Our resident baker and well-know member, Tracey Ebbs, shares some of her top recipes that you can make to help alleviate the boredom at home and provide you and your family with a tasty treat!
This week:
Cheese Scones
There’s nothing I like better for lunch than a mug of home-made soup with a home-baked cheese scone. This is a simple basic recipe that can be pepped up with your favourite herb or spice. English mustard powder is a favourite, or, as I love anything spicy, I made some with a teaspoon of Cajun spice mix last week that were delicious.
You could add a teaspoon of thyme, rosemary, cayenne, garlic powder or curry powder for an exotic twist.
You could also vary it by using your own favourite cheese, perhaps a blue cheese or Parmesan – whatever tickles your fancy!
Like all scones, they are best eaten on the day you bake them, but they do freeze well.
Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
55g butter – chilled and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g strong cheddar cheese- grated
90-100 ml milk
- Preheat your oven to 200C/ 180C fan/ gas 6 and put a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.
- Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and whatever spice you’re using into a large bowl and give it a stir to ensure everything is combined.
- Rub the butter into the flour mixture using your fingertips until you have a fine breadcrumb texture. Put 2/3 of the grated cheese in and stir to combine. Try to handle your mix as little as possible as you don’t want the heat of your hands to melt the butter too much.
- Add the milk a little at a time and stir it with your hands to bring it together to form a soft dough. You may not need all the milk; the dough should be soft but not too wet.
- Tip the dough on to a lightly floured surface and roll out to 2cm thickness. Cut your scones using a floured cutter and transfer them into a sheet of baking parchment. Using a 6cm cutter you should yield 8-10 scones.
- Take your hot baking sheet out of the oven and carefully lift the scones into it using the parchment paper. Brush with milk and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the scones.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.