Cheese scones – RecipeTin Eats

As much as I love traditional jam and cream ones, these savoury cheese scones have my heart…. does it surprise anyone that I make mine extra cheesy? 🙂

Cheese scones need to be a thing!

Savoury scones feel like the next big thing in Australia. Just like savoury muffins once were. Say “muffin” and most think blueberry….. I think cheese. 😅

Thus, I’ve been delighted to notice in recent years the increasing presence of savoury scones at bakeries around town, especially at local markets. Take everything you love about traditional scones – flaky, fluffy, tender, warm – and add cheesy goodness with extra crispy, cheese crusted craggy edges. It’s a home run!

And while Aussie scones are usually round, I’ve gone American-style wedges here so I could make them bigger, and faster – no ring cutters needed!

Ingredients in cheese scones

Heads up – I make mine extra cheesy. There’s 200g/2 cups of cheese to 1 3/4 cups of flour (260g). It is not typical to see the ingredients skewed so heavily towards cheese. But my theory is that if we’re making cheese scones, I want to be able to taste the cheese! Else I’d rather make plain ones. 🙂

Plain flour (all-purpose flour) and baking powder – While traditional scones call for self-raising flour, I prefer plain flour with added baking powder for cheese scones. This way I can add enough baking powder to give the dough extra lift to counter the weight of all that cheese (what an excellent problem to have!). Also, as a general rule, self-raising flour isn’t as effective as combining flour plus baking powder (rule of thumb is 2 teaspoons baking powder for every cup of flour).

Cheese – Cheddar is my default, though tasty cheese (and Australian favourite) works well too. Actually, any good melting cheese that can be shredded works – just avoid mozzarella (not enough flavour). For punch, use sharp vintage cheddar, for milder, try Swiss, for premium I splurge on gruyere.

Pre-shredded is fine (rare endorsement!), I like Devondale’s 3-cheese blend (mozzarella, colby, parmesan).

Cold unsalted butter – Cold butter is key to that signature flaky texture and soft, fluffy interior. It’s best to cut it into smallish pieces so it cuts easily and evenly into the flour.

Milk – Full fat milk is best though low fat works as well. I haven’t tried with non-cow milk but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

Salt – These scones benefit from a decent amount of salt. I use 1/2 teaspoon of cooking salt / kosher salt. If you only have fine table salt, use half the amount. For sea salt flakes, increase to 3/4 teaspoon.

Extra add in options – You’re only limited by your imagination! If you’ve got leftover pickled jalapeños from the B85 Beef Sausage Rolls, they’d be a brilliant addition. Sun dried tomatoes, olives, chives, green onion, bacon, ham, even chopped pickles!

Actually, the idea to share a cheese scones recipe came about when I made cheese, bacon and green onion scones. I brushed the tops with bacon fat for extra bacony goodness! I’ll share these next. 🙂

How to make cheese scones

The key to flaky, fluffy scones is cutting cold butter into flour which creates tiny fat pockets that melt and steam as the scones bake. A food processor makes seriously speedy work of this – plus you avoid the risk of melting the butter with warm fingers which makes the scones chewy and greasy.

Blitz – Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor fitted with a standard “S” blade. Pulse once just to combine, then scatter the butter across the surface. Pulse 4 to 5 times until the largest butter pieces are about the size of a pea. Add the cheese and pulse once just to mix through.

Milk – Slowly pour the milk through the feeder tube while pulsing 8 to 10 times, until you can no longer see flour, then stop pulsing

Dough done! The scone dough might look a bit crumbly in the food processor but if you pinch it between your fingers you’ll see it sticks together. It should be a little bit sticky – wetter dough means more moist scones inside. Dry dough = dry scones = 😢.

Wedges – Bring the dough together in a ball then pat it into a 3cm / 1.2″ thick round disc on a piece of baking paper (parchment paper). Brush with milk, sprinkle with cheese then cut into 6 wedges.

Separate – Keep the scones on the paper and transfer to a baking tray. Then separate the wedges so they are 5cm/2″ apart.

Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced) until golden on top. I find a slightly hot oven gives these a nice rise boost and beautiful golden cheesy crust.

Cool 5 minutes on the tray then attack!

And here’s a close up look at the inside. You’ll see in the video how soft they are when I give them a good squeeze!

These cheese scones are one of those baked goods that are at their absolute peak fresh out of the oven, when they’re puffed and golden, impossibly fluffy inside, the cheese crust is shiny and they’re still warm and steamy inside, waiting for you to gently pry them open and give it a (generous!) slather of butter.

But it’s ok! You don’t have to inhale all 6 in one sitting. They keep for 2 – 3 days, and though they will feel firm and dry (and they are, when cold), a quick 30 second microwave is all it needs for an immediate resurrection back to pillowy fluffiness inside. Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

Getting Doxer fitted out in his tux for the Mum Cha RecipeTin X Plate It Forward reader lunch tomorrow!

The vision in my head is always better -in reality, the tux is always sits a bit scruffy and he never looks very happy! Flattened ears are a dead giveaway. He likes being naked! 😂