We watched Great British Bake Off winner, Nadiya Hussain’s new BBC cooking series this week. She made Eton mess cheesecake, smoked haddock welsh rarebit and red Leicester cheese scones. It all looked amazing but as we’re afternoon scone lovers, that was the one I wanted to recreate the most.
Nadiya gave viewers a really useful scone-making hint that I’d never heard before. She advised when cutting out the rounds, don’t twist the cutter as this makes the scones lean when rising during baking. One to remember!
The other revelation was using onion salt in the recipe. We have some pots of wonderful Cornish Sea Salt, one of which is onion flavoured. I find ‘regular’ onion salt tastes a bit strong, but this one is more subtle – so I added double the ¼tsp measure she sets out. It worked perfectly.
The entire process took half an hour from start to delicious end. Nadiya served up hers with her own home-made chive butter; however, plain old salted works a treat too. I reckon red Leicester cheese scones would be successful as part of an alternative ploughman’s lunch – served with cold meats, boiled eggs, salad and pickled onions & red cabbage. Great for picnics, drinks parties or afternoon teas too.
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- 175g/6oz self-raising flour
- 50g/1¾oz strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
- ¼ tsp onion salt
- 55g/2oz unsalted butter, room temperature
- 25g/1oz red Leicester, grated
- 150ml/5fl oz whole milk, plus 1tbsp extra for glazing
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7
- Grease or line a baking tray with baking paper
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the flours, onion salt and butter into a bowl and rub together using your fingertips until you get a fine breadcrumb consistency
- Mix in the cheese
- Make a well in the centre and add the milk
- Bring the dough together with your hands, being careful not to knead or the dough will become tough
- Dust the work surface with flour and press the dough out to the thickness of about 2cm/1in
- Cut out the scones using a 5cm/2in circular cutter and place onto the prepared tray
- Bring the offcuts together gently, again being careful not to knead and cut out as many circles as possible until there's no dough remaining
- Brush the tops with milk and bake for 12-15 minutes until the tops are golden and well risen
- Allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack
- Serve warm with butter