I’ve loved cheese scones since I was a little girl. In my opinion, eating a still warm, generously buttered cheesy scone is one of the most divine simple pleasures in the world.
The best cheese scones I’ve ever eaten locally is from a lovely place called Brodie CountryFare.
They have a lovely family restaurant where they serve all kinds of delicious food and their home baking is pretty amazing.
They also have a huge selection of gorgeous cakes, traybakes and very tempting looking desserts which are pretty hard to resist.
I’ve been trying to replicate their cheese scone recipe for a very long time, and I think I’ve finally cracked it. I played around with two of my favourite scone recipes by Paul Hollywood and Felicity Cloak and came up with these beauties.
I add my own little twist to the classic scone recipe by adding freshly snipped chives.
I love the mild onion flavour, but you can leave them out if you wish.
what do you eat cheese scones with?
I believe the best way to eat a cheese scone is with butter, spread as thickly as you dare while the scone is still warm so the butter melts all the way through to the fluffy middle of the scone. That’s pretty hard to beat.
They are also delicious with onion chutney, ham or if you are a fan, marmite!
I’ve also recently discovered that wild garlic butter is absolutely the best with cheese scones.
how long will cheese scones keep?
All scones are best eaten on the same day of baking. However, the scones will be ok to eat a day or two after making.
They do tend to stale quite quickly though so I warm them in the microwave for 15 seconds or so before eating.
my tips for making the best cheese scones ever
The number one rule for making the best scones is handle the dough with care. If you knead the dough, you’ll end up with tough scones.
I’ve found the best way to bring the dough is by hand. I don’t roll the dough out with a rolling pin either – I just pat the dough out lightly using my hands.
Just like this Best fluffy scone recipe, this recipe uses strong white bread flour. You can use normal plain flour, but for some reason the scones always turn out better using the bread flour.
Please don’t be alarmed by the amount of baking powder in this recipe. I know 6 teaspoons seems like an awful lot, but you need it to get the scones to rise properly.
I’ve tested scone recipes using bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar, but I’ve found using just baking powder is the most effective way of getting that rise.
I like my cheese scones with lots of cheese. The more cheese the better!
I use a mixture of mature cheddar cheese and a red cheese such as red leicester. The red cheese adds a great colour to the scones.
The magic ingredient that makes all the difference to these scones are dried mustard powder – but don’t worry, your scones won’t end up tasting like mustard!
The mustard powder adds colour to the baked scones and amplifies the cheese flavour, which is definitely not a bad thing.
I also glaze the top of the scones with a beaten egg yolk or milk and sprinkle the top of the scones with more cheese.
The egg yolk glaze will give you a shiny, golden, slightly crisp top and using the milk will help brown the top of the scones.
How long will the scones keep for?
Although all scones are best eaten on the same day they are baked, they will keep well in an airtight container for 2 or 3 days.
The scones can also be frozen for up to 5 months.
Want to see more scone recipes? Check these out…
Salted Caramel Apple Cinnamon Scones
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Cheese Scones
Tall, light and fluffy cheese scones filled with lots of mature cheddar cheese. These are quite simply the best cheese scones I've ever had!Â
Ingredients
- 500 G Strong White Flour OR Plain (All-purpose) Flour
- 6 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tbsp Dried English Mustard Powder
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 2 Tbsp Fresh chives, finely chopped
- 80 g Cold Butter, Diced
- 300 ml Full Fat Milk
- 250 G Mature Cheddar Cheese, or a mixture of a mature cheddar & red Leicester, Grated
- 1 Beaten Egg Yolk OR 1 Tbsp Milk, For glazing the scones
- 25 G Mature Cheddar Cheese, For sprinkling over the top of the scones
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220C/200Fan/400F.
- Grease and line two large baking trays.
- Place the flour, baking powder, mustard powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the diced butter and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the grated cheese and fresh chives and lightly stir with your hands to combine.
- Pour in most of the milk (you might not need it all so keep about 25ml back) and using your hands, lightly mix until you have a soft, moist dough and no dry crumbs remain on the bottom of the bowl. If the dough seems a little dry, add the remaining milk.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly pat out to a rough square, no less than 1 Inch thick. Using a large cutter, cut out rounds. Don't twist the cutter when cutting the scones or your scones will rise unevenly.
- Repeat cutting out the scones until all the dough is used up. You don't need to knead the dough when re-rolling - just simply push it back together lightly with your hands. Bear in mind that the less you handle the dough, the lighter your scones will be.
