As much as I love traditional jam and cream ones, these savoury cheese scones have my heart…. does it surprise anyone that I make mine extra cheesy? 🙂
Cheese scones need to be a thing!
Savoury scones feel like the next big thing in Australia. Just like savoury muffins once were. Say “muffin” and most think blueberry….. I think cheese. 😅
Thus, I’ve been delighted to notice in recent years the increasing presence of savoury scones at bakeries around town, especially at local markets. Take everything you love about traditional scones – flaky, fluffy, tender, warm – and add cheesy goodness with extra crispy, cheese crusted craggy edges. It’s a home run!
And while Aussie scones are usually round, I’ve gone American-style wedges here so I could make them bigger, with crunchier edges (those corners!) and faster – no ring cutters needed.
Ingredients in cheese scones
Heads up – I make mine extra cheesy. There’s 200g/2 cups of cheese to 1 3/4 cups of flour (260g). It is not typical to see the ingredients skewed so heavily towards cheese. But my theory is that if we’re making cheese scones, I want to be able to taste the cheese! Else I’d rather make plain ones. 🙂
Plain flour (all-purpose flour) and baking powder – While traditional scones call for self-raising flour, I prefer plain flour with added baking powder for cheese scones. This way I can add enough baking powder to give the dough extra lift to counter the weight of all that cheese (what an excellent problem to have!). Also, as a general rule, self-raising flour isn’t as effective as combining flour plus baking powder (rule of thumb is 2 teaspoons baking powder for every cup of flour).
Cheese – Cheddar is my default, though tasty cheese (an Australian favourite) works well too. Actually, any good melting cheese that can be shredded works – just avoid mozzarella (not enough flavour). For punch, use sharp vintage cheddar, for milder, try Swiss, for premium I splurge on gruyere.
Pre-shredded is fine (rare endorsement!), I like Devondale’s 3-cheese blend (mozzarella, colby, parmesan).
Cold unsalted butter – Cold butter is key to that signature flaky texture and soft, fluffy interior. It’s best to cut it into smallish pieces so it cuts easily and evenly into the flour.
Milk – Full fat milk is best though low fat works as well. I haven’t tried with non-cow milk but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Salt – These scones benefit from a decent amount of salt. I use 1/2 teaspoon of cooking salt / kosher salt. If you only have fine table salt, use half the amount. For sea salt flakes, increase to 3/4 teaspoon.
Extra add in options – You’re only limited by your imagination! If you’ve got leftover pickled jalapeños from the B85 Beef Sausage Rolls, they’d be a brilliant addition. Sun dried tomatoes, olives, chives, green onion, bacon, ham, even chopped pickles!
Actually, the idea to share a cheese scones recipe came about when I made cheese, bacon and green onion scones. I brushed the tops with bacon fat for extra bacony goodness! I’ll share these next. 🙂
How to make cheese scones
The key to flaky, fluffy scones is cutting cold butter into flour which creates tiny fat pockets that melt and steam as the scones bake. A food processor makes seriously speedy work of this – plus you avoid the risk of melting the butter with warm fingers which makes the scones chewy and greasy.
Blitz – Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor fitted with a standard “S” blade. Pulse once just to combine, then scatter the butter across the surface. Pulse 4 to 5 times until the largest butter pieces are about the size of a pea. Add the cheese and pulse once just to mix through.
Milk – Slowly pour the milk through the feeder tube while pulsing 8 to 10 times, until you can no longer see flour, then stop pulsing
Dough done! The scone dough might look a bit crumbly in the food processor but if you pinch it between your fingers you’ll see it sticks together. It should be a little bit sticky – wetter dough means more moist scones inside. Dry dough = dry scones = 😢.
Wedges – Bring the dough together in a ball then pat it into a 3cm / 1.2″ thick round disc on a piece of baking paper (parchment paper). Brush with milk, sprinkle with cheese then cut into 6 wedges.
