Tender low carb scones made with coconut flour and almond flour and packed with juicy cranberries. All topped off with a delicious orange-scented glaze!
People often look at me aghast when they hear that I don’t eat wheat or sugar and avoid the vast majority of carbohydrates. You can see the little wheels turning in their heads, wondering what I could possibly find to eat. Or at least what I could find to eat that could possibly taste any good. But while they are often questioning the list of things I don’t eat, they rarely focus on the amazing variety of things I actually do eat. I daresay that my diet is far more diversified than most of the population and includes a large number of ingredients I never even knew existed in my past life. Going gluten-free and low carb has actually expanded the foods available to me rather than limiting them, because I approach new and heretofore unheard-of ingredients with an open mind. As long as it won’t send my blood glucose soaring, I am willing to give it a try.
I was delighted when Bob’s Red Mill, a brand that has brought many alternative ingredients into the mainstream, asked me to write about the difficulties of figuring out what to eat on a restricted diet. Because I’ve been there and it was only a few year ago. I remember it vividly, coming to the conclusion that I needed to go low carb for my health (gluten-free came a little later) and being devastated. What on earth, besides bacon and eggs, was I going to be able to eat? And what on earth would happen to my beloved past time of baking extravagant desserts?
Well, if you follow this blog, you know that it didn’t take me long to figure out that low carb, gluten-free ingredients were amazingly varied. I just had to be willing to adapt my cooking and baking skills to these strange and wonderful new foods. And because I was absolutely determined to still be able to have scones for breakfast, I worked very hard on adapting those skills!
So the next time someone looks at me aghast and says “No sugar? No wheat? What on earth do you eat?”, I will just smile and breezily say “Oh well, you know…scones, muffins, cookies, cake. It’s a tough life”.
Please check out my Cranberry Orange Drop Scones and my tip on how to embrace the low carb, gluten-free lifestyle on Bob’s Red Mill blog!
Serves 12. Each serving has 9 g of carbs and 4 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 5 g.
108 Calories; 5g Fat (44.2% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 71mg Cholesterol; 176mg Sodium.
These turned out quite nicely and are very tasty! At the last minute I discovered I only had three eggs, and although packaged as large, they weren’t very large at all. I thought due to the coconut flour I would probably need to add extra liquid, but once it was mixed up it was quite wet so I decided to go with what I had. They were very moist, more like a muffin texture than a scone. For my taste (not much of a fan of eggy things) I think three eggs was plenty. Thanks for all your efforts and experimentation Carolyn. This is my go to site for when I’m in the mood to try a new recipe.
Sounds good! Good to know about less eggs, I may try that next.
Carolyn, I know that in most of your recipes, you used a finer texture almond flour (like Honeyville). I know from experience that some recipes will not turn out the same when using a coarser grind of almond flour, like Bob’s Red Mill. Can we assume that this recipe works with any brand of almond flour? These look amazing, BTW!
This recipe will be fine with Bob’s almond flour, because it’s really the coconut flour that forms the base consistency of the scones.
Good to know…thanks Carolyn!
Wow, these look AMAZING! what a wonderful breakfast treat for the holidays. (I know we’re a LONG way off, but they just seem so festive!) I can’t wait to make these!!
They do seem festive, don’t they?
Wow, these look delicious! That’s impressive that you go without sugar, and wheat. I try to keep my foods in moderation, but it’s definitely not easy. Sometimes, you just have to give up things completely. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
I love scones and cranberry orange is my favorite flavor combo!
The texture is light and wonderful on these and the flavors go together so well. I couldn’t find any fresh or frozen cranberries at the store, so I bought unsweetened “freeze dried” cranberries (at Trader Joes), and let them sit in a bowl of warm water for a little while. They plumped up and worked perfectly in this recipe. Thanks, Carolyn, for another keeper!
That’s a great idea on the berries!
Made these yesterday and they are wonderful! They are almost a cookie, but lighter and more fragile.
