Cheese scones
Savoury, fast, and best split open while still hot
Makes 6. Wrap and freeze whichever you do not eat on the day, unbaked or baked, for up to a month. They warm well from frozen in a low oven.
Scones are one of the fastest things you can put in an oven, and a cheese scone is the savoury end of that same short list of ingredients: flour, butter, milk, and here a good fistful of Cheddar rubbed through the dough rather than melted on top. Handle the dough as little as you can manage. Every extra minute of kneading makes the crumb tighter and less able to soak up butter, which is the opposite of what you want from a scone eaten warm. Split one while it is still hot enough to melt a slice of butter into the crumb, and you have breakfast, lunch or the thing you eat standing up at four in the afternoon.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk
- 225 gself-raising white flour, plus extra for dusting
- salt, a small pinch
- 50 gunsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
- 75 gCheddar, finely grated
- 150 mlwhole milk, plus a little more to glaze
Method
Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C) and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl.
Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in most of the Cheddar, keeping a small handful back for the tops.
Make a well in the centre and pour in most of the milk. Mix quickly with a table knife to a soft dough, adding the rest of the milk only if it will not come together, then bring it together with your hands in as few turns as possible.
A wetter dough than feels sensible makes a lighter scone. If it feels dry, it will bake dry.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and pat gently to a thickness of about 2 cm. Cut into six rounds with a 5 cm cutter, pushing straight down without twisting, and gather the offcuts once to cut the last one or two.
Place the rounds on the sheet, brush the tops with a little milk and scatter over the reserved Cheddar.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until well risen and deep golden on top, and a scone sounds hollow when you tap its base.
Watch-points
- White self-raising flour only. Do not swap in a wholemeal, granary or seeded flour.
- Handle the dough as little as possible so it stays soft enough to eat easily once baked.
Make it more nourishing
- Use 100 g of Cheddar instead of 75.
- Split a warm scone and melt 10 g of butter into each half before serving.
- Stir a tablespoon of skimmed milk powder into the flour with the salt. It does not change the crumb.
Swaps
- Instead of Cheddar, use mature Gruyère or a smoked hard cheese
- gives a different savoury note without changing the method