How to make scones without milk

Pillowy rise. Perfect crumb. Delicate flavour twist.

Coconut-scones-close-up

Every time a morning tea rolls around or I’m asked to bring a plate to a daytime event, my go-to recipe is always scones. A classic scone recipe is super simple and I usually have the ingredients already. 

On the one occasion I didn’t have milk in the fridge, I wasn’t going to give up on my scone craving – so I went digging and found a milk-free scone recipe. Let me tell you: I was blown away.

The secret’s in the substitute ingredient: coconut milk. I’d never thought of using coconut milk in scones before, but it really works a treat. 

Scones: Australia’s favourite baking recipe?

Scones and Australia go hand-in-hand. While technically a British invention, we Aussies have made scones our own and you’ll often see them at school fetes, cafes, office morning teas and more. On taste.com.au alone, we have well over 100 sweet and savoury scone recipes! 

Generally, we love our most popular baked treat golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside… and we think they’re the perfect vessel for holding a good dollop of jam and cream. 

What’s the secret to making good scones?

Popular recipes always come with plenty of opinions, and it seems everyone has a point of view on what makes the best-ever scone. Using baking powder, keeping the dough cool, not over-mixing, using only cold ingredients – we’ve heard it all. 

In fact, we asked our audience to share their tips for the perfect pillow-like scone and uncovered some baking gems. Here are some of our favourites:

Basic scones recipe patting dough

• “I made scones with half cream and half tonic water. Turned out better than I thought.” – Doris
• “I use powdered milk, which works well when making them with soda water.” – Beck
• “Your butter should always be cold when making scones. Best tip my grandmother ever gave me.” – Terri
• “Put your tray in the oven with a dusting of flour to heat whilst you make the scones.” – Rayleen
• “Cooking them in an air fryer.” – Rachel

And while these are all great tips to follow, the one thing that completely transformed my scones was coconut milk!

How to make scones without milk

The recipe is essentially the same as a regular scone recipe, except I swapped the dairy milk for a can of shelf-stable coconut milk. The results were an extra rich and decadent scone with a hint of coconut flavour which paired beautifully with a lemon curd (jam lovers, calm down).

Brushing the unbaked scones with a little extra coconut milk before sprinkling demerara sugar and desiccated coconut gave the whole dish that extra oomph I didn’t know I was looking for. 

This recipe is a great option when you don’t have any milk on hand or when you want to try something a little bit different! Convinced? Try our coconut scones recipe out for yourself. 

Other scone recipes

• Air fryer lemonade scones
• 3-ingredient scones
• Soda water scones

Originally published as How to make scones without milk