I am a recently-diagnoed Type 1 diabetic who (in hopes of warding off the T1D-celiac connection) does not eat gluten. Since finding ADIDAF, I look forward each day to reading (and trying) your recipes and your blog. Thank you! My daughter entered her school science fair with an experiment that measured the rise of different types of gluten-ful and gluten-free flours, so I decided that the Cran-Orange scones would be a good snack to make as my science fair food contribution. I was lucky to have any left to take to school! My tasters (kids) like to keep it real when it comes to whether or not a recipe has “worked”, and they raved like mad about these scones! I labeled them as GF and had two post-fair e-mails thanking me for making a GF goodie and asking for the recipe. I happily provided the link to ADIDAF. The scones went together in a flash and they are a beautiful golden color when baked. Thank you again for sharing your creativity and your scientific expertise. Keep dreaming!
I am so sorry for your diagnosis but so glad you have discovered that good food is still an option! 🙂
I have no dietary restrictions that cause me to eat GF, but I just might have to try this because it looks so yummy!
I didn’t have any oranges so I used fresh lemon and home frozen blueberries instead. The blueberries were a bit old but they perked right up in the scones. Also, I used 3 eggs and skipped the glaze.
These were my first low carb scones and the texture was quite different than other scones. They were light and very tasty though. The lemon taste came through clearly which is great if you are a lemon lover like me! Thanks Carolyn for a tasty recipe.
Sounds wonderful!
Carolyn, if I only have frozen cranberries, would I thaw them first or put them in frozen? Thank you!
Put them in frozen. Cranberries don’t change much in texture or consistency from being frozen so they will be fine.
Thanks so much!
I’ve made these three times – once with lemons instead of oranges – all were outstanding! My husband and sister, who can both eat anything they want, love them. Thank you!
Thanks, Brenda, glad you love them!
Loved loved these! I just love your Blog and read whenever I can. You are helping make the Wheat Belly way of eating very easy,! Thank you!!
Thanks, Becky!
I can not find the recipe foe this scone. I am only getting pictures and comments. What am I doing wrong?
The link to the recipe on Bob’s Red Mill is just above the nutritional counts (above the last photo). Highlighted in blue.
My dd and I made these yesterday… both trying to get back on the low-carb-wagon. 🙂 They are WONDERFUL! Our’s were a little ‘flatter’ than how your’s are pictured. Is there a way we can get them to not ‘spread-out’ so much? Our’s were more like a nice ‘cookie’ look, though the texture *was* like a soft, moist scone. 🙂 I’m going to try the ginger scones tonite!
I think it has to be the brand of coconut flour, that’s my guess. I use Bob’s Red Mill. Next time, add another tbsp or so of coconut flour, to get a thicker consistency.
Thank you, Carolyn! I thought that’s what I should do (either the almond or coconut flour). It’s what I do for my “regular” cookies
These were delicious, but I had the same problem with “flatness”. I use Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour and Honeyville almond flour. I have that problem with a few other recipes too (I think the coconut choc chip cookies and the cheddar drop biscuits). Not really a big deal, fantastic either way, but was curious. Maybe humidity? I live in the deep south…
Hmm, I’ve never thought about that but I suppose humidity could be an issue. Maybe I would cut back on the liquid content by a few tbsp? that might help.
Will this work with dried cranberries?
I suppose, but they won’t be juicy as they are with fresh.
Hey Carolyn! Made these and loved them! Even my texture sensitive kiddos liked them. Thanks for the recipe! Do you have any suggestions for preventing them from getting “soggy” during storing? I stored them in air tight plastic containers, but they just didn’t hold their texture. Still tasted good, but really soft. Thanks!
Honestly, the best bet is to simply store them uncovered on the counter, but you can’t do that for more than 2 days as they may get moody with their high moisture content. We tend to toast them after that.
I really don’t think these goodies will last more than 2 days! They’re that good.
Hi Carolyn.
I am thinking of making cranberry-orange muffins, using this as a basic template. Heeding comments and your responses, I am thinking that I will follow the advice for making less-moist scones. I am also contemplating using both almond flour and almond meal, maybe half and half. I do like a more-robust muffin as vs. a cakelike one. Any advice?
BTW, I find that your weekly posts just get put aside and wonder how many other people do this? I wonder whether doing it the current way has resulted in increased or decreased visits. I guess increasing readership would make that hard to tell, but I find that instead of visiting your site virtually every day, I go on binges. Even so, I am way behind now.
Thanks,
Jean B.
