Banana Chocolate Chip Scones (Vegan GF)

Light and fluffy scones made naturally sweet and cake-y with mashed banana studded with melted chocolate. These scones are easy to make in one mixing bowl and are naturally vegan and gluten-free.

I love making scones and at the moment, I am really enjoying the more American-style scones. The main difference is that American scones are triangle in shape and require no rolling and cutting out with cookie cutters like British round scones. Instead, bring the mix to a dough, shape into a round with your hands and slice into triangles, like you’d slice a cake. That’s all there is to it – they bake as separate golden and fluffy scones and are so delicious warm or cold.

These Banana Chocolate Chip Scones are:

• Light and fluffy
• Cake-y and with a great crumb
• Chocolatey
• Wholesome yet sweet
• Crispy and crunchy on top
• Tender and soft inside
• Easy to make in 10 minutes
• Vegan and gluten-free

I love these scones with a drizzle of icing sugar like I’ve shown here, but for a more dessert version, top them with cold ice cream or warm custard and eat with a spoon. It’s a really good way to eat them!

So, what goes into these Banana Chocolate Chip Scones to make them so healthy, wholesome and delicious?

• Oats: this makes the dough more wholesome and naturally fibre-rich and gluten-free. Blitz the oat into an oat flour before you start and make sure your oats are certified gluten-free, if needed.
• Plain or GF plain flour: this keeps these scones really light and cake-y. You could also use spelt or wholemeal flour for a slightly denser scone and if using a GF flour, I recommend a baking 1:1 blend for the best result.
• Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda: this makes the scones rise as they bake.
• Vegan butter: this makes the dough rich and “buttery” like the best scones are. They taste warming, rich and delicious because of the butter and there are so many good vegan options today. You could use coconut oil or vegan margarine spread instead but they are best with butter.
• Bananas: this adds to the moisture in the Banana Chocolate Chip Scones as well as helping to bind together the batter and reduce the amount of butter needed. Make sure you use ripe bananas for the best flavour and texture.
• Coconut sugar: a little goes a long way but adds to the lovely caramel sweetness and the golden colour of the sugar makes the scones equally golden. That said, you can also use light brown or caster sugar.
• Plant-based milk: any milk will do like oat, soya, coconut or almond. Or you could try making your own vanilla hemp oat milk!
• Lemon juice: this helps to bind the batter by reacting with the milk and rising agents. You could also use apple cider or white vinegar which behaves in the same way.
• Chocolate covered bananas: these delicious dark chocolate bananas from Natures Heart were the inspiration behind these Banana Chocolate Chip Scones and they are so amazing. You could also chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered nuts or extra chocolate chips.
• Chocolate chips: make sure that you use dairy-free chocolate and if you don’t have chips or buttons, you can use chopped up chocolate, too.

Mix all the ingredients for the Banana Chocolate Chip Scones together and then make into scones:

• Bring the dough to a ball
• Flatten the dough onto parchment or a tray
• Shape into a circle
• Slice into 8 triangles (like a cake)
• Separate the triangles
• Brush with extra plant milk for a shiny top
• Sprinkle with sugar for a crunchy top
• Bake util smelling amazing and nice and golden on top!

Then, either allow the Banana Chocolate Chip Scones to cool down to drizzle with the icing sugar or enjoy warm with coconut whipped cream, chocolate spread, Mocha Almond Butter, cold ice cream, warm custard… the possibilities are endless.

I hope you are going to love these scones as much as we do at home, they have been on repeat for afternoon snacks and weekend baking. If you are looking for other delicious easy bakes, how about my:

• Vegan Buttercream Lamingtons
• Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake with Homemade Grapefruit Peel
• Vegan Black Forest Cake (Gateau)
• Vegan Fruit Cake
• Banana Chocolate Chip Blondies

Banana Chocolate Chip Scones (Vegan GF)

• Servings: 8
• Time: 25 minutes plus cooling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Light and fluffy scones made naturally sweet and cake-y with mashed banana studded with melted chocolate. These scones are easy to make in one mixing bowl and are naturally vegan and gluten-free.

Ingredients

• 125g oat flour (oats blitzed to a flour)
• 250g plain of GF plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt
• 120g vegan butter, cubed
• 2 ripe bananas (200g)
• 50g + 1 tbsp coconut sugar
• 60ml + 1 tsp plant-based milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 60g dark chocolate bananas, or extra chocolate chips
• 40g + 20g chocolate chips
• 70g icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190Fan/210*C and tear off a piece of parchment for a baking tray.
2. Pour the oat flour, plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl and stir well. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Or, add the oat flour, plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt to a food processor and blitz to blend. Now add the butter and pulse to form a crumbly mix. Tip into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the banana, 50g sugar, 60ml milk, lemon juice and vanilla essence to a blender and blitz until smooth (alternatively you can mash the banana really well and stir in the other sugar, milk, lemon juice and vanilla essence). Pour into the flour-butter mix and stir to a sticky dough.
4. Fold in the dark chocolate banana pieces and 40g chocolate chips and bring to a ball of dough.
5. Dust the parchment paper with flour and place on the dough. Roll or press out using your hands to a circle about 20 cm in diameter and slice into 8 wedges. Sprinkle on the remaining 20g chocolate chips. Carefully separate the wedges out, leaving 2-cm gap around them.
6. Brush with the 1 tsp extra plant-based milk and sprinkle with the 1 tbsp coconut sugar.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch. Allow to cool on a wire rack slightly before serving. If desired, serve with the icing sugar (stir the icing sugar with 2-3 tsp water until thick but pourable).
8. Store scones in an airtight container for 3-5 days.

I look forward to hearing what you think of these Banana Chocolate Chip Scones so please let me know in the comments below. if you do make these, I love to see them so please tag me in your bakes, I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With banana chocolate scone love x