Strawberry Cheddar Scones

Just! hear me out

Hello and happy Day After Independence Day. I hope you ate or are eating many hot dogs and much pasta salad (mayo or no mayo in pasta salad?).

Updates

Blueberry Cornmeal Coffee Cake is now up on the blog!
I know some people like to print the recipes and it’s easier to read and print there than say on the newsletter or in an Instagram caption.

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Brunch

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This Week’s Recipe

I know I’m kind of on a weird and quirky streak right now with my recipes but I could not get this flavor combination out of my head. Cheddar adds a savoriness (the dough only has a tablespoon of sugar) and nuttiness when it cooks and frizzles out on the baking sheet — it tastes almost like the crust on an asiago bagel. Then studs of diced strawberries add so much complexity and you can taste both separate parts so much better. Fruit and cheese are simply meant for each other.

Strawberries are incorporated in a series of folds which also helps give the scones flakey layers. It’s a bit messy but that’s okay.

The cheddar gets “tossed” into the dough after the liquid is added. The strawberries were a conundrum because I knew I wanted to drain them of some liquid other wise the dough might become too watery. I tried roasting them I quarters which made them a little too mushy to hold their own while getting folded and pressed into the dough. The winning method was macerating diced strawberreis with sugar and salt in a fine mesh sieve, over a bowl to collect the juices. They kept their structure this way but lost a good amount of water. And then I could use any leftover strawberries and juices to make strawberry sodas, cocktails, pour over ice cream, etc.

For this batch, I cut the cheddar into very small cubes which made the cheese ooze a bit more. (Grating incorporates the cheese into the scones a bit more. It’s up to you how you do it. I think this way looks better.) I also used a 2.75-inch biscuit cutter to cut them into rounds.

For this batch, I grated the cheddar, cut the scones into rectangles, brushed with egg wash, then topped with additional cheddar.

Now, are these scones winning any beauty pageants? No. Are any scones? Probably not. But they will raise brows and be the talk of any brunch you attend. In general, I try to make some recipes that are classics, but my version of the best, but also come up with ideas that I just haven’t seen a lot out there (since there are so many recipes online and elsewhere).

Strawberry Cheddar Scones

Makes 8 large scones