Thursday night, over a few glasses of wine with friends, we decided it would be a great idea to make a Good Friday dinner together. We failed to take into consideration the fact that all grocery stores would be closed Friday, leaving us without any food to prepare for dinner. Regardless of the fact that dinner had now been changed to a dine-out experience, I decided to whip up some cheese scones Friday morning. After all, who can say no to a warm cheese scone.
I love the way this recipe will rise in the oven. It never fails to surprise me that something so simple can come out looking like I put a lot of effort into them. (I would be lying if I said I slaved over them all morning. The truth is that I have made this recipe with ten eight-year-olds in my kids cooking classes before.) I got to work grating lots of cheddar cheese, and in about half an hour had the first batch of yummy scones ready for tasting.
The recipe can be found below. However, it should be noted that I make alterations to recipes all of the time, and today was no exception. I put in an extra cheese, extra mustard, it adds a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to the taste, and used salted butter because, well, that’s what we had. (I did put less regular salt in though in an effort to make up for this.)
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Dash cayenne pepper
- 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk, plus extra for brushing
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly grease baking sheet
- Combine flour, baking powder, mustard, salt and cayenne.
- Cut the butter into bits and rub it into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs
- Stir in all but 2 tbsp of the cheese.
- Mix the egg with the milk and stir in until evenly moist
- Turn the dough out on floured surface make 1/2 inch thick and cut into triangles.
- Place scones on sheet, brush tops with milk and sprinkle with cheese
- Bake 17 minutes or until golden
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jillian Authier
A lifelong Windsorite, Jillian’s passion for teaching has brought her into the kitchen at one of Windsor’s community centres teaching children simple recipes even they can do. Jill also loves her white wine. Pelee Island Late Harvest Vidal anyone?
