Vegan Strawberry Cream Scones With Almonds - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar (use 1/2 cup if you like them sweeter)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh orange zest (or 1 tsp dried, see directions)
4 tablespoons earth balance vegan margarine
1 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon rose water (or vanilla extract)
2/3 cup plain unsweetened soymilk, see directions

Preparation

First, finely cut up your strawberries and wash them-- make sure you drain them with and blot with paper towels to get the excess moisture out or else they won't bake right.
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
Add the fresh orange zest, or if you're using dried, hydrate 1 teaspoon dried orange peel with 3 teaspoons water and let sit for at least 10-15 minutes before adding to the mix.
Stir in the zest, then cut in the cold Earth Balance or butter in very small pieces bit by bit-- like you're \"whittling\" it inches.
By hand or with a pastry cutter, mix the butter in with the other ingredients until the mixture is crumbly but coming together.
Mix in the strawberries and almonds with the rosewater or vanilla.
Add just enough milk or soymilk (almond milk etc.) to make the dough smooth but not too much or else it'll get too watery. If it does, just add a bit more flour to dry it back up. Then you can divide the dough one of two ways. But first lay out some parchment paper onto a cookie sheet.
The lazy way (my way!) is to drop large spoonfuls of the mixture onto it, about 8-10 big globs. Make sure they're spaced far apart enough!
Or, extract the whole bowl's contents and knead on a floured surface until you can get a large disc and pat it down to the desired thickness, then slice into 8-10 pieces, laying them out on the parchment paper.
Regardless of how you get there, bake for 20-25 minutes at 425F until golden brown. Serve warm or cool. Warning, they're quite addictive!