Cakes & Bakes: Goats cheese and nettle scones

I’ve made a few different things in the past with stinging nettles; pesto, soup and bread. This week, I made some goats cheese and nettle scones.

I’ve been eyeing up all the nettle patches in our garden and around the village here where we live. I’ve made a point of not clearing it from around the garden because I know I was going to put it to good use.

In the past week, much of it is just about to come into flower, so time is running out for foraging the tasty stinging tips. I donned a pair of gardening gloves and, with a zip-lock bag at the ready, got to work picking off the young, hairy green leaves.

If you set of on a wild nettle hunt, remember, only pick the leaves that are over two foot high; dogs passing by enjoy cocking their leg and giving them a shower! Pick them like you’d pick tea leaves, only the growing tip and top pair of leaves… and don’t forget your gloves! When you get them home, put them in a colander and give them a quick rinse under a cold tap, tossing every couple of seconds.

The only pair of kitchen gloves I have are covered in shoe polish – I didn’t want to use them to bring the scone dough together. I had to handle the stinging nettle with a couple of dough scrapers… not ideal!

If you don’t have goats cheese, most hard cheeses make good alternatives; cheddar, red Leicester, Parmesan etc. Similarly, if you don’t have any natural yoghurt, you can use buttermilk or sour cream. The recipe is very flexible.

They were really delicious; the flavours of the goats cheese and nettle work really well together. Slice in half while still warm and give each side a generous swipe of butter… lovely!

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Goats cheese and nettle scones

2020-05-14 15:32:12

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

500g self-raising flour
½tsp salt
1tsp cream of tartar
50g cold butter, cubed
300ml natural yoghurt
125g goats cheese, cut into ½cm cubes
20g nettle tips, chopped
1 egg, beaten

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7
Grease or line a baking sheet with baking/parchment paper
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and cream of tartar
Add the butter and rub together using your fingertips until you get a fine breadcrumb consistency
Stir in the cubed goats cheese and chopped nettles
Make a well in the centre and pour in the yoghurt
Bring the dough together with your (gloved) hands, being careful not to knead or the dough will become tough
Dust a work surface with flour and press the dough out to the thickness of about 2cm/1in
Cut out the scones using a 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 the beaten egg and bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden and well risen
Allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Cheese and chive scones

Cheese and chive scones are on the menu for this week’s Cakes & Bakes.

They’re easy to make – and have a very good effort versus reward ratio!

Grated cheese and chopped chives are added to a standard scone mix (a useful ‘go to’ recipe that can be tweaked and adapted for many uses). Cut into the desired size & shape – and baked for about 15 minutes. What could be easier for a bit of home baking?

They smell delicious as they come out of the oven – and look tempting as they sit on their cooling rack. Too tempting! Don’t worry though, you can tuck in almost straight away if you feel the urge. We like ours with a smear of butter – and perhaps a thin slice of cheddar to boost the cheesiness! Goats cheese, red Leicester, Gruyère and Camembert have also worked well during our extensive experimentations.

They’re a perfect light meal or snack at any time of day.

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest

Cheese and chive scones

2019-01-21 18:46:40

Yields 12

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

25 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

25 min

Ingredients

350g/12oz self-raising flour
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
½tsp cream of tartar
pinch of salt
300ml/10½ fl oz buttermilk
75g/2½oz grated cheese (I used a mature cheddar)
2tbsp finely chopped chives

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 225ºC/440ºF/gas mark 7
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large mixing bowl
Stir in the grated cheese and chopped chives
Make a well in the centre
Reserve about 2tbsp of the buttermilk before adding the rest to the flour
Bring together to form a fairly wet dough, trying not to mix or knead too much
Flour a work surface well before gently patting the dough to about 4cm thick
Form rounds using a large, fluted cookie/pastry cutter
Place the rounds on the baking tray leaving a little space between each
Brush the tops of the scones with the reserved buttermilk
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops have turned a light golden brown
Allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack
Serve while still warm

Notes

Slice in half horizontally, butter each half generously and top with a thin slice of cheddar

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Red Leicester cheese scones

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.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Red Leicester cheese scones

2017-07-20 09:37:20

Yields 9

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Ingredients

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

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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

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

By Nadiya Hussain

Adapted from Nadiya's British Food Adventure

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes and Bakes: Sourdough cheese scones

This week, I’ve made a batch of sourdough cheese scones. I’ve made sweet scones before, I’ve made savoury scones before, but I’ve never used sourdough in a scone recipe before. They’re quick to make, quick to cook and alas – quick to consume too!

You can double up on the recipe and, after the egg-wash stage, put a dozen in the freezer to cook off another day.

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Sourdough cheese scone with a mug of tea | H is for Home

Sourdough cheese scones

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Ingredients

100 g/3½oz sourdough starter 100% hydration
350 g/12oz self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
85 g/3oz cold butter cubed
75 g/2½ grated cheese something like a mature cheddar
250 g/9oz buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 (about 200ºC if you have a fan oven)
Grease a large, shallow baking tray
In a bowl, mix the flour, cream of tartar and salt. Add the butter and rub with your fingers (or use a pastry blender) until it resembles fine crumbs
Make a well in the dry flour mixture and add the buttermilk and sourdough starter and combine using a flexible plastic dough scraper/cutter. Add the cheese and blend
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat it down to so it's about 4cm thick
Make into scones using a round pastry cutter
Carefully transfer to the greased tray and brush the top of each scones with a bit of beaten egg or milk
Bake until risen and golden on the top, about 12-15 minutes