A savoury scone lives or dies on cold butter. Here it is rubbed into the dry ingredients by hand until the mixture looks like coarse sand, and the dough is only ever pressed together, never kneaded. Cream cheese and ham are folded in as dice, so the layers open around them in the oven.
British · Baking
Garlic and Black Pepper Cheese Scones With Ham
Cold butter rubbed into flour, then cream cheese, ham and a lot of black pepper folded through. The dough stays rough on purpose and bakes into layers.
- Prep25 min
- Cook20 min
- Serves8
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 150 g | cake flour |
| 40 g | butter , fridge cold, cubed |
| 6 g | baking powder |
| 10 g | caster sugar |
| 1.5 g | salt |
| 1 tsp | black pepper , coarsely cracked |
| 60 g | milk |
| 10 g | egg , beaten |
| 60 g | cream cheese , cut into small dice |
| 30 g | ham , diced |
| 1 | egg yolk , mixed with a teaspoon of water |
Method
- Put the cold butter, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl and rub with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Do not let the butter soften first.
- Add the cream cheese and ham and toss to coat them in the flour.
- Pour in the milk and beaten egg and cut through with a spatula until no dry flour remains.
- Press the dough into a rough block. It should look shaggy rather than smooth.
- Roll it into a thick log, wrap in baking paper and freeze for 20 minutes.
- Cut the log into eight slices and set them on a lined tray.
- Brush the tops with the egg yolk wash and bake at 170C for 20 minutes, until risen and deep gold.
Notes
- Handle the dough as little as possible; every extra press costs a layer.
- The pepper is the point, so grind it fresh and do not cut the quantity.
Ratios and technique checked against 面团小厨娘 on Douguo (蒜香黑胡椒咸奶酪司康). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.