Vegan Versions: Millet Raisin Scones

by Maria Theresa Maggi on December 22, 2014

Millet Raisin Scones

Serendipity is one of my favorite words and experiences. As a word, I love the story Joseph Campbell told  Bill Moyers decades ago about its etymology. It seems there was a family on their way to a place called “saran dweepa” (“the island of silk” now known as Ceylon) who had all kinds of adventures on their way that made the moment more exciting than the original destination. Which is exactly what happened to me when I picked up a package of Bob’s Red Mill Millet Flour. Etymology and experience met when my eye caught the recipe on the back for Millet Raisins Scones.

I have a long history buying Bob’s quality flour products. When I go to  visit Mike and Kelly in Portland, I love that I’ve gotten to visit the Bob’s store. When they come to visit me, they always bring me a 25 lb bag of gluten free oats they’ve picked up for me there. This time I’m hoping for a small package of spelt berries too. After all my fun with spelt flour, I want to see the whole berries and maybe try cooking  or sprouting them. And as this post will demonstrate, spelt flour and millet flour are terrific baking partners.

As a One Woman Council on the Wonders of Millet, I especially love the way Bob’s describes millet on the front of the millet flour package:

“Millet originated in China nearly 10,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest cultivated grains. Millet flour is nutritious and a good source of fiber with a distinctive sweet flavor. It lends a delicate cake-like crumb to your baked goods. easily digested and gluten-free – a perfect choice for special diets.”

As much as I like Bob’s products, you’d think I would have learned that none of the recipes on the back of their packages fit the nutritional profile I need to follow, even on the gluten free flours.  The recipe for Millet Raisin Scones was no exception. It has unbleached white flour, canola oil, sugar and 5 egg whites. Just after reading the ingredients most sensible people would give up. But I wanted to make a version of these scones I could eat.  I  know millet and raisins are yummy together. And I had made raisins from my next door neighbor’s grapes that were calling me to put them in a recipe.

The hardest part of adapting the recipe on the back of the Bob’s package was a vegan alternative for 5 egg whites. I readied two different alternatives. The egg replacer directions for egg white and a flax egg I’d read about from a google search I did. They were at opposite ends of the density spectrum but I thought a combination might work. I also had to account for the fact that required liquid has to be slightly reduced when using spelt flour, which absorbs moisture and stays more wet than conventional wheat.

As most of you who bake fat free know, applesauce is a go-to substitute for oil in a recipe. But my applesauce was already earmarked for another recipe. So I whirred up some pieces of canned pineapple into “sauce” with about a tablespoon of banana and half a moist date. That was my “oil.”

And then there was the sugar. I have some coconut sugar I bought for  something last summer and most of it’s going the same place the applesauce is going–into a cake for a community holiday dinner I volunteered to make some food for. I almost caved and added some, but I really wanted to see if I could make the scones sweet enough without it.

It sounds like I was very precise, but actually I wasn’t. I took all this into consideration and I winged it. I’ll try to translate what delicious scones serendipity handed me into a recipe you can try.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my friends. May your last days of the year be filled with delicious and healthy serendipity.

Maria (moonwatcher)

 

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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Nicole O'Shea December 23, 2014 at 7:47 am

There it is! How serendipitous, indeed. That looks very very tasty, Maria. Your sugar disclaimer made me wonder-have you ever tried making plant based yogurt? I have heard tell of it from those who do, from almonds, cashews, or even soy and flax! I might want to try my hand at it someday, with some expert guidance…

xoxo

Nicole

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2 moonwatcher December 23, 2014 at 8:36 am

Thanks Nicole! And yes, I did make my own soy yogurt for quite a while in the first few years of eating this way. I sometimes make my own almond milk, and other non-dairy milks, and I’ve thought about making yogurt but. . . sometimes you just can’t make EVERYTHING, you know? 🙂 Also, I’m not good at the part where you have sterilize everything and get the temperature just right. Often I was in the range anyway, but sometimes not and the yogurt doesn’t turn out then. But who knows, maybe someday, again. . .:)

Also wanted to add that when you make your own you need to add some sweetener, too, or it won’t ferment properly, even to “plain” yogurt. Homemade is not likely to be as sweet as commercial. But since I only used 1/4 of a cup in the whole recipe, that amounts to about a half tablespoon of yogurt in each of 8 scones, and within that there’s a bit of sugar, most likely a truly “negligible” amount. I loved the chance to use that word. 🙂

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3 Nicole O'Shea December 28, 2014 at 11:07 am

🙂 Good word!!

yes, yogurt making does seem more like persnickety chemistry even than baking, and so, I have never tried it.

Maybe one day…

Hope you had a great Holiday!

xoxo

N

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4 moonwatcher December 30, 2014 at 9:48 am

Indeed. 🙂 We did, Nicole, and hope you did to. 🙂

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5 Marge Evans December 23, 2014 at 7:54 am

I love your writing and always learn something interesting. thanks.

