Savoury Scones with chives and cheese

Scones are one of those baked goods that can be so butterly-enjoyable, but are too often more desert than dessert. And that’s with wheat flour. So when Josie told me she was going to make gluten-free scones I immediately started preparing my mouth for tasteless dust. Instead, biting into one right out of the oven, I put my glass of water down and went back for seconds. This savoury-take on a butter scone is moist and flavourful. Crack them open when they’re still warm and the cheese has a satisfying gooey stretchiness. (Popping them in the microwave for 20 seconds produces the same result on day 2.) The secret is adding the ice cold butter into the dough at the last second and then not over working the dough. Leaving the butter in chunks creates flakiness, helps retain moisture and gives the scone a lovely buttery flavour. 

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour
1 cup gluten-free flour mix
½ cup almond flour

¼ cup psyllium 

4 t baking powder

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

¾ cup kefir or buttermilk

1 egg

½ cup cheese

2 T chives

½ cup frozen butter

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

  2. In a big bowl, or with a stand up mixer, combine all the dry ingredients.

  3. Add egg, kefir, cheese and chives and stir in until well mixed. It should have a dough-like consistency.

  4. Grate the frozen butter and, while it’s still cold, add it to the dough, mixing until just combined. Keeping the butter in chunks, not melted, produces the flakiest and moistest result, so don’t overwork the dough. 

  5. Spread a tablespoon of gluten-free flour on a clean and dry counter and shape the dough into a large rectangle. Fold it in half and press gently to combine the two halves.

  6. Cut the dough into 8 triangles and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

  7. Cook for 17 minutes. The scones should be golden with just the start of a tan.

  8. If you can resist, cool on a wire rack. Otherwise, don’t burn your tongue.

Substitutions: Kefir is a fermented, liquid yogurt with a slightly more sour flavour. You’ll find jugs of it in the dairy section of most grocery stores. It’s full of gut-friendly bacteria and you can use leftovers just like you would yogurt, but if buttermilk feels more familiar it produces a similar result. 

For a sweet scone, replace the cheese and chives with 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of cranberries, and the zest of an orange. 

Watch a video of this recipe.