It’s time to get green y’all – and I ain’t talkin’ bout bud. I’m talkin’ bout matcha and pistachios, because it’s St. Paddy’s Day, and heck, we can all use a little bit more green in our lives (and diets).
Honestly, I thought making scones would be hard. I guess because I see them so often in fancy bakeries and what not, I’ve just started to assume they’re hard to make. Come to find out, they’re as easy as making biscuits. In fact, they’re exactly like making biscuits. Cold fat is cut into sifted flour, a creamy liquid is mixed in until the dough comes together, it’s refrigerated, shaped, and then baked to toasty perfection.
It’s not very often that we create a baked good that comes out perfect the first time, but miracles do happen, and we must’ve been pretty blessed that day.
If you’ll notice, the main flour used in these babies is white rice flour, which I’ve been experimenting with recently and have had great results with. White rice flour creates pastries that are light, fluffy, and slightly spongy in certain applications. While I embrace grain-free baking, I find it difficult to successfully create all the different goodies I want to play with without the use of grain flours, particularly white rice flour.
It’s true that white rice flour doesn’t abide with the Plant Paradox Program, however, white rice is technically a lectin-free food, as the lectins in rice are in the bran and hull of the grain, not the germ, which is the white part. White rice products have a light effect on blood sugar levels, so it may not be the best for people with diabetes, although for most of us, it’s a harmless addition to a balanced diet.
Never the less, my personal philosophy is to simply limit lectin intake, not restrict it completely. As Gundry even says in his book regarding gluten intake, it’s wise to intake a small amount of certain lectins, because if we don’t, the gut bugs that eat those lectins will disappear, which will cause real trouble next time we accidentally eat a food containing that lectin. It’s important to cleanse the system of harmful gut bacteria, however, keeping lectins around in small doses keeps our biome strong and resistant to unwarranted attacks.
Aside from experimenting with new flours and pastries, we also started to experiment with new frosting concoctions! For good reason too, because powdered erythritol (a.k.a. Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener) has a strange aftertaste, it’s mouth-numbingly sweet, and it’s pricey. We’ve used it in the past for our vegan cream cheese frosting, which has spot on flavor and consistency – it’s just a little too sweet on the tip of the tongue.
As luck would have it, Kim and I stumbled across a little library in a random neighborhood in Oakland, in which was a copy of the BabyCakes Cookbook – whose focus is vegan & gluten-free baking. A free cookbook from Erin McKenna, one of our favorite bakers?! We obviously had to grab it. Good thing we did, because inside those pages lies a recipe for Erin’s signature frosting that’s used at Erin McKenna bakeries across the country.
To my surprise, she doesn’t use the typical powdered sugar formula that’s used to form most frostings. Interestingly, she uses a mixture of coconut oil, soy milk powder, soy milk, and a few other ingredients to create the base of her frosting. And it’s as simple as blending all the ingredients together then refrigerating it until the it’s stabilizes. We were quick to implement her combination of ingredients and made a couple of adjustments where needed, replacing the soy milk powder with coconut milk powder, replacing agave with erythritol, replacing soy milk with coconut milk, and a few other things here and there.
BLESS THE HEAVENS! Frosting that’s creamy, not overbearingly sweet, and easy to make – t’s the holy trio y’all. Add cacao butter to the mix and you have a smooth, perfectly sweet frosting to drool over.
All in all, these scones are:
- Laced with green matcha goodness
- Subtly sweet
- Easy
- Topped with creamy white chocolate frosting
- Finished with crushed pistachios
- Perfect for St. Paddy’s Day!
If you like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.
Go Forth & Devour,
Kim & Ryan
Matcha Scones with White Chocolate Frosting & Pistachios (vegan, gluten-free, & sugar-free)
Tender matcha-infused scones topped with creamy, white chocolate coconut frosting as well as crushed up pistachios.
Ingredients
Scones
- 200 g (1 1/4 c) white rice flour, plus extra for dusting
- 48 g (1/4 c) erythritol
- 34 g (1/4 c) sorghum flour
- 12 g (1 tbsp) baking powder
- 6 g (1 tbsp) matcha
- 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt
- 84 g (1/2 c +2 tbsp) coconut oil or buttery coconut oil, chilled in fridge for 20 minutes
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 4 oz (1/2 c) full-fat coconut milk
- 2 oz (1/4 c) water
Frosting
- 56 g (1/4 c) coconut oil
- 52 g (1/4 c) cacao butter
- 32 g (1/4 c) coconut milk powder
- 30 g (2 1/2 tbsp) erythritol
- 2 oz (1/4 c) full-fat coconut milk
- 2 oz (1/4 c) water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp liquid stevia extract
- 1/8 tsp xanthan gum
- small pinch of salt
Topping
- 1/4 c crushed pistachios
Directions
- For frosting, add coconut oil and cacao butter to a small pot and melt over very low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as most of the oil is melted, take it off the heat and allow any remaining chunks to melt naturally.
- In a personal sized blender, combine melted coconut oil & cacao butter, coconut milk powder, erythritol, coconut milk, water, vanilla, stevia, and a pinch of salt. Blend a few seconds until smooth, then blend in xanthan gum.
- Transfer frosting to a shallow bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until stable; about 1 hour.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine rice flour, erythritol, sorghum flour, baking powder, matcha, salt, and xanthan gum. Pulse a few times until the mixture is thoroughly mixed.
- To that, scoop in the chilled coconut oil in several chunks. Pulse a few times until the dough resembles large crumbs.
- Pour in the coconut milk & water and pulse until the dough just comes together. Be sure not to over process it as that’ll spread the oil out too thin, which creates a less flaky texture.
- Lay out a cookie-sheet sized piece of plastic wrap flat on a countertop and lightly dust with rice flour. Place all the dough on top of the plastic wrap and sprinkle top of dough with rice flour.
- Shape the dough into a round approximately 6 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches thick; roughly the diameter of a medium sized plate
- Completely cover with plastic and place in fridge for 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 400° F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove dough from fridge and cut it in half. Then cut each half into 3 even pieces, thus creating 6 pieces in total.
- Set scones on prepped cookie sheet, place in oven, and bake for 25 min or until edges start to brown. Remove and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before frosting and eating.
- Note: I prefer the scones at room temperature – not fresh – which means allowing them to rest for about an hour and a half. However, that’s just personal preference.
- To frost, simply drizzle or spread desired amount of frosting evenly among scones then top each with a sprinkle of crushed pistachios.
- Store at room temperature, covered with plastic wrap, for up to two days.
NO EGGS OR HAM 
Oh wow! I’m just drinking math tea at work! This looks amazing and so good for you! Well done x
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Haha, looking at recipes while at work? Sounds like time well spent! ;)
Thank you for the kind words!
Best,
Ryan
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These look so impressive AND so delicious!!
—
http://www.areweadultsyet.com
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