Easy Savoury Scones with Cheese, Bacon and Chives

5 from 3 votes

Easy Savoury Scones with Cheese, Bacon and Chives

Easy savoury scones, made from scratch in under 30 minutes. They are flaky and crisp on the outside with a tender, buttery interior that will melt in your mouth. Packed full of savoury cheese and bacon flavour, they are perfect for morning breakfast, afternoon tea, lunchbox snacks or a delicious side to your favourite winter soups.

Prep Time10

Cook Time18

Total Time28

Course: Appetizer, main, Snack

Cuisine: Australian, English

Servings:

Calories: 204kcal

Author: Andrea Geddes

Ingredients

130 grams middle bacon about 2-3 strips/rashers, cut into very small pieces
265 grams self-raising flour 1 and ¾ cups, spooned and levelled. Weigh your flour for accuracy.
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ - 1 teaspoon mild curry powder Keens curry powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup fresh chives chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
120 grams butter cubed or grated, chilled. Keep it in the fridge until ready for use.
100 grams grated tasty (cheddar) cheese weighed when freshly grated. About 1 ½ cups.
160 ml buttermilk ⅔ cup (plus a little extra, for the glaze). Keep it as cold as possible until ready for use.
1 egg yolk

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Line 1-2 oven trays with baking paper and set aside.
Fry the bacon pieces in a frying pan, until crisp. Transfer the bacon to a plate to cool and discard any excess oil. You can place it in the fridge or freezer for a short time to speed up this process.
Whisk the self-raising flour, baking powder, curry powder, salt, chives and thyme together in a mixing bowl until combined.
Add the chilled butter and use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour, until it looks crumbly, like breadcrumbs. It’s ok if there are still some small lumps of butter. Alternatively, you can use a food processor for this step.
Add the grated cheese and place the mixture into the fridge to keep cold while you prepare the buttermilk.
In a small bowl, whisk the chilled buttermilk and egg yolk together until combined.
Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk and egg mixture and the cooled bacon and mix until the dough clumps together.
Add the dough to a lightly floured bench and shape it with your hands. (Don't overwork the dough).
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 2cm thickness.
Use a 6cm round pastry/scone cutter) to cut out 12 scones. After cutting a few scones, you will need to bring the dough back together with your hands and re-roll until the dough is all used up.
Place the scones onto the lined baking trays and use a pastry brush to add a little extra buttermilk (or some milk or melted butter) over the top of the scones.
Place the scones back into the fridge while you pre-heat the oven to 200°C/392 F.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and fluffy in the middle. Cooked scones will have a "hollow" sound when tapped on top.
Serve hot, straight from the oven, topped with butter and some chilli jam or green tomato chutney.

Notes

Don’t overmix the dough. You may be tempted to knead the dough until smooth, but less is more when baking scones! Work the dough only until everything just comes together. Over-mixing removes air, which will result in tough, chewy scones that don’t rise. We want high, fluffy scones!
While they can be made ahead and stored for later, they are best eaten when hot, straight from the oven.
Storage; wrap them in a hot towel when serving, to keep the heat and steam in. This will keep the scones warm and moist. Although please note that if you add curry powder, the scones may stain the towel- so use an old one! Store any cooled leftovers in an airtight container or plastic bag in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Reheating leftovers – heat them (whole) in the oven at 160 C/ 320 F for around 5 minutes (or in an air fryer at 160 C for around 5 minutes), or until heated through and steaming hot in the middle. They can also be heated in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, until heated through.
Place the dough on a floured bench or worktop to roll. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. If it's too dry, you can add 1-2 tablespoons more buttermilk.
Keep the mixture cold. Keeping everything cold is imperative to making fluffy scones. Keep the cold ingredients in the fridge until ready for use and even pop the mixture into the fridge in between steps, to keep it cold.
Similar to baking pie crust, the aim is to keep the butter as cold as possible while making the dough so that it melts when it enters the oven, rather than before. This creates super flaky, tender and fluffy scones.
The butter can be cut into cubes, or grated to easily incorporate it into the flour. If the mixture warms as you mix it, place the cut scones on a baking tray in the fridge to chill while the oven pre-heats.
Refrigerate the dough before baking. This allows the gluten to relax and the butter to re-chill and firm up and the baking powder to start working. This creates high, fluffy and flaky scones.
When the dough is rolled to 2cm thickness and cut into 6cm circles, you will get 12 scones. You can easily double or even triple the quantities for more. They can also be made smaller or larger, but cooking times will vary.
Freezing; If you’d like to make them ahead, scones can be frozen either baked, or unbaked. To freeze unbaked scones, cut the scones and place them on a baking sheet to freeze, before transferring them to an airtight container or zip-lock bag. You can bake them from frozen, just add a few minutes to the cooking time. To freeze cooked scones, allow them to cool completely and place them in an airtight container, wrapped in a bag or paper to prevent freezer damage. Use frozen scones within 3 months.
When are they cooked? Scones are ready when they are a light-golden colour on the outside and if you tap them lightly on top, they should sound hollow.
Please note that the nutrition information is based on the mixture being divided into 12 scones, with one scone being one serve. The nutritional information is an estimate only and does not take into account any additional toppings or sides served with the scones.
This recipe is made using Australian cups and spoon measurements. Any reference to cups or spoons in this recipe is in Australian metric. Due to cup sizes varying from country to country, I advise adjusting if necessary.

Nutrition