- Place the scones on the baking trays, brush with the beaten egg yolk or milk (try not to let the liquid run down the sides or it could affect the rise) and sprinkle over the 25g grated cheese. Immediately place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until well risen and golden on top. The smell of the scones baking will make you ravenous!
- Delicious served warm with lots of butter, ham, or chutney.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 468Total Fat 22gSaturated Fat 11gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 69mgSodium 910mgCarbohydrates 53gNet Carbohydrates 0gFiber 1gSugar 0gSugar Alcohols 0gProtein 15g
I love warm scones out of the oven. Your photos are making my mouth water!!
Thank you! You can’t beat a warm, fresh scone 🙂
I’m with you on cheese scones being one of the best simple pleasures and definitely warm and dripping in butter. Yours look so so good. You’ve caught me on a fast day and this really isn’t doing me any good at all.
Oh my, your cheese scones look absolutely amazing, would love to have with a bowl of soup:-)
Loving the golden yellow colour of these cheese scones, they look so tempting. I adore cheese scones but not made any for ages, thanks for the reminder and recipe!
Thanks Camilla!
Oh my, I do love cheese scones and these do look particularly fabulous.
They look amazing, so much cheese. I just love it!
These look incredible. So simple and just perfect for the cheese fiends in my life.
Such tempting scones, with a mixture of cheeses gives it not only a good colour but adds also a very good flavor.
Thank you so much!
Thank you and yes – perfect for cheese fiends!
Thank you so much Anna, that’s lovely of you to say!
Thank you so much Janice, that’s a huge compliment coming from you because you make the BEST looking scones!
Thank you so much Kavita!
Awww I’m sorry! I must admit, these scones are definitely not what you need to see on a fast day! They would so break me!
It looks very yummy. Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe with us.
It’s my pleasure, Roslia! Thanks!
I’ve made thousands of cheese scones over the years, but these cheese scones are the absolute ultimate cheese scone. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment and rating. I’m absolutely delighted you enjoyed them!
Delicious, winner all round, best scones I’ve made in a while do you have a recipe for fruit ones please.
Hi Gladys, I’m so glad you enjoyed the scones! I don’t have a recipe for fruit ones I’m afraid, but you could add 75g dried fruit to this recipe – https://somethingsweetsomethingsavoury.com/a-really-good-scone-recipe-and-the-great-british-bake-off/
Looks amazing! I definitely want to try this. Can I check if the butter used is salted or unsalted? Thank you!
Hi Sophie, I prefer to use salted butter, but you can use either. Hope you like the scones – let me know if you have any more questions!
Yum and then some. Tried this morning and I’ll definitely be repeating
Fantastic! I’m so glad you liked them!
Great recipe really lovely rise and flavour!
Thanks so much Gemma, I’m delighted you liked the recipe!
These are the best cheese scones ever! They smell gorgeous, look gorgeous and taste amazing! Thank you for this wonderful recipe
I’m delighted you enjoyed them! Thanks for letting me know ?
Hi. I’d really like to try these today as they look delicious but I don’t have mustard powder. Will it work using a teaspoon or less of English mustard when adding wet ingredients? Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Emily, I’ve never tried it myself, but I would maybe try replacing the mustard powder with 1/4-1/2 tsp of English mustard. Let me know how it goes! You could also replace the mustard powder with 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper.
Lovely the best I’ve made
That’s brilliant Ann I’m pleased you enjoyed them ?
I have never been very successful when making scones but I made these yesterday and they were absolutely divine!
I’m delighted to hear that Lynn! ?
Like it says these simply are THE BEST Cheese Scones! I replaced the mustard powder (because I didn’t have any) with English Mustard and mixed it with the milk to add…worked perfectly! My son (the cheese scone connoisseur) gives them a massive thumbs up!!
I’m so pleased you like them!
Hi, I noticed you don’t use egg in the scone mixture and wondered what difference it makes.
Hi Amanda, I usually do use an egg in scone recipes but you don’t really need it here. An egg makes scones lighter and a little less dense, but these scones work really well without it for some reason. Hope this helps!
Best cheese scone recipe on the planet I make these at least once a week 🙂
Best cheese scones made thanks. Have made many cheese scones and have rarely been pleased with how they’ve turned out, but these were great. Fluffy and light on inside. Just like your fruit scones.
I’m so pleased you like them! Thanks for letting me know
That’s brilliant, I’m so pleased you like the recipe!