Each time I bake scones, I wish myself back to my childhood in India when I’d feed voraciously on book after Enid Blyton book.
I don’t know how many of you are old enough to have read those, but my friends and I pretty much lived vicariously through the adventures of the Famous Five, the Five Find-Outers, the Secret Seven and many more I can no longer remember.
The free-ranging world these kids lived in, where a mystery lurked around every corner, was alien but fascinating. So was the food. As anyone who’s ever read an Enid Blyton book will vouch for, the sandwiches, muffins, cakes, cookies and scones those little adventurers ate filled tiny hearts everywhere with a deep longing.
There was also, of course, stuff like steak and kidney pie, and Desi learned the valuable lesson that not everything tastes as good as it sounds when he tried that one in London. But that’s another story for another day.
Anyway, back in the India of my day, you could find cookies and cakes and muffins, albeit in limited varieties. Scones, on the other hand, were not something I’d ever come by. They did sound utterly gorgeous, though, especially when they were hot and buttered, as they usually were in those books.
So when I started baking, is it any surprise that scones were one of the first baked goods I wanted to try? And, to my delight, they turned out to be quite, quite easy. And, unlike that steak and kidney pie, as delicious as I’d dreamed they’d be. I could have my scone and eat it too.
After going vegan, I had to come up with an eggless, dairyless recipe, and after some experimentation I landed with one that is fairly foolproof. My black currant scone is made with whole-wheat flour and it tastes pretty mean. But this week I wanted to make a banana nut scone, in keeping with my obsession with banana-nut goodies of all kinds.
Because this was something we could use for pre-breakfast, I added some oats to the scones and cut down drastically on the amount of fat. Also, the fact that they’re made with whole-wheat pastry flour and just a small amount of sugar make them pretty guilt-free.
In the end, it was an experiment with a pretty happy result. I loved the intense banana flavor and the crispy exterior. The texture was a little cakier because of the bananas, but I thought it worked quite well.
I didn’t use any cinnamon but it occured to me after I’d already put these in the oven that I could have. Well, maybe the next time.
So here are my banana nut scones, quite delicious and definitely the stuff of some healthy fantasies. Enjoy, everyone!
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups rolled oats. Process 1 cup into a powder in the food processor.
- 2 tbsp transfat-free shortening
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup almond milk (can use soy milk)
- 2 very ripe bananas , mashed
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 2 tbsp flax meal (ground flaxseeds)
- 3/4 cup walnuts , lightly toasted, then chopped
- Add the shortening to the flour in a bowl and, with a fork, cut the shortening into the flour until you have a fairly granular texture.
- Add the oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the bananas, almond milk, vinegar, flax meal and sugar.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together. Add the walnuts and stir in. You will have a fairly thick but still loose batter.
- Drop the batter on a greased cookie sheet in rounds– this batter will make around 12 scones.
- Bake in a 375-degree preheated oven about 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown.
- Eat warm with some vegan spread or a pat of jelly or just on their own.
Eat warm with some vegan spread or a pat of jelly or just on their own.
ooh, love those scones. beautiful presentation.
Book marked.They look delicious.I too am an Enid Blyton fan.Very imaginative those books made us.
Ooh! it looks yummy and delicious
Vaishali am drooling on the oat scones, i love anything with oats, they looks really prefect n tempting to prepare today itself..but have to go for search for flax seeds here…
Hello Vaishali, you have a lovely blog…glad that I visited. Just loved your writeup and the banana scones!
Oooh nice! That looks like a nice fat cookie, will try them sometime…
beautiful post, and lovely scones. I have never had one, so I will definitely think of you, this post, and Enid Blyton when I do have one:-)
Good post and love the scones,just a quick question did you use ww pastry flour or just plain ww flour for this,you mention in your post ww pastry flour but your recipe says ww flour so just checking….
They do have a macarons look. Great healthy snack
looks mouthwatering ………beautiful….
Lovely scones vaishali,I love oats and always looks forward ways to incorporate in my diet.
Great scone recipe! Thanks for posting it. I’m bookmarking it now…
I found scones to be a bit of a let down actually after all those Enid Blyton descriptions – I guess overactive imaginations at work!! But these looks really like something I would enjoy!
This is the first recipe of yours I have tried after finding your site. It was perfect as I needed something to use my bananas but was tired of banana bread. I like these a lot, healthy and just the right amount of sweetness (especially since my kids have a heavy hand with the jam). I think they taste even better the morning after baking…
Thanks for the inspiration!
Vaishali, I’m so excited to have found your blog! I’ve had a fear of making/eating dry scones, but your beautiful story and recipe have prompted me to give it a try. All the ingredients are waiting at home for me and I’m just waiting on the bananas to get super ripe. I have 2 long ones and 2 short ones [I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere], so could you please tell me approx. how many cups of mashed banana would work well? I tend to go overboard on the amount of fruit, so a measurement would help me scale back. Thank you!
Hi Michelle, welcome to the blog. I think two cups should work– that’s how much I guess two medium-sized bananas would contribute. Hope you enjoy the scones!
Thanks for the info, Vaishali! My bananas took forever to ripen, but finally they were ready last weekend. I LOVED the wonderful taste that toasting gave to the walnuts. I tried to cheat and use margarine instead of shortening and so the scones were kind of dry, but the overall taste and texture was perfect. Next time I’ll follow it to a ‘t’!
Hi,
What can I use in place of shortening ?
A
Anusha, use any vegan butter, like Earth Balance. Cheers.
Thank you
A