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Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Cheese scones – RecipeTin Eats


As much as I love traditional jam and cream ones, these savoury cheese scones have my heart…. does it surprise anyone that I make mine extra cheesy? 🙂

Cheese scones – RecipeTin Eats

Cheese scones need to be a thing!

Savoury scones feel like the next big thing in Australia. Just like savoury muffins once were. Say “muffin” and most think blueberry….. I think cheese. 😅

Thus, I’ve been delighted to notice in recent years the increasing presence of savoury scones at bakeries around town, especially at local markets. Take everything you love about traditional scones – flaky, fluffy, tender, warm – and add cheesy goodness with extra crispy, cheese crusted craggy edges. It’s a home run!

And while Aussie scones are usually round, I’ve gone American-style wedges here so I could make them bigger, with crunchier edges (those corners!) and faster – no ring cutters needed.

Cheese scones

Ingredients in cheese scones

Heads up – I make mine extra cheesy. There’s 200g/2 cups of cheese to 1 3/4 cups of flour (260g). It is not typical to see the ingredients skewed so heavily towards cheese. But my theory is that if we’re making cheese scones, I want to be able to taste the cheese! Else I’d rather make plain ones. 🙂

  • Plain flour (all-purpose flour) and baking powder – While traditional scones call for self-raising flour, I prefer plain flour with added baking powder for cheese scones. This way I can add enough baking powder to give the dough extra lift to counter the weight of all that cheese (what an excellent problem to have!). Also, as a general rule, self-raising flour isn’t as effective as combining flour plus baking powder (rule of thumb is 2 teaspoons baking powder for every cup of flour).

  • Cheese – Cheddar is my default, though tasty cheese (an Australian favourite) works well too. Actually, any good melting cheese that can be shredded works – just avoid mozzarella (not enough flavour). For punch, use sharp vintage cheddar, for milder, try Swiss, for premium I splurge on gruyere.

    Pre-shredded is fine (rare endorsement!), I like Devondale’s 3-cheese blend (mozzarella, colby, parmesan).

  • Cold unsalted butter – Cold butter is key to that signature flaky texture and soft, fluffy interior. It’s best to cut it into smallish pieces so it cuts easily and evenly into the flour.

  • Milk – Full fat milk is best though low fat works as well. I haven’t tried with non-cow milk but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

  • Salt – These scones benefit from a decent amount of salt. I use 1/2 teaspoon of cooking salt / kosher salt. If you only have fine table salt, use half the amount. For sea salt flakes, increase to 3/4 teaspoon.

Extra add in options – You’re only limited by your imagination! If you’ve got leftover pickled jalapeños from the B85 Beef Sausage Rolls, they’d be a brilliant addition. Sun dried tomatoes, olives, chives, green onion, bacon, ham, even chopped pickles!

Actually, the idea to share a cheese scones recipe came about when I made cheese, bacon and green onion scones. I brushed the tops with bacon fat for extra bacony goodness! I’ll share these next. 🙂


How to make cheese scones

The key to flaky, fluffy scones is cutting cold butter into flour which creates tiny fat pockets that melt and steam as the scones bake. A food processor makes seriously speedy work of this – plus you avoid the risk of melting the butter with warm fingers which makes the scones chewy and greasy.

  1. Blitz – Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor fitted with a standard “S” blade. Pulse once just to combine, then scatter the butter across the surface. Pulse 4 to 5 times until the largest butter pieces are about the size of a pea. Add the cheese and pulse once just to mix through.

  2. Milk – Slowly pour the milk through the feeder tube while pulsing 8 to 10 times, until you can no longer see flour, then stop pulsing

  1. Dough done! The scone dough might look a bit crumbly in the food processor but if you pinch it between your fingers you’ll see it sticks together. It should be a little bit sticky – wetter dough means more moist scones inside. Dry dough = dry scones = 😢.

  2. Wedges – Bring the dough together in a ball then pat it into a 3cm / 1.2″ thick round disc on a piece of baking paper (parchment paper). Brush with milk, sprinkle with cheese then cut into 6 wedges.

  1. Separate – Keep the scones on the paper and transfer to a baking tray. Then separate the wedges so they are 5cm/2″ apart.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced) until golden on top. I find a slightly hot oven gives these a nice rise boost and beautiful golden cheesy crust.

    Cool 5 minutes on the tray then attack!

Cheese scones

And here’s a close up look at the inside. You’ll see in the video how soft they are when I give them a good squeeze!

