Belinda's Cheese Scones - #ISW2021

I have been fortunate to attend two of Belinda Jeffery's cooking classes in the beautiful Northern Rivers area of New South Wales.  She is a wonderful cook and a warm and charming person.  And I love her cookbooks!  This recipe is my contribution to International Scone Week, hosted by Tandy of Lavender and Lime.  #ISW2021 was started in 2011 by the lovely Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, and is now maintained by our terrific host Tandy.

This recipe is from Belinda's book Mix & Bake; she calls it 'Really Good Cheese Scones', and indeed they are.  She suggests, and I agree, that you need to use a really tasty vintage cheese and grate it fresh for these babies.  I decided to add a few dried herbs to the mix too, for an extra punch of flavour though they are great without.

Funnily enough, I am a walking disaster area when at Belinda's classes.  On the first occasion, I cut my finger (well, technically my friend cut it as I put up my finger while she waved her knife around) and bled like a stuck pig.  I came over all faint and had to lie down.  And the second time, I just came over all faint for no reason at all, and had to lie down.  I am jinxed obvs. :-)   

golden and cheesy

Makes 8:

ingredients:

185g./6.5 oz self-raising flour

80g./3 oz wholemeal self-raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp mustard powder

a few grinds of black pepper, to taste

a few dashes of dried herbs like chives or oregano (optional)

150g./5.5 oz really fabulous, sharp vintage cheddar cheese

30g./1 oz parmesan cheese,  plus a bit extra for sprinkling over the tops of the scones before baking

60g./2.2 oz cold butter, cut into chunks

125 mL/7 oz cold buttermilk or regular milk

Method:

On goes your oven to 200C/390F, and line a baking tray with 2 layers of baking paper

Tip the flours, salt, mustard, black pepper and dried herbs into your food processor (or a large mixing bowl and whisk in by hand), and whizz it for about 15 seconds

Add the cheeses and give it ten seconds, then add the butter chunks and whizz again till you have tiny shreds of butter

If you used the processor, now tip the mixture into a large bowl, and make a well in the middle

Pour in the milk, and using a knife, stir the liquid into the flour mixture - beware, this is a dry mixture and will take a bit of time, so you'll probably need to push your hands into it and pat it together so you end up with a large, rough ball

Turn out the mixture onto a lightly-floured bench or board, and pat into a smooth-ish dough (Belinda says DO NOT add more milk)

Now roll out the dough till about 2.5cm/1 inch thick

And cut out 8 rounds with a scone cutter or glass jar (6cm/2.5 in across) dipped in flour (keep patting the bits of dough together till you have used it all up)

Place the scones on the tray, all neighbourly-like, shoulders touching

Sprinkle on the extra parmesan, and bake for 20 minutes till golden

Put them on a wire rack with a tea towel over them to cool down a little, then eat while warm with loads of butter!

Notes:

I was really tempted to add a wee bit more milk, but they turned out fine in the end (but beware, it is a very dry dough)

Belinda says to roll out the dough till 4-5 cm thick!  Nope, this was never going to happen; I would have ended up with about 4 scones

ready for whizzing 

in go the cheeses

and whizzed till crumby or should that be crumbly?!

and patted into a 2.5cm high round

heading into a 200C oven for 20 mins.

golden and warm

slather with butter, my friends!

Belinda patting out the bread dough in our class June 2018

© Sherry M.

(Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker blog for Weekend Cooking.)