We have been buried in snow yet again. . .  Here are a few photos of what it currently looks like, after hours of  shoveling snow to clear the driveway and create walkways for the dogs.

As the storm finally passed, we could see the mountains again at sunset.

Our dogs exploring their new igloos?!

Along with all of the snow, the idea of hot chai sounded particularly appealing, especially after hours of shoveling snow! Then the light bulb went on, how about chai scones? As you may have noticed, we have started to experiment with egg free desserts in some of our earlier posts, and we thought we should try the same thing with this recipe as well. It took a couple of tries to get right. The first time it was a little too dry, so more liquid was added in the second attempt.

Here is the list of ingredients you will need.

Chai Scones:

• 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal
• 8 Tbsp. Coconut milk (we used the So Delicious brand)
• 1-1/2 cups Now baking mix
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot flour
• 1/2 tsp. guar gum
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/3 cup. organic sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. crystalized ginger chunks, finely chopped (it makes almost 1/4 cup chopped)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 yogurt
• 1/2 cup black tea

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.

First prep the flaxseed meal and coconut milk, placing it in a separate bowl, and allowing them to gel up completely. This becomes the replacement for the eggs. Meanwhile, brew the black tea in warm water.

In a mixing bowl, or the bowl of a food processor, blend all the dry ingredients and spices, making sure everything is well incorporated. Add the yogurt, vanilla, and 1/2 cup brewed black tea, mixing everything again well. Add the now gelled flaxseed mixture. Once combined, it should begin to form a loose ball of dough in the center of the bowl. At the very end, add the crystalized ginger pieces, incorporating them evenly.

This dough ends up coming out fairly sticky, so we decided to use an ice cream scoop, and placed the mixture by scoopfuls onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. If you are particularly ambitious, another way would be to pat the dough into a flat round, cutting it into pie shaped slices. Either way, bake the scones for 30-40 minutes at 350°F/180°C.

Prepare and blend all the dry ingredients. Chop the ginger finely, add the gelled flaxseed mixture and remaining liquids to the dry ingredients.

Here is one option for shaping the scones.

For this recipe, because it is fairly sticky, we chose to use the ice cream scoop method, as shown below.

Voila, the finished product is cooling on a wire rack.

We were extremely happy with the flavor of the scones, a  nice combination of spicy and sweet. The whole house was filled with the aroma of chai! The addition of black tea brings a wonderful depth of flavor to this recipe. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.