Grilling season is winding down but there are still other foods to experiment with. After stumbling across this recipe for savory scones a couple weeks ago, I decided to try it myself. I'd never made scones before, and likely hadn't even eaten one since Scotland.
Here's what's needed:
(dry)
2+1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
(rest)
whole stick of frozen butter, 8 tbsp/4 oz
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
3 jalapeños -> mine weren't overly large
3/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated -> don't go by weight, shred until right amount
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
Quick version:
1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl
3. Grate butter into dry mixture, gently stir not using hands
4. Combine sour cream and egg, beat smooth
5. Pour wet into dry, stir until seeing dough clumps
6. Throw in remaining ingredients, stir again
7. Now work dough with your hands until it makes a big ball
8. Flatten into a disk just under an inch thick, slice eight ways
9. Bake 18-20 minutes
10. Let cool and eat
I always laugh at the beginning instruction to preheat the oven, as I'm never ready when it beeps. Still, it makes sense as you don't want to wait after getting started. 400 degrees.
Make sure to have frozen butter when doing this. It seems weird, though I think the idea is to have bits spread throughout and for none to melt until everything is combined. So if you don't have butter in the freezer, throw some in there as long as possible.
As so many baking recipes go, combine the dry ingredients. Eventually everything else will make it in that bowl too and it needs to be big enough. Now, using the large holes on your cheese grater, shred the frozen butter into the dry mix. Stir it a little with two forks. Don't use your hands!
In a separate, and smaller bowl, add in the egg and sour cream. Beat with a whisk until smooth. This is quick.
Pour the wet bowl into the dry bowl. Stir to combine, again don't use your hands, until seeing some small dough clumps. The whole mixture isn't clumps and at this point it really doesn't seem like there's enough liquid in there.
You may still need to shred the cheese and chop the jalapeños. It's really important when measuring shredded cheese that it's not weight, it's volume. Get enough to fill the measuring cup to the correct amount. For me, 3/4 cup was slightly less than half a block. As for the peppers, I did remove the seeds when chopping. My wife can't handle spice and this was definitely the right call. If I were doing this again I'd probably chop the peppers into smaller pieces. Once the cheese and peppers are ready, throw into the bowl with everything else and add the thyme and black pepper.
The next part confused me in the link above. I didn't see any reason to combine the jalapeños, cheese, thyme and black pepper in a third bowl with a tbsp of flour before mixing it into a bowl of primarily flour. So I didn't.
At this point, I was a little concerned this would be a bust. The bowl was still basically all dry and I wondered if I could get it into a ball. This is a result of the still cold butter. Finally the dough needs to be worked with hands until it eventually melds together. Once everything in the bowl is one giant ball, you're done.
Sprinkle some flour on the countertop and put the ball on top. Push down until you're turned it into a flat disk. It should be 7-8 inches wide and ~1 inch thick, or slightly less. Put on a baking sheet. I cover baking sheets with parchment paper or tin foil, but that's up to you.
Slice the disk into 8 evenly sized triangles, like a pizza. I used a butter knife. Spread out so there's about an inch between. Then pop into the oven. Mine were done at the early end of the timeframe, right about 18 minutes. You want golden brown. Take out and let cool.
They looked alright, if a little homemade. They tasted pretty good and were pleasantly moist. It was a great side to a bowl of chili.
I put the leftovers in the fridge, though I'm not sure that was necessary. They stayed reasonably good, though obviously heated by the microwave isn't the same as an oven.
I think these'll happen again. Next time I probably skip the jalapeños entirely and do something more like cheese, chives and herbs. I like recipes that easily allow changes.
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