These light, fluffy, gluten-free vanilla scones are sure to help you push through this Monday morning! Or a Wednesday meeting, or even a Friday afternoon. They are that good! Using a the seeds from a scraped vanilla bean really adds a nice layer of flavour, but if you don’t have access to vanilla beans (which, by the way, I order online) you can use 2 more teaspoons of a good vanilla extract as well. I love seeing the little vanilla flecks in the scone & icing drizzle.
To make these scones extra light, I used a food processor to mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter, and add the wet ingredients. The only time I touched the dough was to form it into a disk once it was on my parchment paper. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender, just try to handle the dough as little as possible.
Gluten Free Vanilla Scones
These light, fluffy, gluten-free vanilla scones are sure to help you push through this Monday morning! Or a Wednesday meeting, or even a Friday afternoon. They are that good!
Ingredients
Vanilla Scones:
- 1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg white (for brushing)
- 1 tablespoon course sugar, for sprinkling on top (optional)
Vanilla Drizzle
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with some brown rice flour. Set aside.
- Place all of the dry ingredients, plus the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean, in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to mix the ingredients.
- Add the cold butter, and pulse until the butter is the size of a pea. Add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Pulse again, just until the dough comes together in a ball. Spoon the dough onto your parchment lined baking sheet.
- Dusting your hands with flour, quickly form the dough into a disk, about 10-inches round and 3/4″ to 1″ thick. Cut into 8 even wedges, and move the wedges apart, so they are not touching each other. This will allow them to all bake up evenly.
- Brush the tops of the scones with the egg white, and sprinkle with the course sugar.
- Bake in preheated oven for 13-16 minutes, or until the tops are a nice golden brown. Remove from oven, and move scones to wire cooling rack for 15 minutes before topping with the vanilla drizzle.
- Vanilla Drizzle:
- In a small mixing bowl, stir together the seeds from the scraped vanilla bean, confectioners’ sugar and milk until a smooth icing forms.
- Place the vanilla icing into a small zipper seal bag, and cut a small corner off the bag.
- Place the parchment paper (that you baked the scones on) under the cooling rack that the scones are on. With a back-and-forth motion, drizzle the vanilla icing onto the scones.
- Serve immediately, or store in an air-tight container once the scones are completely cool. Do not stack or the icing will get squished.
Notes
If you don’t have access to vanilla beans, use an extra teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract.
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Susan says
They were great! Thanks for making them. They were so light and flluffy (and tastey). I’ve been craving them…yummy
Jeanine says
You’re welcome, Mom! If you come out here again, I’ll make them for you again!! 🙂
Cindy says
Oh my!! You need a disclaimer to not visit your post before breakfast, LOL. These look awesome and now I’m starving!
Jeanine says
LOL, Next time you’ll know better…get your bowl of cereal THEN visit the Baking Beauties. 😉
Beth says
Those look AMAZING!! I love scones, this might just suddenly get moved to the top of my to do list today! Thanks for sharing!
Jeanine says
Thanks, Beth! If you try them, I hope you like them as much as we did. Was hard to keep the kids out of these ones.
Laurel says
They look so light and airy. Mine never ever are light and airy. Do you suppose that’s because I don’t use eggs? 🙂
Oh well, in my next life I’ll be an English aristocrat in the Regency era and not have to think about it!
Jeanine says
Laurel, I’ve made fantastic scones using flax eggs in place of eggs. Worked wonderfully (serves me right, started baking THEN realizes I had no eggs, lol). Give them a try, it should work just fine. Just try to not handle the dough too much, and make sure you don’t pat them too thin, they can stay pretty thick and still bake up beautifully.
Laurel says
Thanks. I’ve only tried them twice and was pleased neither time. I’ll do that. Do you think I should add 1/2 tsp soda as well?
