Cranberry Scones

With all the stress and the snow, I've been back in the kitchen and while I haven't had much time to write a post or care about food photography, I've been back at it developing recipes. If you were in a Whole Foods in January, you may have noticed the Engine 2 Challenge posters that were everywhere, and these got me thinking. The Engine 2 diet promotes the usual whole food, plant based diet that I embrace, but also preaches the evils of fats/ oils and processed sugars. Naturally, I saw these posters advertising a challenge as a personal challenge to develop some new recipes! After several failed batches of "cupcakes" that attempted to use apple juice as a sweetener (pro tip: it doesn't work and messes up the consistency) I thought my oil-free, sugar-free recipes were doomed.

Then these scones surprised me! I planned for them only to be an edible, palatable accompaniment to my afternoon coffee, but when my fiancé tried one he begged for more. Success! With 5g of protein, 6g of fiber, and only 1g of fat, these scones make a great side to your afternoon cup of joe.

Cranberry Scones

2 1/2c whole wheat flour
1 1/2T baking powder
1/3c dried cranberries
1c unsweetened applesauce
1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Cinnamon to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Mix four & baking powder. Add cranberries and stir to coat. (If you don't coat your fruit in flour before adding in the wet ingredients the inside of the scone gets all gummy.)
3. Add in apple sauce and almond milk. The mixture will seem quite dry, but this is all part of the plan for scones. Once the dough starts to stick together kneed it a few times.
4. Form dough into an oval on a baking sheet and cut into 8 pieces, separating each a bit to make sure that each of the scones has plenty of room to bake evenly.
5. Dust the top with cinnamon and bake for 30 minutes, until edges just start to turn brown. Let cool (these actually aren't better when warm) and enjoy!