Gluten-free, Sugar-free Blueberry Scones

My sister was coming for a visit, and, as she is diabetic, I wanted to do some gluten-free and sugar-free baking. Having made lemon, cornmeal gluten-free scones before, I knew that they contained very little sugar (1/4 cup). I've been interested in substituting out white sugar in recipes for my own health--all the gluten-free baking I did in the winter didn't exactly slim me down for summer.

My sister uses agave nectar to make a sugar-free margarita, and I've read a bit online about using agave nectar in place of granulated, white sugar. As for how to substitute in agave nectar in a recipe, I've come across different suggestions. What I seem to find most, since agave nectar is quite sweet and syrupy, is to use 3/4 cup agave nectar per 1 cup of sugar and reduce liquids a bit (amount decided by trial and error I guess), if the recipe even calls for liquids. While setting-up a monthly Tesco delivery, I found that they carry agave nectar and added it to my order.

Recipe in mid-production. Agave nectar in plastic squeeze bottle in foreground.

The scone recipe calls for mixing the dry ingredients, including the sugar, together, and then adding, at the same time, the dry mixture and liquids to the beaten eggs. Since the agave nectar is syrupy, I added it to the milk. Since only 1/4 cup of granulated sugar is required, I didn't go through the bother of exactly measuring 3/4 of 1/4 cup (anyone have 3/16 measuring cup?), I just eyeballed "a little less" than 1/4 cup agave nectar. I also reduced the amount of liquid from 1/2 cup milk to a little more than 1/3 cup.

Recipe from Annalise G. Roberts' "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" (click on image to enlarge)

Another change I made, not related to sugar or gluten issues, was using fresh blueberries instead of raisins—just not a fan of the little, dried buggers. I did make the mistake of following the recipe and adding the blueberries in with the milk. Now, raisins could stand up to the next step, being beaten with a hand mixer. However, blueberries would just get mashed-up and color the batter blue. Instead of picking the blueberries out, I just mixed the batter by hand.

Scones head into the oven. The recipe said 14 scones one inch deep and 2 1/2 inches in diameter, but I ended up with 11 one inch-y by three-ish scones. I've never been good at judging size—of a crowd or a pastry.

Hopefully from the picture below you can see that the scones emerged from the oven looking "normal." As for the taste? Well, I was really pleased, and my husband and my sister both approved. As I did not eat many scones in my gluten eating days, I still wasn't confident in their true scone-iness. When I commented that they seemed a little dry without jam, my husband reminded me that scones are drier than muffins and are typically eaten with jam. I can confidently comment that the 1/4 cup of agave nectar sweetened the scones perfectly and did not impart any aftertaste.

Oven-fresh scones ready to be eaten.