Cheese scones

These cheese scones are one of those baked goods that are at their absolute peak fresh out of the oven, when they’re puffed and golden, impossibly fluffy inside, the cheese crust is shiny and they’re still warm and steamy inside, waiting for you to gently pry them open and give it a (generous!) slather of butter.

But it’s ok! You don’t have to inhale all 6 in one sitting. They keep for 2 – 3 days, and though they will feel firm and dry (and they are, when cold), a quick 30 second microwave is all it needs for an immediate resurrection back to pillowy fluffiness inside. Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x

FAQ – Cheese Scones!


Watch how to make it

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Cheese scones

Cheese scones

Servings6

Tap or hover to scale

Recipe video above. As much as I love traditional jam and cream ones, these savoury cheese scones have my heart…. does it surprise anyone that I make mine extra cheesy? 🙂 This recipe is adapted from my classic scones recipe. See FAQ above for creation notes! 🙂

Prevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

Abbreviated recipe:

  • Pulse dry ingredients once, butter 4 times, cheese once. Add milk while pulsing 8–10 times. Shape into 3cm / 1.2″ thick disc on baking paper, brush with milk, top with cheese, cut into 6 wedges. Space 5cm/2″ apart on tray. Bake 20 min at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan), rest 5 min.

Full recipe:

  • Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced).

  • Blitz dry – Put flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor with a standard “S” blade. Pulse once. Add butter, pulse 4 to 5 times until the largest butter pieces you see are pea size. (You can also do this by hand – see Note 3)

  • Add cheese, pulse once just to mix through a bit.

  • Pour milk through the feeding tube while pulsing 8 to 10 times until the flour is just incorporated, then stop straight away. The dough will be shaggy rather than smooth, and it should be a bit sticky but can be handled.

  • Bring dough together – Scatter a work surface with 1 tsp flour. Scrape the dough out of the food processor then bring together into a ball with your hands. Try to avoid using extra flour, but dust with more if needed (I don’t).

  • 6 wedges – Put it on a sheet of baking paper, pat and shape into 3cm / 1.2″ thick round disc. Brush with milk (top and sides), sprinkle with cheese, lightly press in. Cut into 6 wedges. (Note 4 for rounds)

  • Bake – Transfer to baking tray. Pull each wedge out a bit so they are 5cm/2″ apart. Bake 20 minutes until the surface is golden.

  • Cool 5 minutes on the tray, then enjoy warm with a smear of butter!

Recipe Notes:

1. Cheese – Any good melting cheese works here—just avoid mozzarella (not enough flavour). For punch, use sharp vintage cheddar, for milder, try Swiss, for premium I splurge on gruyere. Pre-shredded is fine (rare endorsement!), I like Devondale’s 3-cheese blend (mozzarella, colby, parmesan).
2. Baking powder – Better to use this + plain flour rather than self raising flour as the scones rise better (recommended when we have cheese weighing the dough down!). Also note, I’ve specified 3 teaspoons instead of 1 tablespoon for consistency. That’s because Australian tablespoons are sometimes 20 ml, whereas the standard in most other countries is 15 ml. Teaspoons, on the other hand, are consistently 5 ml worldwide.
3. To make this by hand, use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour, or use a flour cutter if you have one.
4. Round scones – Pat dough down to 2.5cm/1″ thick then cut 5- 6cm / 2 – 2.4″ rounds. Bake 15 minutes.
5. Different cup measures in different countries – Cup sizes differ slightly between the US (1 cup = 236ml) and the rest of the world (250 ml). This has been factored into this recipe and it will work whatever country cups you are using (except Japan, please use the weights). See FAQ accordion above for more information.
Leftovers will keep 3 to 4 days though best served warm to freshen them up.
Nutrition per scone. Not including butter you slather on – because I don’t know how generous you are!

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 275cal (14%)Carbohydrates: 31g (10%)Protein: 12g (24%)Fat: 12g (18%)Saturated Fat: 6g (38%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 34mg (11%)Sodium: 404mg (18%)Potassium: 310mg (9%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 2g (2%)Vitamin A: 350IU (7%)Calcium: 342mg (34%)Iron: 2mg (11%)

Life of Dozer

Getting Doxer fitted out in his tux for the Mum Cha RecipeTin X Plate It Forward reader lunch tomorrow!

The vision in my head is always better – in reality, the tux always sits a bit wonky, wrinkles quickly and he never looks very happy! Flattened ears are a dead giveaway. He likes being naked! 😂



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