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.
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.
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!
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
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 8 scones
- Category: Baked Goods, Breakfast
Ingredients
- 3/4Â cup /100Â 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))
- 8Â 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
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Greasy lightly with butter or ghee.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and/or cinnamon, if desired.
- 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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Pam says
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!
zenbellyblog says
Aw thanks, Pam! Grain-free flours are always a challenge. At least we have a lot of them to play with 🙂
johanna says
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!
Barbara Whitaker says
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!!
terriharplady says
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!
zenbellyblog says
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!
terriharplady says
Absolutely! I also downloaded the new book, otherwise my zenbelly collection wouldn’t be complete! 🙂
Gail says
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!
Sarah says
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.
zenbelly says
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!
zenbelly says
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?
Rachel says
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 🙂
zenbelly says
It just improved the texture. I’ve found that grain-free flours are best when blended. They were gummy with just cassava.
Lorene Rice says
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.
Angela says
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?
zenbelly says
You could just omit.
Barb says
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….
zenbelly says
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!