Easy recipe for cheese scones
These cheesy scones are perfect for when you’re feeling peckish. They are filled with chives and plenty of cheese. You can top them with a dab of butter or with some homemade cheese spread, or simply eat them plain. They are absolutely delicious either way, and these scones are super easy to make too.
Some tasty variations to your cheese scones
I used dried chives in this recipe, but if you want to use fresh chives instead, you can totally do that, just use a bit more. But if you’re not a fan of chives, you could replace them with thyme or oregano. Both of which also work wonderfully with cheese.
If you would like a spicy kick to your scones. You might want to add 1 or 1 teaspoons of chilli flakes. Or, if you have some fresh ones around, you can chop up a chilli and add that to the dry ingredients.
If you really love your bacon, you could even fry up some bacon slices and chop them up. Then you simply add the cooled bacon bits to the bowl together with the cheese.
If using plain grated cheddar is not cheesy enough for you, consider replacing half of the cheddar with some blue cheese. This will create a fragrant cheese scone that any proper cheese lover can appreciate.
If you want some more delicious cheese filled recipes then have a look at broccoli au gratin or cauliflower pie. Both are filled to the brim with cheese and always a favourite at my house.
Cheese scone recipe tips
Chives
If you’re using fresh chives in your bake, then take care when you mix the dry ingredients to add them last. So that the moisture in the chives won’t clump the baking powder.
Rubbing in the butter
If you hate rubbing in the butter because your fingers get all caked in flour and butter. Then use a pastry blender, or grate your butter into the bowl. If you grate your butter into the flour the rubbing in of the butter goes much quicker. You can even keep some butter in your freezer for this purpose to make the grating even easier.
Cheese. Mild or strong?
I like the meltiness of the younger and milder cheeses but I love the strong flavour and savouriness that the stronger and older cheeses add. So if you have the same dilemma you can use a mixture, but if you prefer one over the other you can just use that one.
A golden top
Brushing the tops of your scones with some egg will result in the most gorgeous golden brown top. But if you feel you don’t have enough beaten egg leftover you can totally add a splash of milk. You could even just use only milk, but this will result in a slightly less golden brown top.
Over kneading
Try to never over knead your scone dough for fear of ending up with chewy scones, which is not really what we want. Instead only try to work it until it comes together.
Ginormous scones
Sometimes we just love to make ginormous scones. Whether it’s because you don’t want to spread butter on multiple scones. Or because you just want to throw one big one in your lunch bag. You can quite simply roll out the dough until it’s 5 cm thick instead of 3 cm. Then using a round cutter or a glass that is more like 10 cm in diameter, cut out your scones.
Just make sure to bake them for longer in the oven, about 20 to 25 minutes should be fine. Just keep an eye on your monster scone, if you can see that it has puffed up and the layers are visible and it has turned nicely golden brown, it is time to take it out of the oven.
And eat your ginormous monster scone. Of course, after it has had some time to cool down or you might just burn your tongue.
How did your cheese scones turn out? Let me know in the comments. Also do you prefer smaller scones or larger ones?
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Cheese scones
Ingredients
- 500 gr flour plain
- 2 tsp chives dried or fresh
- 1 tsp baking powder
- salt & pepper to taste
- 125 gr butter cubed
- 100 gr cheddar cheese grated
- 250 gr milk
- 1 egg beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220 C
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. (flour, chives, baking powder, salt & pepper)
- Add the cubed butter to the dry ingredients and rub into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the grated cheese, you can use a mixture of milder and stronger cheeses (young and old) or you can use one type.
- Add only half of the beaten egg to the bowl together with the milk. Reserve the other half of the egg for brushing the tops of the scones.
- Mix well, then turn out onto a floured countertop and knead lightly.
- With a floured rolling pin roll out the dough until it's about 3 cm thick.
- Then cut out with a round cutter or a glass that is roughly 6 or 7 cm in diameter.If you want your scones bigger add a couple more minutes to the baking time.
- Place all the scones on a greased or lined baking sheet and brush the tops with half of your egg. If you're short on egg wash you can add a splash of milk to the beaten egg wash.
- Optional: sprinkle on some coarse salt and pepper, or a bit of extra grated cheese.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve fresh from the oven with a dab of butter.
