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Cinnamon-Ginger Scones (grain-free, nut-free)

December 17, 2016 by zenbelly 19 Comments

Good lawd, these scones! I somehow got it in my head that I needed to create grain-free and nut-free Cinnamon Ginger Scones and it was a bit tougher than I thought. Long story short: I started this venture on Monday and it’s now Friday night.

cinnamon ginger scones

The good news is : these cinnamon ginger scones were worth the 372 batches it took to get them right.

Okay I’m exaggerating a little bit.

cinnamon ginger scones

My goal was to make these using just one flour, and I gave up on that after 5 tries and varying amounts of other ingredients. Finally on the sixth try, I decided to give up on the one flour idea and add some tapioca starch. That turned out to be the thing that made them work! I have also tried them with arrowroot starch in place of tapioca starch, with great results.

In other words, I don’t have the answer to any question that starts with “Can I sub…?” I can only tell you that the following recipe works, and the ones I attempted prior did not. If you want to play around with ingredients that work better for you, please do!

cinnamon ginger scones

What It think you’ll really love: These scones are made mostly in a food processor, so take about 45 seconds to mix up. They’re super buttery, and the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. I really love them, and am feeling like the week of recipe testing to get them right was totally worth it. 🙂

cinnamon ginger scones

 

 

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Cinnamon Ginger Scones

cinnamon ginger scones
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3.5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Simone Miller
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes
  • Total Time: 22 minutes
  • Yield: 8 scones
  • Category: Baked Goods, Breakfast

Ingredients

  • 3/4  cup /100 grams cassava flour
  • 1/4 cup /30 grams tapioca starch ((or arrowroot starch), plus more for dusting)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, (plus more for sprinkling, if desired)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 ounces crystalized ginger* ((about 1/4 cup packed))
  • 8  tablespoons cold butter or ghee (plus more for greasing the pan)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top, (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Greasy lightly with butter or ghee. 
  2. Combine the cassava flour, tapioca starch, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, crystalized ginger, and butter in a food processor. Turn it on and process for about 10-15 seconds, so the mixture is the texture of coarse crumbs.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and maple syrup. Add the contents of the food processor and with a fork, mix it in until just incorporated.
  4. To shape the scones: Flour your hands. Using a large cookie scoop or spoon, drop the dough into balls into the palm of your hand and gently press it into a flat ball. 
  5. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and/or cinnamon, if desired.
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until baked through and golden brown. 

Notes

*I’m okay using the stuff from the bulk bin that has sugar as an ingredient. But if you’re not, there’s a homemade recipe for it (plus so many more great ones!) in The Paleo Kids Cookbook.

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Filed Under: breads & muffins, Breakfast, Mother's Day Tagged With: cassava flour scones, cinnamon ginger scones, ginger scones, glutenfree scones, nutfree scones, paleo scones

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Comments

  1. Pam says

    December 19, 2016 at 8:50 am

    Working with cassava flour is TOUGH — both my daughter and I have numerous failures under our belts to prove it!! Strange thing is, our families eat the failures and seem to enjoy them — so I guess cassava flour is here to stay. Love your recipes and can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your hard work!

    Reply
    • zenbellyblog says

      December 22, 2016 at 7:33 pm

      Aw thanks, Pam! Grain-free flours are always a challenge. At least we have a lot of them to play with 🙂

      Reply
      • johanna says

        December 23, 2016 at 10:15 am

        Simone, these are awesome! I’m working my way through the second one straight out of the oven! One thing, I almost left out the cinnamon because it’s not in the directions section, just the ingredients. Thanks for all of your great recipes!

  2. Barbara Whitaker says

    December 23, 2016 at 3:55 pm

    I just made them and they came out great! I used room temperature ingredients and thought maybe the butter should be chilled…they were fine with room temp butter. I ate 2 in right out of the oven also!!

    Reply
  3. terriharplady says

    December 28, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    Absolutely awesome!!! Once again you have come up with an amazing recipe that is both delicious & something I can actually eat without suffering for weeks afterwards! Thank you, thank you, thank you Simone!

