Scones!

The coffee shop by my house makes great scones!  I'm a scone nut, but had never had a savory scone...until I walked in and saw cheddar onion scones.  My life was changed.  I'd found my scone soul mate.  But how many $2.50 scones can you eat before you start to do the math on whether or not it's cheaper to make them yourself?  "Don't do it!" I told myself, which was working pretty well, actually.  And then they changed the recipe, or changed bakers...  So, alas, I've stopped buying them there.

But that's to our collective gain, because I now have a great recipe for scones!  The two combinations I found that I like best are Cheddar & Green Onion and Parmesan & Rosemary.  I'm pretty sure you could mix any cheese with any herb and be okay, but don't hold me to that.  Gruyere & Lavender.  Smoked Gouda & Dill.  Blue, Walnuts, & Thyme.  *shrug*  Experimenting is half the fun! (The other half of the fun is eating them, in case you were curious.)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2c flour
• 2T sugar
• 1T baking powder (you can substitute 1t baking soda if that's all you have)
• 1t salt (I omit this)
• 1/2c butter (you can substitute oil)
• 2 eggs
• 2/3c buttermilk (or 2/3c milk plus 1T white vinegar or lemon juice -- mix together and let sit until milk curdles, approx 5 min)
• 2/3c grated cheese
• 1/4c chopped, fresh herbs (adjust this up or down depending on how strong you want the flavor--1/4c of rosemary is a very different intensity from 1/4c thyme)
• optional: sometimes, depending on the cheese, I may also add a little smoked paprika for flavor

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.  "Cut in" butter.  If you have a pastry cutter, great.  I use my fingers or a fork to mash it around until it's loose and crumbly with no huge chunks of butter.

Add eggs and buttermilk, and stir until combined.  Keep in mind, it's not going to be a smooth dough.  Stir in cheese and herbs.  At this point you will have a very sticky dough.

From here you can do a couple of things.  These are basically fancy biscuits, so the easiest thing to do is drop them right onto a cookie sheet (like you would with drop biscuits).  You could also roll the dough out onto a floured surface, form it into two rounds and then cut each round into 4 wedges.  Or you could roll the dough onto a floured surface, form it into a 1.5 inch thick round, and then cut it into circles (sort of like cut biscuits).  Go nuts!  Try 'em all.  But end up with 8-10 scones.

Let rest for 10 minutes to allow scones to rise a little.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden on top.

You may not be a perfect baker, and they may look a mess, but they are guaranteed to taste great!!