Review: Gluten-Free Scone Mixes

Shortly after my celiac diagnosis, I was invited to a birthday party that was also a tea party. The food served was all full of gluten except for some fresh strawberries. The friend hosting the party was famous for her gluten scones and I was determined that I would enjoy my own gluten-free scones so that I did not feel left out. It was the first party I’d been to since going gluten-free and it was a lot of work to bring all my own food. However, going and not being able to eat at the several-hour-long party was just not an option.

The only scone mix I found in my area was the one from Gluten-Free Pantry and I was delighted to find it was super easy to work with. The product is called Muffin & Scone mix, by the way. The scones were simply phenomenal tasting. My husband declared the scones the best he’d ever had, but he was never really a fan of gluten scones. In any case, the cranberry scones I made with the mix were at least as good – if not better – than the gluten version I was used to enjoying at my friend’s tea parties. The gluten-free Pantry scone mix can be modified to incorporate whatever flavors you want the scones to include. For cranberry orange scones you add orange juice and cranberries and for cinnamon raisin scones you add cinnamon and raisins and so forth. The options are really limitless, which is what I love about the mix, which made 12 triangle-shaped scones.

Recently, on a shopping trip at Ingles, I found the Simply Organics Chai Spice Scone mix. To my surprise, the words gluten-free were right on the front of the box. Chai sounded like an interesting flavor for scones so I threw a box in the cart and hoped for the best. This is the first gluten-free baking mix from Simply Organics that I’ve tried to date. The mix was as easy to work with as the scone mix from Gluten-free Pantry. You have to cut the butter in and add a few ingredients. It takes maybe five minutes to get the mix ready to drop medium-sized scoops of dough on the baking sheet. I used an ice cream scoop and it worked perfectly, though next time I’d flatten the scoops out a bit on top.

The Simply Organics scones baked up nicely and were a latte color when finished. The aromatic scent of Chai filled the kitchen as the scones baked. Because we really didn’t know what to spread on scones with such a unique flavor, we used our favorite lemon curd from Trader Joe’s. It’s gluten-free (not all lemon curds are) and fairly inexpensive. The curd complimented the Chai scones really well. The outer crust of the scones was a little gritty tasting to me but the inside part of the scone was quite nice. The scones were not burnt – or even crunchy – so the reason for the odd texture on the outside was a bit of a mystery. My husband thought the scones were really good and ended up eating the entire batch over the next two days. The mix made nine scones, but the package states it makes eight.

The gluten-free Pantry mix was my favorite of the two scone mixes, due to the versatility of the mix and the perfect texture both inside and out. People who like the flavor of Chai – and scones – will likely enjoy the Simply Organics scone mix. Gluten scones are traditionally somewhat dry and heavy. Both the gluten-free scone mixes I tried made better scones than most gluten versions I’ve had. This is mostly due to the fact that they are a little lighter than gluten scones. Light baked goods are usually better than heavier ones to me so that’s why I was so impressed with the gluten-free scone mixes I tried.

It’s unclear to me why Simply Organic does not list which products are gluten-free on their website. Only the Pancake and Waffle mix is noted as being gluten-free in the details link for the product. I know that at Ingles stores here, they have the Simply Organic Carrot Cake, Banana Bread, and Scone Mix, which are all three gluten-free.  Here is the press release (from last June) that I just found about the gluten-free product line. The mixes are all kosher and vegetarian as well. If you’d like to try the mixes and don’t find them in a store near you, you can order directly from the company online.