Separate – Keep the scones on the paper and transfer to a baking tray. Then separate the wedges so they are 5cm/2″ apart.
Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced) until golden on top. I find a slightly hot oven gives these a nice rise boost and beautiful golden cheesy crust.
Cool 5 minutes on the tray then attack!
And here’s a close up look at the inside. You’ll see in the video how soft they are when I give them a good squeeze!
These cheese scones are one of those baked goods that are at their absolute peak fresh out of the oven, when they’re puffed and golden, impossibly fluffy inside, the cheese crust is shiny and they’re still warm and steamy inside, waiting for you to gently pry them open and give it a (generous!) slather of butter.
But it’s ok! You don’t have to inhale all 6 in one sitting. They keep for 2 – 3 days, and though they will feel firm and dry (and they are, when cold), a quick 30 second microwave is all it needs for an immediate resurrection back to pillowy fluffiness inside. Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
FAQ – Cheese Scones!
I have not tested this with gluten free flour though a reader left a comment below that she successfully made this with gluten free flour.
Scones are best eaten freshly made. Once cool, they start to lose freshness but keep for 3 days in an airtight container. However, they MUST be served warm to rejuvenate them! Beyond 3 days I find they are too stale.
I’ve dabbled in savoury scones in the past but didn’t buckle down to finalise a recipe until I decided it would be a great one to share. 🙂 The craving for a savoury cheese scone came about after a visit to the Orange Grove markets and enjoying one of the famous Brickfields Bakery Cheddar Chilli and Olive scones.
I will share a savoury scone with add-ins next time, but I wanted to figure out a plain cheese scone first. (Though – mind you – nothing plain about these scones!)
I used my classic jam-and-cream scones recipe as the base then added cheese. I knew the cheese would weigh it down (this is not the first cheese recipe this Cheese Monster has done!) so I used flour plus baking powder rather than self raising flour which we do in traditional scones, as it makes things rise better. Why? Because baking powder starts to lose its leavening power the moment you crack the seal, so when pre-mixed with flour the baking powder in it is not as effective as using it freshly measured out of the jar.
In fact, dead baking powder is all too often the cause for flat cakes, so much so that I shared a quick little tutorial for how to check if your baking powder is still good.
I also felt the scone could be a little more buttery – I think because with traditional scones, you get a good amount of wetness from jam and cream which is missing with savoury scones. So then I dialled up the butter, played around with the best shape (wedges = more crunchy edges than cutting rounds plus faster to make plus larger = bakes long enough to get nice crunchy cheese edges).
And 5 goes later, I was done! Wrote it up, filmed the recipe video, got JB to make it – and his were slightly underbaked in the middle because I made a typo with the oven temp (I wrote 170C instead of 180C fan) – which meant I made it again the morning I published this post to double check it.
Then that afternoon I made it again to film a social media recipe reel – you can watch it here on Instagram.
So, all up for this recipe, I think I made it 8 times leading up to share this recipe. 🙂
I prefer using a food processor to make scones not only for convenience but also because I find when I do it by hand, my hot little fingers tends to melt the butter a bit as I rub it into the flour. So the scones are never as flaky, light and tender as they are when made with a food processor. Still good – but they really are better with a food processor!
This is because scones rely on a gazillion teeny tiny little cold butter bits inside the dough to create steamy pockets in the dough as it bakes, which makes the scones rise. If the butter is softened, it blends into the dough instead so you don’t get those little air pockets, which leads to a denser scone.
Yes, absolutely! Use a pastry cutter if you’ve got one (a handheld tool made especially to cut butter into flour, the same effect as blitzing it with a food processor) or rub the butter in with the tips of your (cold!) fingers.
Cup sizes differ slightly between the US (1 cup = 236ml) and the rest of the world (250 ml). While the difference is not enough to make a difference in most recipes, for some baking recipes it can mean the difference between success and failure.
You do not have to adjust for cup size differences in this recipe as I have already factored it in.
