Lavender Earl Grey Scones

Happy Friday!

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday and I was unable to see her, but I called her on the phone and she told me about how she was going to have a brownie cake for her dessert. Let me tell you how sad I was when I heard this, I love my mom and especially birthdays for the treats that come with it (she’s the big inspiration to my love for cooking and baking). Since she mentioned that, all I wanted to do was bake, so this is what I came up with! Delicious lavender and earl grey scones– VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE! I made the frosting with doTERRA Lavender essential oil.

Instead of talking about a specific ingredient’s health benefits as far as vitamins and minerals, I wanted to talk a little bit about essential oils. First of all, most of us have heard the term essential oil, but what does it actually mean? Essentially (get it?), one way is to distill (boil) water to evaporate the essential oils (or specific chemicals) from the plant. The steam from the boiling water attaches to the essential oils and gets caught in a container and since the essential oils and water don’t combine well when in liquid form, one can easy remove the essential oils and use a highly concentrated version of the particular chemicals.

Health benefits of essential oils depend on the specific essential oil. Since it comes from a plant, the biochemistry of the benefits are the same as what you would get if you consume the plant in its natural state. The difference is that you have a highly concentrated version of the parts of the plant that we most often see health benefits with. For example, lavender– which was used in this recipe– has calming properties that can help with decreasing stress and improving sleep. It’s also been known to help with rashes, acne and other skin irritations.

When it comes to the quality of the essential oils, it’s very important. Just like getting specific conventional fruits vs organic fruits (specifically those you eat the exterior of like apples or peaches), the same goes for essential oils. There are many components that go into making essential oils and the purity, so getting the right essential oils is important. doTERRA has a very extensive process when it comes to determining the quality of their oil known as Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG) that is a system of testing the oils doTERRA puts out. Using a third party to test the chemistry of the oils helps doTERRA make sure they meet their high standards, then doTERRA tests the oils again to ensure the quality of the oils still meets their requirements. This provides a high quality product that has a specific result for us the consumer. (or something like that). I have added a link if you are interested in reading more about it from doTERRA’s website. I will be talking more about essential oils in the coming months as I love baking and cooking with my oils.

So this recipe is delicious. It takes about 1.5 hours to do, but shouldn’t be too labor intensive. So to say no more… here is a recipe for some delicious scones to go with a nice hot cup of tea on a cold, wintery morning.

Prep Time	Cook Time	Total Time
1h 10min	20 minutes	1hr 30 min

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c flour

1 tsp xanthan gum, if not in flour

1/4 c raw cane sugar, coconut sugar or any other solid sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 c milk, warmed

2 tsp-1 Tbsp loose leaf earl grey tea, steeped in warm milk for 30 minutes then refrigerated

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 c vegetable or coconut oil, SOLID ( I used Earth Balance)

For the frosting:

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1/4 c almond milk, I used unsweetened vanilla

3-5 drops of lavender essential oil

Instructions:

Warm milk to room temperature then steep earl grey tea for 30 minutes, remove the tea from the milk.
Once that is finished, add apple cider to milk (to make a buttermilk consistency) and refrigerate so that it gets back to cold (enough so it won’t melt the oil). *Another option is to steep the tea overnight with the milk.
Once the milk has cooled off, combine all dry ingredients.
Next, add oil to the dry ingredients and with a fork, combine the oil until it is dry and almost a thick powder.
Once the oil is well combined, add milk and mix well with a silicon spatula.
Put mixture into a ball then place on a piece of parchment paper and flatten so that it is a flat disk shape.
Place dough on parchment paper and cut in 6-8 slices (I used a pizza cutter, a knife should work too).
Place dough in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes to allow for the oil to resolidify completely.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat oven to 400 F and place parchment paper on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown in color
While the scones bake, whisk together all ingredients for the frosting and make sure it’s a somewhat thick glaze (adding more frosting if 1 1/2 cups isn’t enough)
Remove scones from baking sheet and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.
Add frosting as desired and enjoy!