Apricot Cheese Scones
My sister asked me when I posted a photo of these, 'are they dry and heavy?'
No they are not! My scones rarely are, unless I make them super dense by adding bits and nuts and stuff. These are, I suspect because of the cheese, light and tender even for my scones.
I was working off a base cream scone recipe, so you could easily alter them as you wish in terms of dried fruit, nuts, bacon bits, etcetera!
Also, it really helps if they all get eaten while still warm and fresh.
Apricot Cheese Scones
2 c flour (sifted and measured, I was using pastry flour, but all-purpose would work as well)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz frozen butter (keep it frozen until use)
2 eggs - separated, reserve one white for glazing
1/2 c heavy cream (more or less, see below)
1/2 c chopped, floured, dried apricots
1/2 c finely shredded cheese
turbinado sugar or parmesan cheese for topping
Preheat oven to 450F
In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, whisk together the two egg yolks and one egg white. The reserved egg white can be whisked until frothy with a teaspoonful of water and set aside. Chop your dried apricots using a small amount of flour to keep them from sticking together badly.
Floured apricots. Chop as finely as you like, I took them down a bit smaller than shown.
Using a grater, grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. If you start out with a whole frozen stick, but don't unwrap it all the way, you have something to hold onto while grating.
Grated frozen butter! Such pretty little curls. This gets the fats into the mixture without allowing them to distribute fully, which enhances the flakiness of the end product.
Give your butter and flour a quick mix, then mix in your apricots and shredded cheese (I used a cheddar/mozzarella mix as it was what I had on hand. Other types will add more flavor, or less). Finally, mix in the eggs, and most of your half-cup of cream, until you form a ball of sticky dough. Add a bit more cream if needed, or not. Depends on your flour and added flavorant's moisture. If you used, say, cottage cheese you would need less cream. If you used parmesan you would need more.
Dough ball should look something like this. Will stick to fingers, a lot.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and sift a bit on top, too. Pat dough into a rough rectangle, and about 1/2" thick (halfway to the first joint of your thumb, for me, if I put the tip of my thumb on the board). Cut into vaguely triangular shapes.
I used a pastry blade. Pizza cutter works, too. Flour it first!
Place the scones on your baking sheet, shaping as you desire (I smooshed mine into a little less long and thin triangles, so they would bake more evenly). They could be cut smaller, these were the main course of a Sunday breakfast, but we got 8, and each of us had two and that was filling enough!
Brush scones with the egg white and water mixture. Sprinkle on coarse sugar, or a dry cheese (parmesan works well) depending on whether you want to slant towards sweet or savory.
Bake for 11-13 minutes at 450F, removing when tops are golden brown and caramelized.
Allow to cool briefly.
I used mild cheeses, so they were almost not there in the flavor. But these were good! Will do again with a stronger cheddar.
[zrdn-recipe id="74"]