Amy’s Sparkenhoe Red Leicester Scones

It’s hard to beat a cheese scone, and this recipe from expert cheesemonger Amy comes up trumps every time. The cheese laminates the scone mix, almost like in a puff pastry, ensuring they are as light and fluffy as they are savoury and moreish.

You can of course substitute the Sparkenhoe Red Leicester for whatever cheese you have to hand, this is also a great way to use up leftover cheese.

Makes approximately 30-35 bite sized scones, or a dozen large ones.

 

Ingredients
450g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
A good pinch each of cayenne pepper, mustard powder and salt
60g cold butter
300g grated Sparkenhoe Red Leicester
285ml milk
A little egg wash for glazing the scones.

Method
Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan.

Sieve the dry ingredients. Grate the cold butter into the flour, dipping the butter into the dry mix frequently to help prevent it sticking. Rub in the grated butter lightly to give a sandy texture to your mix.

Fold in 90% of your cheese (keep a little back for topping the scones with). Mix in the milk, you may need to draw the mix together with your hands to form a dough.

Turn out your mix onto a floured surface and press or roll until it is an even 1 inch deep. Cut into rounds using a scone cutter, we used a small cutter with a one-inch diameter to make bite sized scones. Pop onto a lined baking tin. Alternatively, you can press your scone mix straight into a lined rectangular baking tin and score to size.

Use a pastry brush to brush all over the top of your scones with egg wash and top with a little extra grated cheese.

Bake for 20 mins until the scones are well risen, the bases are crisp, and they make a hollow sound when tapped. Cool on a wire rack and serve towered on a plate with lashings of salty butter.