Jeanine says
My recipe has both baking powder & baking soda. I like to use both, and it worked quite well. 🙂
Kristina says
These look fantastic. Like you, I far prefer using vanilla beans and pods, but will use liquid if I don’t have a fresh pod. Have you ever tried Ground Vanilla Bean? Not to be confused with vanilla powder, the ground bean is an entire vanilla pod dried and then ground up, pod and all (which is edible) into a dark powder which lasts 18 months. It is WONDERFUL, deeply aromatic, and gives you the dark flecks you like when you don’t have a soft bean on hand. I use a little liquid extract and then always add a little ground vanilla for deeper flavor and those flecks. I also add one teaspoon of it to a big jar of sugar and shake it up for a speckly-freckly sugar. I order mine online from Arizona Vanilla Company. No affiliation — just a fan! http://www.arizonavanilla.com/
Kristina says
P.S. From “Vanilla Myths” at Arizona Vanilla Company: Let take the gluten-free first. All pure extracts (vanilla, lemon, almond) are created using 195 proof (97.5%) grain alcohol. Some would believe that because it is grain alcohol that it would have glutens. Not so! Once alcohol has been refined to the point of being 195 proof there is not much of anything left in the remaining 5%. To make the alcohol any purer, it takes a very expensive process. So, ALL pure extracts are gluten free. If the manufacturer adds corn syrup, you might need to check with them. At Arizona Vanilla Company we do not add corn syrup to our pure vanilla extracts.
carrie @ gingerlemongirl.com says
beautiful Jeanine!! They do look really light and fluffy! Great job gal! 🙂
gluten free gift says
OK, I know that I am never going to bake these myself… but that won’t keep me from sharing the recipe with someone who might just bake them for me :)… just stumbled upon your blog – love it!
Mille grazie! Claudine
Betty Reimer says
Beautiful photo Jeanine!
Ellen (Gluten Free Diva) says
My hunt for the perfect gluten free scone just ended. These look marvelous!!! Thx for the recipe. I’ll be trying these very soon!
Sherry says
WOW! These are the best scones I have ever had gluten free or otherwise.
I made them with currants the first time and as cinnamon buns the next – amazing!
They are so easy to make (I used coconut milk instead of sour cream and they are perfect)
Thanks for the great recipe, Happy New Years!
Jeanine says
thanks for the fantastic review, Sherry! Love that you loved them. 🙂 Thanks for the tip on the substitution as well, I appreciate it!
Happy New Year!
Brandae says
I made these this week, and they were really yummy, perfect with coffee. The only substitutions I made were completely eliminating the drizzle glaze and just using the egg white wash/coconut sugar on top, using just vanilla extract instead of a bean, using coconut sugar instead of refined, using coconut milk (the fat on top of the can) instead of yogurt, and using a mix of raw butter and coconut spread (Earth balance). Just wanted to share in case that would help others.
My kids enjoyed the scones too – thank you for the recipe!
Jeanine says
That is awesome, Brandae! thanks so much for listing all the substitutions, I’m sure that there are others looking for the same changes. Glad the kids enjoyed them too, that’s always a bonus!
Melaina from Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery says
Yum! These are definitely a great way to get through any time of the workday 🙂 Who doesn’t love a good gluten free scone?!
Becky says
Wonderful recipie!!! didnt have a food processor soooo…
mixed all the dry
used cold fridge butter and cheese grater to slice up butter, stirred into dry
mixed all wet ingrediants, then added to dry – mixing by hand as little as possible
turned out awesome!
Thanks!
Jeanine says
That’s a great way to make them without a food processor, Becky! Glad to hear they were enjoyed. 🙂
Vivi says
Hi Jeanine,
I made the scones this morning. Despite being slightly burned (my mistake, I baked them It a tad too long), they are sooooo soft and delicious. Making them was so easy and fast (I used food processor). The only problem that I encountered was to incorporate the raisins and choco-chips; I hand mixed them after I put the in the cookie sheet and that wasn’t easy. I checked your other recipes and could not find the step about incorporating them – can I add then in the food processor and pulse them or will the raisins actually get cut into pieces if I put it in the food processor, or should I use the unsharp blade fir bread making to do this (i use cuisinart food processor) ?
Jeanine Friesen says
Hi Vivi! I’ve added ‘stuff’ into my scones just after the wet ingredients were incorporated. I just give it a few short pulses in the food processor, and nothing gets too badly chopped up by doing that.
Lorna Enns says
Do you have any gluten free recipes that are also dairy and egg free? Everything looks so good but they have eggs and dairy in them so I can’t have any.
Jeanine Friesen says
I do, but right now, you have to find them by just browsing. Some are easily dairy-free adaptable. I am working on making it more friendly to search for recipes free of other allergens, but this takes time. Hopefully in the next few months I will have this complete. Thanks, Lorna!