Scottish Cheese Scones with Scallions #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm pretty sure we ate our weight in scones while in Scotland last summer and I've been trying out recipes ever since. None of them have turned out badly, but this may be my favorite. It's adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe and definitely earned a spot in the 11th Key West mystery, coming in 2021.

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached All-Purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (I use low sodium)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup more for the tops
heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 chopped scallions (or leeks or chives if you prefer)
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut in pieces (I used Irish Kerrygold)
2 large eggs (1 separated, white reserved for glaze)
1/2 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
1-3 teaspoons of sharp mustard, if that appeals

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into the dry mixture using a pastry cutter. You want the butter to be in pea-sized pieces--try not to overwork the dough. Shred the cheese and chop the scallions and stir these into the butter-flour mixture. Whip together the egg plus yolk and the buttermilk or yogurt and mustard if using, and mix until the dough is moist. 

Pat the dough onto a floured surface--I like a circle--and then cut into wedges. Transfer to a parchment-covered baking sheet. Paint the saved egg white on the tops of the scones and sprinkle with shredded cheddar.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the tops are browning. 

Serve piping hot with more butter if you like!

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series, featuring fiesty food critic Hayley Snow. Number 9, A DEADLY FEAST, is in stores and online everywhere. THE KEY LIME CRIME will be published next summer and is available for preorder now... 


The tenth Key West food critic mystery, THE KEY LIME CRIME (July 2020), is available for pre-order!

You can order it at an independent bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and anywhere books are sold!

"Hayley and Nathan make an appealing pair, and the food descriptions and Key West atmosphere are equally enticing—a sure bet to draw readers of foodie mysteries."

—Booklist

Please follow Lucy on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, or Twitter!

A Really Big Scone

by Sheila Connolly

I mentioned recently that I’ve become addicted to the Great British Bake-Off (see my post here for Ginger Cake ), and I decided to order one of Mary Berry’s cookbooks, 100 Cakes and Bakes, so I could try my hand at some of the recipes. It’s a nice, small book. Each recipe fits on a single page, with a full-page picture of the (hoped-for) result opposite. It has a delightful range of traditional recipes, some of which I’d met only in books (for example, she provides one for Singin’ Hinnies, which I first encountered a few thousand years ago in Mary Stewart’s book, The Ivy Tree. I never expected to make them myself, but now I can if I want to).

Many of the recipes in the book are for sweets and desserts, but there are some nice savory ones as well. Since I was faced with a huge amount of ham left over from Christmas dinner, I decided to try something different: a scone with a lot of cheese. Not a cluster of cute little scones—one big one. It’s kind of fun, and it tastes good. 

Mary favors self-rising flour, which I don’t have, but you can make your own by adding baking powder and salt to regular flour. I just went straight to the flour/baking powder/salt combination. You (and Mary) can make the scone by hand, but I confess, I opted for my food processor, except for the final kneading step.


Mary Berry's Big Cheese Scone

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tblsp baking powder
1 oz butter (1 fat pat)
8 oz (weight) cheddar cheese, grated (you can also mix your cheeses--I used a blend of cheddar and parmesan)
1 large egg
Whole milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet.

Place the flour, salt, mustard, cayenne and baking powder in the bowl of your food processor and pulse a few times to mix.

Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. 

Stir in half the grated cheese (pulse just a few times).

Break the egg into a measuring cup and add milk to make up 1/2 cup. Mix lightly, then add the liquid into the dry ingredients and pulse until they make a soft dough.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead lightly a few times, until the dough holds together. Shape it into a 6-inch circle. Place on the greased baking sheet and mark in sixths. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown and firm. Cool on a wire rack.

Eat ASAP! It’s best served warm.

A Turn for the Bad (County Cork Mystery #4) is coming out February 2nd! The story was more or less handed to me by my Skibbereen police source (who is a great guy, as well as a historian and genealogist), combined with a more recent event that filled in some of the blanks in the story. 

You may be surprised at what goes on along the coast of West Cork!

Available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And if you happen to be in Maryland early next month, I'll be signing at Turn the Page Bookstore in Boonsboro, MD on Saturday, February 6th, between 12 and 2. If you don't already know, that's the store managed by Nora Roberts' husband. Turns out Nora Roberts has family from Cork, so I was invited. I'm gobsmacked: I get to sign alongside Nora Roberts!