best ever cheese scones

So here goes, you taste scones at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school (see here) and they're the best cheese scones you have ever tasted.  Everyone around you agrees so you really have to try these at home, don’t you?  Problem was I had no recipe, only a few hints and clues hastily scribbled on my iPhone. (Can you scribble on an iPhone? Yes, I think you can ‘cos it has a font that looks like handwriting.)

In my first attempt, finding the right mix was like playing Cluedo.  Was it the plain flour with the cheese in the kitchen?  No?  Perhaps the self-raising flour with the salt in the parlour?  Good job I like Cluedo.  I may not have got all three answers in the bag but I was pretty pleased with the result. I have to admit it took me five scones to figure that out.  In my defence, they were small ones.

For the second trial, I used guinea pigs in the form of two strapping lads who came inside for a coffee break after digging up the garden beds (with my permission, I might add).  This time I’d tweaked the recipe by changing the plain flour to self-raising and adding more cheese.

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that I only ate three scones this time.  The bad news is that they were bigger scones.  I know, it’s only bad news for me.  

The even better news is that they worked.  The boys were happy, I was happy and maybe you could be happy too if you just try them, who knows?  They may not be 100% as gorgeous and perfect looking as Le Cordon Bleu’s but I think they’re still a winner. 

The secret, I think, is to:

•  use lots of cheese (I used Vintage* cheddar)
•  have a wet dough
•  handle the dough as little as possible

If you make them slightly smaller, like the first batch, you don’t even need butter.  They are simply yummy! 

Best ever cheese scones

2 cups self-raising flour

¼ teaspoon salt

50g cold butter

2/3 cup cheddar cheese (I used Mainland Vintage*)

1 cup milk

extra cheese to top the scones

Heat the oven to 230°C (450°F).

Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.  Either grate the chilled butter into the mix or cut it into small dices.  With your fingertips, rub the flour and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the cheese.

Mix the cup of milk in lightly and quickly using a knife or palette knife until it just forms a dough. Do not overmix.  The dough will be quite wet at this stage.

On a lightly floured board and with floured hands, gently roll the dough into a long cylindrical shape and shape into an even thickness.  If the dough feels too sticky, put a little more flour on the board and your hands – just enough to continue. Cut into rounds, big or small, and place them on a greased oven tray or a tray lined with greaseproof paper. 

Grate some extra cheese over the tops of the scones – I like to use a reasonable amount.

Place the tray near the top of the oven.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until the scones are golden brown.  Remove to a cake rack and cover with a dry tea towel to keep warm.  Serve as is, or with butter.

Best eaten warm on the day – believe me they don’t last long.

* Mainland Vintage is an aged cheddar with a crumbly texture and real bite.

For a sweet alternative, click here for cranberry & custard scones

cheese straws for book club

Just to prove I’m not averse to a savoury bite, here’s some cheese straws I made for book club last Thursday.

I needed something not too fiddly to handle.  You know that moment when you’re sitting with a glass of wine in hand, along with your book, and a plate, when someone offers you food and it’s a complicated juggling and balancing act with no table nearby to spill onto?  And your frightened you’re going to drop everything on to your host’s pale carpet?  Yes, that one.

So, something easy to have with wine, something a little different from crackers and cheese.  That’s not to say the crackers and cheese weren’t lovely.  In fact, savoury crackers and ripe blue cheese partnered with the most perfect pears were so worthy of a second helping – or was it a third? – someone was possibly counting.

I thought of these. Finger shaped finger food!  Perfect.

They were so quick to whizz up in the food processor.  Okay, you’ve got to clean up the mess you made after.  But you can be like me and swan out the door, cheese straws, wine and book (or should it be book, cheese straws and wine?) in hand, leaving someone else to clean up after me.

For the cheese, I used Mainland’s Vintage – a rich, aged cheddar with a sharp bite and crumbly texture.  Description came from the packaging, but really it does taste like that with an additional nutty flavour (or maybe that’s just me?).  Added to the rich, buttery pastry, you have a savoury biscuit that’s pretty hard to resist. If you don’t have said cheese, any mature, sharp cheddar or Parmesan can be used. 

Cut the biscuits into any old shape you want using knives, biscuit cutters, whatever.  You can even cut long strips and then twist them.  I cut mine into long strips and left them plain.  I patiently measured the pastry into 1cm across by 10cm in length to get a uniform size.  But don’t look too closely as I was getting a bit slapdash by the end of this process.

I thought of serving them upstanding in a jar or glass but didn’t have one with a wide enough mouth, so I bundled them up in string-tied parcels and you could just pull one out at a time leaving the rest intact in their little package.  

Back home, the dishes had been done and the leftover cheese straws eaten.  Job done, time for bed!

Next up:  I don’t usually do a preview – mainly because I never know what I’ll be doing next – but next post I’ll be commenting on the inaugural New Zealand Bloggers’ Food Conference which was fantastic and I am still all buzz about it!

cheese straws

Recipe makes approximately 24

125g standard flour

125g mature cheddar cheese, grated

125g very cold butter, grated

½ tsp salt

a small pinch of paprika (or cayenne)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture just forms a ball.  On a lightly floured board, roll out the pastry to about 1cm thick.  Cut into desired shapes or strips.  Place on a baking tray then chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake at 200°C for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden-brown.  Watch carefully to ensure the biscuits do not burn.

Leave on tray for a few minutes, then carefully remove to a wire tray to cool.

Hint:  Keep pastry cool and handle as little as possible.