Gluten-Free Scones with a Homemade Blend

Tender fruit scones made with a gluten-free flour blend and a separate measure of xanthan gum — with King Arthur’s own recipe for mixing the blend at home.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here as the showcase for one flour in the Flour section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

Homemade gluten-free blend (makes about 9 cups)

• 6 cups (32 oz) stabilised brown rice flour
• 2 cups (10¾ oz) potato starch
• 1 cup (4 oz) tapioca flour or tapioca starch

Scones

• 1¾ cups (273 g) gluten-free all-purpose flour or the blend above
• ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• 8 tablespoons (113 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pats
• ¾ cup (99 g) dried apricots, raisins or cherries, diced
• 2 large eggs
• ⅓ cup (74 g) cold milk
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
• Sparkling or cinnamon sugar for the tops

Directions

1. Blend. Whisk the three blend ingredients together and store airtight at room temperature.
2. Prepare. Heat the oven to 400 °F. Grease a scone pan or line a baking sheet.
3. Dry. Whisk the flour or blend, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and nutmeg.
4. Butter. Rub in the butter until crumbly, then stir in the fruit.
5. Wet. Whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla until frothy and stir them in. The dough will be cohesive and very sticky.
6. Portion and rest. Drop ⅓-cup portions (¼ cup without fruit) onto the pan and rest 15 minutes so the rice flour can hydrate.
7. Bake. Top with sparkling or cinnamon sugar and bake 15–20 minutes, until golden. Rest 5 minutes and serve warm.

Notes

Source Adapted from “Gluten-Free Scones,” King Arthur Baking, which prints the make-at-home blend on the same page and says it “works pretty well” in place of its Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.

What the blend is By weight it is about 68% brown rice flour, 23% potato starch and 9% tapioca — a whole-grain base and two starches — and it contains no gum, which is why the xanthan is its own line. A cup of the blend weighs about 151 g against 156 g for the commercial flour, so a cup-for-cup swap is consistent within about 3%.

Why this blend Gluten-free baking needs starch for bulk, protein for structure (here, the eggs and milk) and a binder to hold gas. The 15-minute rest is for the rice flour, which absorbs water slowly.

Gluten-free by ingredient: safe for coeliac disease only if every ingredient — flour, starch, baking powder — is labelled gluten-free. Naturally gluten-free flours are often contaminated with wheat in milling.

The Flour section of the Food site covers the history, the science, milling, label systems and every flour used here.

The photo The photograph shows gluten-free cranberry scones, not this recipe’s apricot version.