I made this recipe using US and Australian cups, and the weights provided and the end result is the same. This is because even though 1 3/4 US cups of flour = 210g rather than the 260g in the recipe, the milk is also less by the same ratio. So the liquid to dry ratio ends up the same, so the dough has the same consistency and recipe comes out the same!
Another measurement inconsistency factored into this recipe is tablespoon measure inconsistencies. I’ve specified 3 teaspoons of baking powder instead of 1 tablespoon because Australian tablespoons are sometimes 20 ml, whereas the standard in most other countries is 15 ml.
Teaspoons, on the other hand, are consistently 5 ml worldwide, or within a very small range of this which is close enough for home baking purposes (for example, 1 US teaspoon = 4.92ml to be exact).
This recipe would still work fine most of the time if someone were to make it with a 20 ml Australian tablespoon of baking powder. But some brands of baking powder have an awfully strong metallic flavour so when you use too much (and 20 ml is 5 ml – or 30% – too much), you can taste it. Not all the time, but sometimes.
Easy way to avoid this problem and ensure everyone has the same successful outcome? List baking powder as 3 teaspoons instead of 1 tablespoon. 🙂
Watch how to make it
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Cheese scones
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups plain flour / all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar or tasty cheese (packet shredded ok, tightly pack the cups!) (Note 1)
- 3 tsp baking powder (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- 100g (7 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1 cm cubes
- 3/4 cup milk , cold, plus a little extra for brushing (preferably full fat)
Topping / serving:
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese , for topping
- Butter , for spreading
Instructions
Abbreviated recipe:
- Pulse dry ingredients once, butter 4 times, cheese once. Add milk while pulsing 8–10 times. Shape into 3cm / 1.2" thick disc on baking paper, brush with milk, top with cheese, cut into 6 wedges. Space 5cm/2" apart on tray. Bake 20 min at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan), rest 5 min.
Full recipe:
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced).
- Blitz dry – Put flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor with a standard "S" blade. Pulse once. Add butter, pulse 4 to 5 times until the largest butter pieces you see are pea size. (You can also do this by hand – see Note 3)
- Add cheese, pulse once just to mix through a bit.
- Pour milk through the feeding tube while pulsing 8 to 10 times until the flour is just incorporated, then stop straight away. The dough will be shaggy rather than smooth, and it should be a bit sticky but can be handled.
- Bring dough together – Scatter a work surface with 1 tsp flour. Scrape the dough out of the food processor then bring together into a ball with your hands. Try to avoid using extra flour, but dust with more if needed (I don’t).
- 6 wedges – Put it on a sheet of baking paper, pat and shape into 3cm / 1.2" thick round disc. Brush with milk (top and sides), sprinkle with cheese, lightly press in. Cut into 6 wedges. (Note 4 for rounds)
- Bake – Transfer to baking tray. Pull each wedge out a bit so they are 5cm/2" apart. Bake 20 minutes until the surface is golden.
- Cool 5 minutes on the tray, then enjoy warm with a smear of butter!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Getting Doxer fitted out in his tux for the Mum Cha RecipeTin X Plate It Forward reader lunch tomorrow!
The vision in my head is always better – in reality, the tux always sits a bit wonky, wrinkles quickly and he never looks very happy! Flattened ears are a dead giveaway. He likes being naked! 😂
I will definitely be making these cheese scones, Yummy. You and dozer are so much fun; never a dull moment 🤵♂️💁🏻♀️🦮
Can I substitute oil for the butter in the recipe?
Cannot wait to try! Please do share your recipe for the bacon and green onion scones also!
