Whole Wheat Date Scones

I love a good scone, and since I had dates in the pantry, these seemed like a no-brainer. I found the recipe on Orangette, and the only change I made was to use vegan margarine instead of butter. Note that I have Morton brand kosher salt, so I only put in ¼ teaspoon (if you use Diamond Crystal brand, those salt crystals are bigger than the Morton ones, so you should use ½ teaspoon in that case). We really enjoyed eating those scones – they are best warm, but they keep very well for a few days in an airtight container.

125 g. (¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp.) all-purpose flour
125 g. (1 cup) whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt (see note above)
¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 heaping Tbsp. brown sugar
5 Tbsp. cold unsalted margarine, diced
90 to 100 g. (½ cup) pitted, chopped dates
2/3 cup lactose-free whole milk
1 egg, beaten well

Set a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 400 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend well. Add the brown sugar, whisking again, and then add the margarine. Using your fingers, work the margarine into the flour mixture, rubbing and pinching it until there are no lumps of margarine bigger than a pea. Stir in the dates. Add about three-quarters of the milk and, using a fork, stir it into the dry ingredients. If it seems too dry and crumbly, add more milk as needed, but start sparingly, so that the dough doesn’t wind up sticky.

Once the dough is coming together, put down the fork and finish bringing it together with your hand, pressing it and turning it to incorporate all the flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and massage it into a disk roughly 1 inch tall. Cut the dough into 10 even wedges (or squares, or you can use a cutter to make circles), and arrange them on the baking sheet. Brush lightly with egg.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden. Serve warm, ideally, but room temperature is fine too.