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6 moonwatcher December 23, 2014 at 8:36 am

Thanks so much, Marge, for taking the time to let me know this. It makes my very busy morning! Happy holidays to you. 🙂

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7 Pam December 23, 2014 at 11:05 am

These look great! Happy Christmas and New Year to you, Maria! Here’s to a healthy 2015 for us all! 🙂

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8 moonwatcher December 23, 2014 at 1:04 pm

Thanks Pam! And back at ya! 🙂

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9 Veronica December 23, 2014 at 6:16 pm

I haven’t seen the millet flour – I’ll have to keep a sharp eye next time I’m in the Bob’s aisle. I like the sub of pineapple instead of applesauce! A nice tropical sweetness. And I also never thought of using a flax egg as an egg wash; I’ve just omitted it in the past. I’ll have to try your replacement for that, too. I need to start baking again…
Wonderful wishes for the holiday and new year back at you. I’m glad we are friends. Keep eating the good eats! xoxo

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10 moonwatcher December 23, 2014 at 11:43 pm

Thanks Veronica! I’m glad you like the idea of the pineapple instead of applesauce. I do too. I hope you get to do some baking too–it can be relaxing and so creative. And I, too, am glad we’re friends. Here’s to a wonderful new year for both of us, and eating the good eats! xoxo

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11 angela December 23, 2014 at 7:52 pm

Another wonderful recipe Maria – thank you : )

Merry Christmas from Down Under….it’s not going to be too hot,thank goodness!

Love Angela X

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12 Airyfairycelt December 31, 2014 at 3:19 am

Good morning Maria (moonwatcher!)
Lovely name too. I love to look out at night and see the phases of the moon and, because we have no light pollution the stars are truly a wonder to behold and I gaze and marvel at the panoply before my eyes.
I was wondering if you are another of those that just love to look up! I love to day and night for I find the changing shapes and colours, the movement of clouds, Sky and the many rainbows here entirely absorbing.
Must mention scones…… I LOVE SCONES!
I love millet and raisins and vegan AND GF. So it looks like I will be having no egg or yeast, deep relief not to to miss out and constantly substitute practically everything! Always a tweak to do but that is fine and I think the scones and I will be having a Hogmanay happy moment or three and inky skies clear of rain to give a light show for the occasion.

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13 moonwatcher December 31, 2014 at 9:38 am

Hi Airyfairycelt–yes, I do just love to look up! And an old friend told me she had read that looking up helps people who are depressed. That makes perfect sense to me. 🙂 I had to look up Hogmanay–so delightful to know it is the Scottish celebration of the new year! Glad my scones may be part of it. 🙂 A Happy Hogmanay to you!

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14 Airyfairycelt January 9, 2015 at 1:19 am

Morning moonwatcher
Our moon was lost last night! Must have been in there somewhere but the storms lately have been mad and so when heavy rains and buffeting gales in the inky black of our January well, it is about but just doing a good job of hiding.
Kept warm in cottage, many around the south and still some with the lovely (but hugely expensive thatched) roof to be seen. If the thick walls are kept warm with the central fire it is cosy.
So, another year and another scone! I love this recipe. I plump up my raisins with black tea, thinking of experimenting with green. The pineapple twist is wonderful and the working out of the egg white situation simply brilliant.
I like a few chia seeds in a lot of things and wonder what you think to that?

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15 moonwatcher January 9, 2015 at 9:05 am

Hi Airyfairycelt–what a lovely description of the sky and your countryside and cottage in Winter! So glad you like the scones. I think you could make “chia seed” egg and put that in as well, or instead of the “flax egg” if you like. I’d use the flax egg in the “wash” for the top myself (I like the color, taste and texture of golden flax seeds for that), but I don’t see why chia wouldn’t work for that if you’re up to see what it’s like. Stay cozy!

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16 julie February 1, 2015 at 6:54 am

hi your recipe is great, but can you detail the instructions? you don’t say when to add the yogurt and you don’t list orange juice in the ingredients for the egg wash. and i used the egg ‘white’ in the wash not the ‘flax egg’. did i do that right?

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17 moonwatcher February 1, 2015 at 9:47 am

Hi Julie, thanks for your good question. Sorry about the confusion–I was in a hurry to get this post up before my kids arrived for Christmas. I just fixed it to say to add the yogurt into the pineapple mixture and the egg replacer whites along with them. Near the bottom I do say to use 1 tbsp of orange juice and a half teaspoon of maple syrup with the remaining flax egg for the “egg wash” but I forgot to add it to the ingredients above, so I just did. Using some of the egg replacer whites as “wash” would work as well, but the fat in the flax egg helps harden the top pand give it a golden look. I sometimes have used some of that leftover in the little bowl I whipped it in. I improvise a lot when I’m baking and cooking so these instructions are sort of a “translation” of what I did–which varies slightly from time to time. I apologize for any confusion and if you have any more questions, let me know.Hope you enjoyed the scones. Thank you! 🙂

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18 Corrin Radd February 21, 2015 at 6:09 am

I made this today with some subs–I didnt have any millet so I made quinoa flour. And I threw in a whole banana. I also added a little sugar. It was great.

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19 moonwatcher February 21, 2015 at 9:04 am

Thanks so much for letting me know Corrin. This recipe is very forgiving in terms of there being room for play and variation, so I’m especially happy to hear that it worked for you with what you had on hand. Yay!

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