Massive long-term fan here from UK. I don’t use any other cookery site. Saw this in my inbox and cooked this afternoon, simply sublime as always Nagi thank you. Gary and Ellie x
Cheese scones are a staple in most Christchurch (NZ) cafes – customers would be miffed to not find them on menu. Often they have a touch of mustard or cayenne. Some cafes offer option of serving them split and toasted with lots of butter which is good with day old leftovers. As others say I pre-heat the tray, add mustard or cayenne, warm the milk (and add all milk at once as can always add more flour but adding milk in dribs and drabs then mixing between each addition as many of us were taught in our home science lessons at school makes a tough scone). Adding little icing sugar counters the flouriness scones often have without sweetening the flavour. Nagi you’re a legend and loved and admired as much by your Kiwi cousies as you are in Aus.
Love scones… love scones with cheese more….love your recipes even more but love Dozer the mostest!
I could not agree more Nancy, you took the words right out of my mouth!
Thanks so much Nagi I’ve gotta admit this is probs the best cheese & bread thing I’ve ever found and had. ( I love extra cheese too to be honest 🤣)Dozer looks adorable!!!!!!🥰 with his tux he’s so cuteeee, yet without, he’s even cuter!!!!!!!!!!
I love you, Dozer, and your recipes so much.!!
You guys have a special place in my heart and you will always be❣️
Thank you so much, can’t wait for your next recipes!!!
The best and easiest cheese scone recipe I’ve ever had is 600ml carton buttermilk, 600g SR flour and 500g grated cheddar, 1/tsp salt. Please try it Nagi and let me know what you think! It’s so easy you just mix the buttermilk and cheese then add the flour. Recipe is from a cafe in NZ where cheese scones are a national delicacy.
Thanks for recipe suggestion Lindsay. I made a half batch today. Quick easy and a definite thumbs up from hubby. Appreciate your sharing.
I’ll try any cheesy Scones! What oven temperature (fan/no fan?), & what cook time?
Nagi’s looks amazing!
180 degrees for 15 mins or until golden
Do you not use butter Lindsay
The buttermilk works in place of the butter, so super easy without the need for rubbing it in. A bit like how cream works in lemonade scones.
I so get u Nagi- EXTRA CHEESE 🧀!!!
Fantastic recipe! I usually like a dash of cayenne pepper in my cheese scone mix but these were divine without. Enjoyed these with my minestrone soup. So much tastier than crusty bread! Thanks again Nagi!
Shall be making these this weekend! I always add Colmans mustard powder to mine but love the thought of bacon bits and the wedge shape. Can see these being the new fave; thank you!
Hi Nagi, what size teaspoons did you use 5ml, 15ml, or 20ml. thanks xx
Standard tsp is 5 mL, standard tbsp is 15 mL
I’d like to save this recipe in my tin but I do not find the red heart
It’s like you’re in my head Nagi. I prefer savoury over sweet but I would still put apricot jam on this. Dozer looks adorable. Enjoy the weekend Nagi. Hugs and kisses for Dozer.
Sadly, isn’t all about timing. I made a batch of cheese scones two days before Naggi’s recipe dropped into my emails, so flavourless I am eating them with jam! My next attempt will be using Naggi’s recipe, hi octane cheese bombs! Thank you Naggi.
So much to love about a good cheese scone. The National Trust (in the UK) served a savoury cheese scone as part of their Xmas afternoon tea one year and we have never looked back. Always serve with cream cheese (plain or herb flavoured) along with homemade chutney or better still chilli jam. Even our local garden centre now serves a savoury cheese scone.
Nagi I love you… you make ordinary food extraordinary and always when we never realize we need them 😂❤️
Love cheese scones washed down with lots of tea.
Dozer looks adorable albeit unimpressed….but he will do you proud no doubt..
What’s a cheese scone without cheese overload a plain scone worthy of cream and raspberry jam.
Sunday morning brunch….can’t wait
Have an awesome weekend Nagi and Dozer ❤️❤️❤️
Hi, yummmmm. These scones insanely delicious . I knew a lady who used to make incredible cheese pancakes/hotcakes. My sister makes the most amazing cheese scones with her husbands smoked cheese. Love you Love Dozer and your recipes always blow me away