    I tested these out this morning, and they are destined to become part of my annual new year’s day brunch menu, along with the monkey bread (formed into individual donut holes), the hot cocoa and the marshmallows (which I made last year). And a bunch of other good stuff…deviled eggs, asparagus, etc.

    Anyway, the texture & taste of these is wonderful! I can’t have butter, so I used palm shortening instead, which I chilled before cutting it into the flours. I also didn’t use a food processor (because my boyfriend doesn’t have one), and they were still wonderful.

    Thanks and Happy New Year!

    Reply
    • zenbellyblog says

      December 29, 2016 at 11:16 am

      Hooray! I’m glad you loved them and that palm shortening worked. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a nice note :). Happy new Year!

      Reply
      • terriharplady says

        December 30, 2016 at 6:48 pm

        Absolutely! I also downloaded the new book, otherwise my zenbelly collection wouldn’t be complete! 🙂

  4. Gail says

    January 6, 2017 at 3:08 pm

    We loved these! We didn’t have candied ginger on hand, and so we made them (twice!) with currants and lemon zest. I just ordered another bag of cassava flour so that I could make more. Great recipe. Thanks, Simone!

    Reply
  5. Sarah says

    July 25, 2018 at 10:47 am

    I made these scones this morning and loved them! I had to call them “breakfast cookies” to get my son to eat them… apparently he’s got something against scones *shrug* I loved how simple they were and used pantry staples that I always have on hand. Since I’m a cinnamon fiend, I increased the amount to 1 teaspoon and did not regret it…. I will definitely make these regularly! 🙂

    Also… Unless I’m just blind, I didn’t see baking times in the recipe. I just guessed based off the cooking time at the top of the recipe and everything worked out.

    Reply
    • zenbelly says

      July 26, 2018 at 8:30 pm

      I’m so glad you like them! (and your son liked the “cookies” haha) You’re right about the cooking time- it was missing! I think it got left out when I put the recipe in the little recipe card. Thanks so much for catching that!

      Reply
  6. zenbelly says

    December 8, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    I’ve made them countless times, Emily, so I hate to say it, but it sounds like user error. Are you sure you measured everything correctly?

    Reply
  7. Rachel says

    June 14, 2019 at 7:45 am

    I’m curious what the addition of the tapioca starch did? What was happening with cassava alone that the tapioca solved? Always trying to learn so I can apply it myself 🙂

    Reply
    • zenbelly says

      June 14, 2019 at 5:28 pm

      It just improved the texture. I’ve found that grain-free flours are best when blended. They were gummy with just cassava.

      Reply
    • Lorene Rice says

      June 22, 2020 at 3:52 pm

      As I understand it, arrowroot and tapioca add a starch component to cassava that is otherwise not present. For it to perform well the ratio of cassava to starch is crucial.

      Reply
  8. Angela says

    July 10, 2023 at 10:56 am

    If I don’t want to use the ginger, do I need to add something in its place or would it be fine just omitting for cinnamon scones?

    Reply
    • zenbelly says

      July 17, 2023 at 7:48 pm

      You could just omit.

      Reply
  9. Barb says

    January 17, 2025 at 4:45 pm

    Despite my concerns (too much butter? tapioca starch?), I made the recipe exactly as directed, down to weighing applicable ingredients. Not only did they spread more than scones generally due (likely due to the excess butter), the tapioca starch yielded a chewy texture similar to Brazilian cheese bread. I think arrowroot or cornstarch might’ve prevented this, or perhaps I should’ve omitted it altogether and subbed a generic GF flour or simply more cassava flour… …Anywhoooo….

    Reply
    • zenbelly says

      January 19, 2025 at 8:16 am

      Bummer, Barb! As stated in the post, I recipe tested these quite a bit. Sorry you had a different experience with them than I or others who made them did!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Cinnamon Ginger Scones (gluten free) - Katie Gerber says:
    February 25, 2019 at 8:00 am

    […] recipe I ended up using is based off of this one, with several modifications based on my preferences plus what I had on […]

    Reply

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