Classic cheese scones
About this recipe: These scones have everything you want in a cheese scone. They're light, fluffy and full of cheesy goodness. The trick is not to handle the dough too much and work very quickly. If you can do that, you'll be rewarded with a fantastic scone. Serve with lashings of butter for that indulgent treat. Perfect for picnics, afternoon tea or elevenses.
Ingredients
Makes: 8 - 10
- 225g plain flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 pinch mustard powder, cayenne or paprika (optional)
- 50g butter, cut into small chunks
- 125g extra mature Cheddar cheese, grated
- 140ml milk
- additional milk to glaze
- additional flour, for dusting (if required)
Method
Prep:15min ›
Cook:20min ›
Extra time:5min cooling ›
Ready in:40min
- Preheat the oven to 220 C / Gas 8. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and preheat the tray.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and mustard powder/cayenne/paprika (if using).
- Rub the butter into the flour, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the cheese to the mix and stir to incorporate.
- Add the milk, stir briskly with a blunt knife. From this stage onwards, try to work as fast as possible. Quickly form a ball of dough with your hands, without handling the dough too much.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a thickness of 1.5 to 2cm. Using a 5cm round pastry cutter, stamp our rounds; place them onto the prepared tray. Re-roll the dough, again trying to handle the dough as little as possible and repeat the process until you’ve used up all the dough. Brush the dough with milk.
- Transfer the tray into the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the scones are well risen and evenly browned. You may need to rotate the tray halfway through cooking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool or 5 to 10 minutes before devouring. Enjoy!
Tip
Two tricks to ensure well-risen scones: (1) Work VERY quickly with the dough as soon as it's made and then pop them into the oven as soon as possible. (2) Do NOT overhandle the dough. Simply pat to the correct thickness or gently roll.
Cook's note
You can reserve some of the grated cheese and sprinkle on the tops of the scones. Alternatively, you can just use more cheese on top.
See it on my blog
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Reviews (27)
Altered ingredient amounts. just used self raising flour instead of plain and baking powder. it was perfect. - 04 Sep 2010
/lovely recipe and easy to make, delicious!I too only baked them for just over 15 mins as my oven is fan assisted and I also added a bit more cheese as I like them really cheesey. I wish I'd baked twice the amount now as I don't think they'll last very long! - 25 Mar 2012
A lightly sticky dough is fine - lightly flour the work surface when you are patting the dough into the thickness you desire. Also to get the scones to rise, you need to work very quicky and handle the dough as little as possible. - 01 Sep 2010
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