Cheese scones are a British teatime classic. Every cafe worth its salt will have them on the menu, ready to be slathered with salted butter, or perhaps a smear of cream cheese and chutney.
We’ve been making cheese scones for decades, and think ours are pretty special – all thanks to a few tips and tricks we’ve picked up along the way...
- Use plain flour mixed with baking powder, rather than self-raising flour (self-raising flour can lose its potency over time, so this is a more reliable method to get a good ‘lift’.)
- Yeast flakes bring extra cheesiness to the dry ingredients before you even add cheese.
- Buttermilk makes the very best scones so use it if you can find it. Otherwise, a spoonful of lemon juice or any vinegar will help sour regular milk, making it more acidic, leading to better activation of the raising agents.
- Barley malt extract is rich in natural glutamates, which enhance the umami flavour of the scones (we use it in everything from tomato sauces to stews).
- Turn the scones over after they’re cut. This really does make a difference to the rise.
- Don't brush the tops with egg – or if you do, make sure you only coat the very tops. If egg runs down the sides, it will stick to your baking tray and prevent a good rise. We prefer to brush with milk.
We’ve used Belton Farm’s Great British Food Award-winning Red Fox cheese for ours. It’s nutty, savoury and has just the right moreish cheesy bite.
Ingredients (makes 8-10)
- 450g plain flour
- 4tsps baking powder
- 1tbsp mustard powder
- 1tsp cracked black pepper
- 2tbsps yeast flakes
- 2tbsps malt extract
- 170ml buttermilk or milk with 1tbsp any vinegar
- 1 medium egg
- 100g unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small cubes
- 150g Red Fox cheese
- Milk and 50g Red Fox, grated, to finish
Method
1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, mustard powder and yeast flakes in a large bowl.
2. In a jug, combine the milk, vinegar, malt extract and egg.
3. Add the butter to the dry mix and rub with your fingers until it’s blended in and you no longer have big chunks of it.
4. Crumble in the cheese. Don’t bother grating it – you want nice big cheesy chunks in your scones. Combine.
5. Pour in the liquid mix and combine with the dry ingredients using a knife, then bring it together with your hands. You want it to be very slightly sticky, not dry at all. If it’s crumbly at the edges, add a dash more milk.
6. Leave to rest for 15 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 210C.
7. Flour a surface and pop your scone mix on top. Lightly flour the top of the mix and press out to 2.5cm thick with your hands.
8. Cut 8cm circles out with a fluted cutter. You’ll have to repress the mixture to make 8 scones. Don’t repress it a third time, as the scones will be dense. We like to scrunch the remaining mix into 2 ‘ugly’ scones as a chef’s treat!
9. Pop the scones onto a lined baking sheet, turning them over as you go. Brush the tops with milk, and finish with a sprinkle of grated cheese.
10. Leave for another 10 minutes. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Serve warm.
These freeze very well (pre-cooked, part-cooked or uncooked using the batch sheet freeze method) and can be cooked from frozen. Create dainty scones using a 5cm cutter, taking the cooking time down to 10-12 minutes.
