BEST EVER CHEESE SCONE

Warm light crumbly melt in your mouth deeply satisfying cave aged cheddar cheese scones, on their own sumptuously delicious but these have gone to a whole other level being smothered with salty butter, fresh baked ham off the bone and warm brie, one scone is too much and will need a couple of attempts to finish, but watch out that flavour will have you going back for just one more bite!

Prep time 10 minutes / Resting time 30 minutes / Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients 

(makes 10 large)

160g cold salted butter

400g 00 flour

30g sugar

40g baking powder

200g double cream

220g full cream milk

300g aged cheddar grated

1 egg beaten for wash

Pre heat your oven 220 C / 440 F

Place your baking sheet in the oven, if you have a stone baking sheet even better.

In a large bowl rub the butter in to the flour to breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar and baking powder, mix in 90% of the cheese reserving a little to sprinkle on top of the scones, then whisk the milk and cream together and stir gently to combine, at this point I turn the rubble mix out on to the work top and bring together by gently pushing the dough together but keeping my actions light, once you have a large flattish mound fold the dough in half, turn 90 degrees and press out to the same thickness as when you started, repeat this 3 more times pressing out a little less each time, this action is folding the layers of dough and fat which will give your scones the most unbelievable crumbly light melt in your mouth texture, not dissimilar to a really good home made puff pastry, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Press out the dough to approximately 2” thick and using a circle cutter cut out the scones in a straight down and up action, do not be tempted to twist the cutter as this suppresses the rise of the scone while baking.  Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven place your scones on, don’t over crowd, cook in two batches if necessary.  Brush the tops with egg wash place a sprinkling of cheese on the tops of the scones, turn the oven down to 200 C / 400 F and bake the scones in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool for a few minutes, these are at their very very best served warm, if serving later wrap in a tea towel until needed and enjoy.