Strawberries have been coming to the end of their season as summer comes into full swing and the stores have been full of bright red, perfectly ripe and sweet strawberries. We couldn’t resist buying two quarts. To boot, rhubarb was also on sale and I immediately thought of my grandmother’s strawberry rhubarb oatmeal crisp. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it! The contrast of the tart rhubarb with ripe, sweet strawberries has got to be one of my all time favorite flavor combinations.

I’ve also had scones on the brain. A while back I tried making vegan apricot and anise scones and they didn’t tun out so well – think hockey puck 😦 But I’ve been determined to redeem myself. This recipe is not only gluten-free but also egg-free. You can make it dairy-free by substituting vegetable shortening or coconut oil for butter (I like to use Nutiva’s Palm Shortening).

Be sure to bake these on the day you plan on devouring them, because their delicate biscuitness takes on moisture, and by the next day it resembles something altogether different.

This recipe is based on Fannie Farmer’s Cream Scones recipe. I got mine from the 1936 edition. Pretty cool. For the record, a cream scone is basically a biscuit.

For this recipe, you will need:

2/3 c. oat flour
2/3 c. tapioca flour
2/3 c. almond flour
4 t. baking powder
2 t. honey
1/2 t. salt
4 T. butter, softened
1/3 c. nondairy yogurt
2 stalks of rhubarb, sliced into small pieces
1 c. chopped strawberries
5 strawberries for decoration
honey for drizzling
parchment paper

First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

If you haven’t done so already, chop the rhubarb into 1/4″ or smaller pieces.

In a small saucepan, combine 2 t. of the honey with the chopped rhubarb and cook on medium heat until the rhubarb is tender.

Set aside and allow the mixture to cool.

Next, in a medium sized bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder and whisk (to mix).

Cut the softened butter into 1/2″ sized pieces and add to the dry ingredients.

Use your fingertips (or two forks) and cut the butter into the flour mixture. I like using my hands for this but make sure to always keep a light touch so that I don’t inadvertently melt the butter or shortening.

It doesn’t have to be perfect for the scones, so don’t stress about the texture being a super fine meal.

Now, add the yogurt and mix until just combined. The dough will be fairly wet.

Add the 1 c. of chopped strawberries and the rhubarb with honey and stir until just combined.

Because the dough is so wet, it makes cutting out shapes difficult and just plain messy. Go ahead and pull out two pieces of wax paper.

Lay one piece of wax paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle with flour (I used oat). Spread the dough out so that’s it’s basically a 1/2″ thick rectangle.  Don’t forget to sprinkle with a bit of flour again.

Cover with the second piece of wax paper and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes – this allows the dough to stiffen a bit, enough for cutting out shapes.

Thirty minutes later, pull out the dough and cut with a knife or biscuit cutter.

I opted for triangles. First cut the dough into rectangles, and then cut diagonally across each rectangle for triangles. I was able to get about 24 small triangles (two-three bites each).

Place the triangles onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Finally, I sliced up the five strawberries I had set aside for garnish and placed one slice on top of each scone.

Bake at 450 degrees F for approximately 15 minutes.

The scones will puff up a bit and golden around the edges.

I added a sprinkle of palm sugar at the end. You could also drizzle them with honey.

Serve these babies while they’re warm and enjoy! 🙂 It’s like early summer having a party in your mouth.

– Nicole