until crumbly, then add the liquid ingredients and chopped Craisins.
With these scones, you want to make sure that they cool a bit on the pan before removing to a wire rack or serving. When they are very hot, they are a little bit crumbly, but firm up as they cool, so make sure not to dive right into these before letting them cool a bit.
I didn’t separate these scones completely before baking, I just added cut lines into the dough then cut them apart after baking. But if you like crispier edges on your scones, you can divide them and space them out a bit before baking.
Because the dough for our scones is more moist, separating the scones before baking is a little bit more difficult, so you’d want to use a little flour on your knife or spatula while cutting and dividing them.
Since I love a crunchy top to my scones, we sprinkled some coarse turbinado sugar on top of these before baking. This is completely optional, especially if you add the glaze, but I love that extra crunch on top so I recommend it 🙂
Check out our other great breakfast and brunch recipes:
- Gluten Free Drop Biscuits
- Healthy Homemade Turkey Sausage
- Gluten Free Breakfast Parfait
- Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Scones
- Gluten Free Coffee Cake with Pears
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Donuts
- Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal
- Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Scones (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
Scones:
- 1 ½ cups sorghum flour OR brown rice flour
- ⅓ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ¼ cup ground golden flaxseed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup dairy free margarine or plant butter (I used Country Crock Avocado Oil plant butter sticks)
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons cold rice milk or water (both will work in this recipe)
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries (craisins), chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest of 1 medium navel orange
- Turbinado sugar for topping optional
Orange glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoons orange juice (more or less to make this glaze thicker or thinner)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest of half an orange
Instructions
Scones:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, ground flaxseed, baking powder, and salt.
- With a pastry cutter or fork, cut the dairy free/plant butter into the flour mixture until it's crumbly.
- Stir into the flour/plant butter mixture the rice milk, chopped craisins, vanilla, and orange zest until a dough forms.
- Turn out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Add a bit of sorghum or brown rice flour to your hands and pat the dough into a circle about 6-7 inches in diameter and about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.
- Sprinkle some coarse turbinado sugar on top of the scone dough and lightly press into the dough.
- Using a knife or pizza cutter, cute the dough into 6 or 8 even sections (you may need to add a little flour to your knife while you do this). Alternatively, you can completely separate your scone sections so they crisp a bit on the edges. You may have to use more flour for this if needed since our dough is on the moist side.
- Bake the scones in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow them to cool on the pan for about 15 minutes before moving to a cooling rack and cutting them.
Orange Glaze:
- While the scones are cooling, make your orange glaze. Whisk together your powdered sugar, orange juice, vanilla, and orange zest.
- You can add more or less orange juice or powdered sugar to get the consistency you'd like. Add more orange juice to make your glaze thinner, or add more powdered sugar to make your glaze thicker.
- Drizzle the orange glaze over your scones and serve immediately.
Storage:
- Add glaze to your scones one at a time unless you plan on eating them all up at once. Scones with glaze on top don't store very well, so if you plan on storing some for later, wait to add the glaze until you're ready to eat them.
- Store these scones ad glaze separately in airtight containers for about 3-4 days.
- These scones will freeze well.
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Looks yummy ,can’t wait to try. Would like to say though if someone has a peanut or no allergy might be best to buy allergen free brown rice flour. Lots of things can be contaminated with allergens unless you buy allergen free.
Hi Peggy, it all depends on the brand and who the manufacturer is. There are lots of different facilities that process brown rice flour and don’t use allergen protocols for cleaning machines. Ultimately it depends on the brand and how they handle their products. Some baking mixes like Hungry Harry’s are made in top 8 free facilities and are great for multiple allergens or peanut allergies. Each person making these recipes will need to decide which brand of sorghum or brown rice flour fits their personal allergens the best.
Really wanting to try this recipe! I have been looking for a gluten free, dairy free scone recipe! I am allergic to flaxseed though. Any suggestions for substitutions? Thank you!
TLK
Some good subs for ground flaxseed are ground chia seed or some psyllium powder, which might not work if you are allergic to other seeds. If you are allergic to other seeds, you can try using a powdered egg replacer like the Bob’s Red Mill one or Namaste Foods, you’d probably need about 1-2 egg equivalents in replacer.
Thank you so much!