Vegan Cheese Scones (Cheddar and Chive)

These vegan cheese scones are buttery, flaky, soft and ultra-delicious. Made with chives and shredded vegan cheese, this tasty pastry is something you don’t want to miss! Plus, you can customize this scone recipe with a variety of add-ins.

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Are Scones Vegan?

Traditional scones are not vegan as they often contain butter, other dairy ingredients and eggs. However, with a few simple substitutions, scones can be made vegan quite easily!

Start by replacing milk with a plant-based alternative. Then, replace eggs with ground flaxseeds. Vegan butter is often easy to find and an ideal replacement!

You don’t have to miss out on tasty baked goods just because you’re vegan. This recipe shows you how to make quick and relatively easy cheese and chive scones.

Vegan Cheese Scone Ingredients

This recipe follows typical non-vegan scone instructions, with vegan substitutions for dairy products and eggs. These are not dry, hard scones; they’re much more like a biscuit because of their soft, buttery and flaky texture.

To make this recipe you need:

• All-purpose flour: This basic white flour creates light, soft scones.
• Salt: Since these are savory scones, salt brings out flavors from other ingredients and makes sure the scones don’t taste too sweet.
• Baking powder: Baking powder is essential for the scones to rise and become light and flaky.
• Vegan butter: Use a good vegan butter substitute for this recipe. Margarine won’t work, so select a vegan butter that’s hard when cold. For best results, freeze your butter before using!
• Ground flaxseed: When mixed with water, ground flaxseed creates a lovely gel that adds moisture and helps hold the scone dough together. It’s a fantastic egg replacement. You can also use ground chia seeds.
• Lemon juice: Some lemon juice brightens the final product with fresh flavor and acid. You could use other citrus fruits for different flavor results or replace with 1 teaspoon of your favorite vinegar (white or apple cider work well).
• Soy milk: Soy milk is a great replacement for dairy milk in scones as it contains fat and protein. These are important to create the perfect texture. I haven’t tested this recipe with other plant-based milk alternatives, but they should work.
• Sugar: Despite this being a savory vegan scone recipe, you’ll need some sugar. Sugar acts as a wet ingredient, providing moisture and softness to the scones. Don’t worry, the scones don’t taste sweet once balanced by salt, vegan cheese and chives!
• Vegan cheese shreds: This is the key ingredient for vegan cheese scones! Use any shredded vegan cheese; it doesn’t even need to melt that well if you enjoy the flavor.
• Chives: Chives are optional for this recipe but add tasty flavor and some pretty green color!

How to Make Vegan Cheddar Scones

Making cheese scones vegan is a simple process but may intimidate people who’ve never cut butter into flour or made a biscuit recipe before. Just read the detailed directions below and you have no problems!

Step 1: Freeze Vegan Butter

Start this recipe by placing ½ a cup (one stick) of vegan butter into your freezer. Freeze it for at least 2 hours (but overnight is best).

The key to flaky scones is using frozen grated butter. Colder butter creates better texture.

Although frozen butter is too hard to cut into flour using a fork, knife, or pastry cutter, grating it with a box grater works perfectly.

Step 2: Make Flaxseed “Egg”

When your butter has frozen, you’re ready to start making scones!

Create a flaxseed “egg” by stirring ground flaxseed with lemon juice and water. Set this mixture aside.

Step 3: Mix Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder.

Use the scoop-and-level method for measuring flour. Spoon flour into a measuring cup until it’s slightly heaping over the edges, then take the back edge of a knife (or another flat surface) and scrape off any excess flour. This creates a perfectly measured unpacked cup!

Step 4: Cut in Butter

Once your ½ cup of butter is frozen, use a box grater to carefully grate all but 2 tablespoons into the flour mixture. You’ll use the extra 2 tablespoons to melt some butter on top of the scones. I buy vegan butter in a stick so it’s easy to freeze, grate and leave a 2 tablespoon-long piece to melt.

My video shows an alternate method to grate the butter first, then measure ½ cup of grated butter. This is an option, but it’s easier to grate butter directly into the flour rather than packing it into a measuring cup.

As grated butter falls into the flour, toss it around so each piece is well coated. You want butter evenly mixed throughout the flour.

If you have a pastry cutter, you could use this with regular, cold butter (rather than freezing it). Aim for large pea-sized butter pieces evenly mixed through the flour.

I find using a pasty cutter more difficult than grating frozen butter. Grating butter results in evenly sized pieces which create a softer, flakier scone texture.

Also, the colder your butter is when going into an oven, the fluffier and flakier your scones will be! Starting with frozen butter helps make sure it’s still cold by the time you place the scones in an oven.

Step 5: Create Dough

Add the flaxseed “egg”, soy milk and sugar to your flour-butter mix. Stir together until mostly combined.

When the dough is mostly mixed, but there’s still some dry flour, toss in shredded vegan cheese and chopped chives. Continue stirring until the cheese and chives are spread evenly and there’s no dry flour. Stop stirring at this point; don’t overmix!

Step 6: Shape Scones

Add a generous layer of flour onto your countertop, then place the scone dough onto this flour.

Sprinkle some additional flour on top of the dough and roll it out to 1 inch (about 2.5 cm) thick. You could also simply press the dough with your hands to get to this thickness.

Cut into 8 large or 10 medium scones.

Transfer cut scones onto a parchment paper (or silicone mat) lined baking tray, then melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegan butter and brush across each scone.

Topping with this extra melted butter is optional.

Step 7: Bake and Serve

Preheat your oven to 350 °F.

Sometimes you can put food into the oven before it’s hot, but this doesn’t work for scones. You must fully heat the oven before placing the scones in.

This helps the butter melt right away. As the butter melts and becomes hotter, its water content evaporates and creates all those soft, flaky layers!

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Scones don’t brown much, so don’t wait for that or you’ll overcook them. They should feel firm outside, but still soft enough to dent with slight pressure.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before eating!

Scone Variations

This scone dough is extremely versatile and can create several vegan scone variations. Include up to 1 ½ cups of add-ins (total)!

You can choose additional savory ingredients like vegan ham, jalapeno peppers, vegan cheeses, green onion, nutritional yeast (no more than 2 tablespoons) or vegan bacon bits.

If you want a sweet scone, add diced dates, blueberries, dry fruit or whatever else you’d enjoy in a soft, buttery scone. Cranberry orange scones would be delicious, or check out my recipe for vegan blueberry lemon scones!

Refrigerate and Freeze these Dairy Free Scones

Let leftover scones cool to room temperature before transferring to an airtight container. Refrigerate the scones for up to a week, or store on your countertop for up to 2 days.

You can also freeze this recipe. Once your scones cool to room temperature, transfer to a freezer safe container or bag and freeze for up to 4 months. Let the scones thaw in your fridge before serving.

To reheat scones, use a microwave or oven (set at 350 °F until the scones are warmed through). Scones are best served warm, so I recommend reheating if they’ve been in your fridge or freezer.

If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!

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