Hi Jean,
Are you referring to my weekly email? It’s getting great open rates and engagement. But if you want the daily RSS feed, you can sign up for that instead.
I’m glad it is working for you, Carolyn. Any comments on my proposed approach to make muffins, starting with this recipe?
I would actually probably go with one of my muffin recipes and then add in the cranberries and orange. The consistency of scones is very different and I think this will make for heavy, dense muffins.
I have to laugh (at myself)! It should have been obvious that it would work better if one started with a muffin recipe as a template. I can explain why I didn’t: I started thinking about muffin cups as a way to prevent the spreading that folks have commented on. But still… Thanks, Carolyn, for this and for all that you do.
P.S. You must be pretty happy you left the Boston area when you did. We are buried!
I made these this morning and was so disappointed! They spread out and flattened like one large cookie. What did I d wrong? I used Trader Joe’s coconut flour and Bob’s Red Mill almond flour. I replaced 2 of the eggs with Egg Beaters.
Coconut flour can vary from brand to brand so you really should use the Bob’s Red Mill. Also, could be the egg beaters because I don’t know that they bake the same as eggs.
Sue try again with whole eggs. This is one of my favorites. I use Bob’s Red Mill or Krogers Simple organic coconut flour, whichever is the cheapest, and have not had a problem.
Thanks for the suggestions ladies. Carolyn, I have to say – you are my favorite LC site by far! (or should I spell that favourite? I’m a fellow Canadian living in California and I smile every time I read your stories and see Canadian spellings) You have incredible recipes and wonderful tips. I am new to this LC lifestyle and couldn’t live without sites like yours. Thanks for all you do!
Well, I made them this morning, using the Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour and Honeyville blanched almond flour and they came out fantastic! I actually used sour cream instead of Greek yogurt because I forgot to buy it, and I used 1 less egg because the batter seemed the right consistency. They were heavenly! What a fabulous birthday breakfast on a diet!!
So glad and Happy Birthday!
Can you send me the recipe or tell me how to access it. I am unable to. Thank you.
Hi Carolyn,
These look amazing! Do you think I can substitute the almond flour for ground up oatmeal? I’m out of almond flour. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
No, I don’t think that would work at all. Oats have far less moisture and fat.
Fresh cranberries are rare here in Australia – so I used dried un-sweetened. Also used sour cream because that was all I had and only used 3 eggs. For sweetener I used only 1/4 of a cup (this was a mix of half Natvia and half xylitol). These are ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. In Oz we would probably call them ‘rock buns’, although they are a tad softer than the usual rock bun. I made them for a late breakfast today and we are now munching on them for after dinner treats. We didn’t need the glaze because they are sweet enough, although if you wanted to include them in a low carb high tea I would add it for the indulgence factor. Thank you very much for a great recipe.
Not doing yogurt (dairy) anymore, would coconut milk work(canned)? any other substitute that might work better? thx
I am really not sure. I think you would need less of it, otherwise they will spread too much.
I have been sugar-free, gluten -free for 5 months. The only thing I miss are scones. I’m so excited to try this recipe.
Why both flours? Can u just use coconut flour? What will new measurements be?
Thank you
Because it gives a much better texture. This is not a good cake for all coconut flour.
Just pulling these out of the oven, They are flat 🙁 followed recipe to a tee 🙁 well lets hope they taste good at least!!
They taste great, even flat I’ll male these again lol
Different brands of coconut flour are more or less absorbent. Next time, add another 2 to 3 tbsp of coconut flour.
Does coconut flour have to be used or can I just use almond flour? The coconut flour really bothers my throats! When unmake my low carb English muffins I use very little for the absorbsion of the liquid! Do you think a full cup in this recipe will work! These look good thank you for sharing!
You can try subbing more almond flour but you will need to increase the amount by 2 to 3 times.
Love this page, but i’m dissapointed. . no recipe for the orange scones. can you send it to me. .
LonganAssociates@aol.com
http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/cranberry-orange-drop-scones/
Fantastic! I substituted a mix of water, powdered Swerve, stevia, and a few drops of orange oil as a sub for the orange juice in the scones and glaze. Thank you! I so appreciate all the recipes you bring us and all the work you put into your great blog. You rock!