It was my birthday recently and I decided to have a tea party. It was a roaring success, largely due to my delicious new scone recipe. I love scones, all scones. I once dated a British guy for two reasons: his accent, and he could make the best scone (Skawhns, he’d call them). Normally I make raisin scones or cheddar scones, but I decided to mix things up a little bit. I love cheese with fruit and there is nothing better than the sharpness of an old white cheddar with the acidity and tang of green apples. I found a recipe that intrigued me and tweaked it to suit my style: dump in ingredients, mash butter in with fingers, bake, eat.
Ingredients:
- 2 apples
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp butter (straight from the fridge)
- 1 cup cheddar (shredded)
- 1/4 cup milk (technically buttermilk, so add one tsp of vinegar or lemon juice to your milk. Bingo! Buttermilk!)
- 2 eggs
Directions:
The original recipes calls for coring your apples, peeling them, slicing them into 16 equal parts and then baking them in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes. I didn’t bother peeling them because I like the colour of the peel. I found that the slices were too big, so after I baked them, I cut the slices into thirds and that means you don’t get enormous chunks of apple in one bite and nothing in the next bite. Feel free to just slice them up into chunks and not even bake them ahead. I’m sure it would be fine.
Dump all your dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir them up! Add your butter that is cut up into 1/4 inch or 1 cm cubes then “cut” the butter into the dry ingredients. Basically, you grab two butter knives and slice the butter in opposite directions. I personally just wash my hands and rub the butter and dry ingredient mixture between my hands like I am trying to warm them up and that works just as well. The goal is a crumbly dough. I suppose you could use a food processor, but why bother dirtying more dishes?
Put your milk and ONE egg into the mixture and mash with hands. Or stir, if you’re that kind of person, but ask yourself, why are you that kind of person? Once it is all mixed together, add your shredded cheese and apples that you either baked or not. Mix that all together. If your dough is really wet, add more flour. If it’s too dry, put a bit more milk in.
A traditional scone is a big round loaf that you cut into wedges once baked. I prefer making mine into smaller circles or blobs before baking; this reduces the chance of a burnt outside and raw inside. If you want your scone shaped like a penis that’s cool too. I don’t care what the purists say, it still tastes good.
If you are lazy like me, put the scones on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. You can PAM your cookie sheet if you like doing dishes. To make an egg wash, beat your second egg, add some salt and use this to coat your scones. Then sprinkle some sugar on top. This egg wash makes a nice shiny glaze when the scones bake, but is an extra step that is not particularly critical. It is a bit of a waste of egg since you only end up using half of it.
Throw them in the oven at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Watch them carefully for the last five minutes to make sure they don’t burn!
Eat. Be happy. That’s an order.
22 replies on “Green Apple Cheddar Scones”
So I know I am super late on this, but I just caved and made an account to say that I made these last night, and oh my god they’re amazing. I baked the dough into mini scones and brought them into the lab this morning; they disappeared faster than, um, leprechaun gold. Or positrons. (Ten out of ten postdocs say, “Did you make these? These are so good!”)
I am so glad you enjoyed them! Glad that they worked for others!
These sounds delicious! And perfect timing. I have a tea party to go to next weekend. I’m totally bringing these with me. :)
Those sound worth using lactaid on. *_*
I want these in my mouth now.
Apples, cheese and baked goods are three of my favourite things in the world. These will be in my oven as soon as I can wash out my pyrex and eat all the current baked goods residing in said pyrex.
So, how does one write a food article here? Because I kind of want to write one. Or do you have to be an editor/mod or something to be able to write articles on here?
Woohoo! We’re always bringing in new writers. Email me at selena at persephonemagazine.com and I’ll get you started on the path to being a food writer.
Thanks, emailed you already!
These sound so yummy! If I didn’t ruin everything I tried to bake (including chocolate chip cookies) I would try to make these… guess I’ll have to make someone do it for me!
THIS IS IN MY OVEN RIGHT NOW.
Oh man, oh man, oh man. The smells! The anticipated tastes! The potential for eating all of them in one sitting!
DID YOU LIKE THEM?!?!? DID YOU LIKE THEM?!?!?!?!
To say I like them is an understatement. THEY WILL BE BAD FOR MY PANTS. VERY BAD.
Everyone: make these!
YAY!!!!!
This looks like everything I need in a dish. Although I don’t know if I dare take on the fineness of scones.
People make scones seem scary, but really just get in there and try them I promise they aren’t so hard! Lots of recipes are fussy, but like I show in my version, they really don’t need to be coddled along. None of this using food processors and wells and cutting with a pastry cutter. Just mix it up with your hands, knead it a couple of times, divvy it up and shove in the oven. They will not disappoint :)
Mixing, kneading and divying away right now ;)
How did they turn out? I’m sure they went awesome!
I am doing this very soon. I have all that stuff, maybe I could get up early and . . . nah, maybe Saturday.
Scones were the first thing we were taught to back as 12 year olds in school cooking. Always a fan of a good cheese scone, Mr. Cesy makes a mean one. These look delish, will have to try!
Mmmm! This sounds SO GOOD. I love savory and sweet things. I’m gluten-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free, though, so unfortunately I’d have to replace everything but the green apples. =)
haha that might make things a bit tricky there, but if you manage to make a scone with alternative ingredients, feel free to share!
Yum!!!