Tea Party Treats

I love baking. There's nothing more satisfying than the smell of baked goods filling up an apartment. I was looking for a good scone recipe for my Valentine's Day tea party, specifically something that would pair well with pumpkin butter. I found a great recipe online at recipezaar. It incorporates raisins, oatmeal, and cinnamon. Cinnamon has been my number one secret ingredient lately. I use it every morning in my coffee, and I jazz up almost every recipe with a sprinkle here or there. Cinnamon has been scientifically proven to help reduce fasting blood sugar in diabetics (that's a good thing).In Ayurvedics, it's used to soothe indigestion and colds. I've been doing some reading about Ayurvedics lately (I am a Kapha in case you were interested),
Scones are great candidates for being veganized. Regular scones are made without eggs, and it is easy to replace the butter and milk with earth balance and soy milk. This recipe will create scones that are crumbly and dense, which is exactly what we are looking for. If you're daring, you could probably incorporate some almonds, pecans, or walnuts. It makes 8 large wedge-shaped scones that clock in at 248 calories each, which is significantly less than the average 400 calories in those scones from Starbucks.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Scones

1/2 c. earth balance
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. old-fashioned oats
1/3 c. raisins
1/3 c. vanilla soy milk.

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. "Cut in" the earth balance. You can either use a pastry cutter, or, if you're not fancy enough for that, just a fork. You know that you're done when the whole mixture is a nice, even crumb.
2. Add oats and raisins.
3. Stir in soy milk, until the dough forms at the center of the bowl.
4. Turn out onto a floured surface, and shape into a circle, aproximately 8" in diameter.
5. Cut into 8 wedges and arrange on an ungreased cookie sheet. At this point, you may want to sprinkle on some granulated sugar (not included in the 250 calories).
6. Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes, or until you can press firmly on the top of the scone.
yields 8 scones at 250 calories each