Green Onion Cheddar Scones
DIIIIIIIS. Dis is what I'm talking bout.
Scones: taking breakfast to a new, ridiculously good level since the 1500s.
Scones are amazing. This is a well-known fact.
Flaky, plain scones with a little jam and a little butter? Yeeep. Tender, sweet scones packed with chocolate chips? Mmmhmmm. Savory scones studded with green onions and cheddar cheese and a sprinkling of ground black pepper? Errrmaaagadd YAS.
A long, long time ago, I posted a plain scone recipe on the blog. I'm talking the first couple weeks this blog was in existence. And I said that it was my favorite plain scone recipe. PAH. No.
That is not my favorite scone recipe. It was then. But it definitely isn't anymore. I was so inexperienced and naive when it came to scones back then. Now I'm cultured and educated in this area and I know an amazing scone when I taste one.
And THIS scone recipe is now my favorite. For any plain/savory scone variations.
Lemme tell you why.
These green onion cheddar scones are my favorite because they have the best texture everrrrr.
Scones are supposed to be flaky and buttery, yes. And that's where butter comes in. But I also like when my scones are tender and soft. And that's where heavy cream comes in. I like a nice combo of crispy and tender.
Which is why these savory scones have butter AND heavy cream in them.
I've posted tender chocolate chip scones in the past. Those are incredible too. But they're sweet scones. And since I feel like sweet and tender go hand in hand, those scones have only heavy cream in them, making them nice and soft and slightly cakey.
These green onion scones are a little less cakey. But they're also not as flaky or crispy as a scone recipe that has just butter in it and perhaps also no eggs.
This recipe has heavy cream and an egg for extra tenderness. But also butter, because hi, we're making scones.
Now that you know what to expect from the texture, let's discuss the taste.
The taste of these cheddar scones is equal to the greatness of the texture. And that's saying A LOT, which you would know if you were paying attention before when I was going on about the texture.
I've tried making these scones without any sugar, because they're savory scones, so why the need of sugar, right? Wrong. The scones somehow lacked adequate flavor without the sugar. So I added a teeny tiny bit. Just a tablespoon in the whole recipe was enough to bring out all the other flavors without making these scones taste sweet.
And then there's the full teaspoon of salt, because FLAVOR. And the 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Because more FLAVOR.
And now can we talk about the green onions and cheddar cheese pleasepleaseplease?
I vacillated between green onions and chives, which both seem to be popular scone additions. I found the chives to be slightly sweeter than the green onions once they were baked, which I wasn't a huge fan of. So I went with the green onions.
Side note: I happen to call green onions "scallions," but "scallion scones" sounds weird, so we're calling them "green onion scones."
And the cheddar. Ah, the cheddar. Cheese is always a good idea. Especially cheddar cheese. Because you get a beautiful orange color contrast and sharp taste in your scones.
So yeah, these savory scones also get bonus points for being very attractive.
Aaaaaand, everything topping!!!! Best idea ever, right? Thanks thanks. (Okay, fine, I didn't come up with it by myself. I saw someone do it on Instagram and thought it was brilliant.)
That onion-garlic-poppy-sesame topping mix is a staple on bagels, but I intend to make it a staple on all my green onion cheddar scones going forward.
Please, feel free to join the everything topping scone movement with me.
green onion cheddar scones
Yield: 12-14 scones
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons (3 oz.) cold butter, cubed
3/4 cup cold heavy cream
1 egg
3 stalks green onions, chopped
1.5-2 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
- egg, for brushing
- everything topping, optional
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Pulse together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and pepper in a food processor.
Pour in cubed butter and pulse 3-4 times, or until you have pea sized crumbs. Don't over-mix. If mixture turns yellow, you've over-mixed.
Pour in heavy cream and egg and pulse a few more times until you get coarse crumbs again.
Pour dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead in green onions and cheddar cheese by hand. Divide dough into two (so that you don't overwork all the dough).
Flatten first half of dough till it's about 3/4-inch thick. Cut out circles with a round cookie cutter. Repeat process until dough is used up, then repeat with 2nd half of the dough.
Place scones onto baking sheet, brush tops with beaten egg, and sprinkle with everything topping if desired.
Bake scones for 15-17 minutes, or until bottoms are a deep golden brown. Serve fresh or re-heat next day.
