Cheese and Herb Scones

We are into the final week of this month long baking marathon, Fire up your Oven. Of the three month long marathons I have done so far, this was the least prepared marathon and even was in two minds if I should even do it. To my surprise, it was not that stressful at all. I can’t believe we are in the final week! If you are curious to know what all I posted for this marathon, check here.

For this final week, my theme is miscellaneous bakes. I have 3 savory bakes and one sweet bake. I wanted to do all savory but it did not quite work out the way I had planned. The first bake of this week is a savory scone. Scones are single serving cake or quick breads which can be either sweet or savory.

This recipe is one of the picks for this month’s Home Bakers Challenge. After baking so many sweet dishes this month, I did not want to do another sweet bake. Fortunately, Priya had challenged us both savory & sweet scones. I chose to do the cheese & herbs scones. The recipe had rosemary and I used cilantro instead and added 1 small green chili to spicy it up. It still was not spicy enough for my taste and wished I added one more. As with most of the bakes this month, I made half the recipe. I made these the day I made the pida and U came home hungry. I offered him these scones he ate and said these were ok. He went on to say that he does not like these kinds of bakes and that I should not expect much of a feedback from him. He is not very fond of breads but had I served with some eggs, he would have liked even the scones. He ate two scones though. I liked the scones specially when served warm. These were flaky and soft.

Source: Fait Maison
Total Time: 20 – 27 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Baking: 10 – 12 minutes
Yields: 6

Ingredients:

• 120 grams (1 ½ to 2 tsp. less than a cup) All-Purpose Flour
• 1 ¼ tsp. Baking Powder
• ¼ Baking Soda
• Dash (1/16 tsp) of Salt
• Dash (1/16 tsp) of Black Pepper Powder (I left it out but wish I had not)
• Dash (1/16 tsp) of Cayenne or Paprika (I used chili Powder)
• 40 grams cold Salted Butter (I used unsalted and add an extra dash of salt)
• 80 grams Sharp Cheddar Cheese, coarsely grated. I used finely grated store bought cheese
• ½ spring of Rosemary Leaves, finely chopped (I used about 1 – 1 ½ tbsp. of finely chopped cilantro)
• 1 small Green Chili, chopped (this is my addition and wished I could have added one more)
• 75 ml Buttermilk (I used 4 ½ tbsp. yogurt + 1 ½ tbsp. milk. The ratio is 3: 1 yogurt to milk)
• Egg Wash – Egg Yolk with splash of milk (I forgot do this step)

Preparation:

• Preheat heat oven to 425 F.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices into a large bowl.
• Cut cold butter into small pieces and rub it in to the flour mixture. Rub the butter using the fingertips.
• Add grated cheese, cilantro, and green chilies to flour mixture and give it a good toss to mix well.
• Add almost all of the buttermilk, reserving some, and stir until the dough just comes together. If there are still bits of dry flour, add more buttermilk until flour comes together. Do not apply too much pressure when mixing the dough.
• On a floured surface, pat the dough into an even layer, about ¾ - 1” thick. I used a rolling pin; again remember not to apply too much pressure when rolling out the dough.
• Using a round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Gather the scrapes and repeat the process.
• Brush the tops of scones with egg wash. I forgot to do this step.
• Bake in a preheated oven, middle rack for 10- 12 minutes until scones are golden brown.
• Cool on wire rack and serve. Since the scones have cheese in it, these taste better when served warm. If the scones are cold, microwave for few seconds, mind you not for too long before serving.

Note:

• Spice Level - I used 1 green chili and felt I could have added one more. I left out black pepper powder and if one wants to use that to give these scones some heat, adjust green chilies accordingly or leave out the green chilies and use pepper powder instead.

This day in 2014: Kosoi Bwtwi from Tripura