There’s nothing easier and crowd pleasing to throw together when expecting company than cheesy scones. Best served warm from the oven with lashings of butter smeared on the flaky scone melting down the sides. My method is a little different to most I’ve seen, nothing drastic, the most important thing is not work the dough too much.
320 g Flour (2 cups)
188 ml Milk (¾ cup), plus extra for brushing
½ cup grated cheese*
75 g Butter (cold and cubed)
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
6g salt (1%)
Dash of Cayenne or mustard powder
*The cheese should be a mixture of melting and flavour, so Edam and Cheddar for example, the quantity does not have to be precise.
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC and line a sheet pan with non-stick paper.
- Add half of the flour, all of the butter and cheese to a blender and blitz to a coarse breadcrumb texture, you could do this by hand if you wish.
- Mix together the remaining flour, spice, salt, baking soda and powder in a bowl. Tip in the blended mix and combine.
- Make a well in the centre and add the milk. Roughly bring together to form a dough mass, there will still be wet bits an unmixed flour, don't worry.
- Tip the mixture out on to the bench and pat the mixture into a rough rectangle, fold into thirds, get the dry and unmixed sandwiched between the layers. Pat out again and fold into thirds once more.
- Pat, and roll the dough out to about 10–15mm thick. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on the sheet pan. roughly push the scraps together so you can cut out the remaining dough.
- Brush the top of the scones with milk and place in the oven for 10–15 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool when done.
