Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones with garlic & herbs are soft, fluffy and intensely flavoured.
Cream cheese makes the scones flaky and tender as well as adding flavour. I’ve used a garlic and herb cream cheese, although you could use a plain one if you prefer.Also in there is mature Cheddar cheese and fresh chives, giving the scones even more flavour.
Incredibly easy to make, there’s no re-rolling of scraps after cutting out. All you do is form the dough into a rough square then cut into twelve pieces with a knife.
Perfect for a snack, savoury afternoon tea, part of a picnic spread or lunchbox filler. You can even eat them alongside soups and casseroles.
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Cheese Scones are some of my favourite savoury snacks.Using mainly store cupboard and fridge staples, it’s so easy to whip up a batch for a snack, to pop in a lunchbox or for a picnic.
And lots of you seem to agree. My recipe for Very Cheesy Cheese Scones has consistently been one of my most popular on the blog.
What’s great about scones, whether savoury or sweet (see my Classic Sultana Scones for an example of the latter) is that they’re infinitely adaptable.
Swap in different cheeses, add a little ham or chorizo, different herbs and spices, and there’s no end to the variety of scones you can make.
One of those varieties I’ve recently discovered is scones containing cream cheese.
CREAM CHEESE
I was aware that cream cheese pastry is a thing.Often used in baked goods such as sweet or savoury turnovers, pies and the like, the cream cheese should give a very tender, flaky result.While I haven’t actually got around to making that pastry yet, I’d also read that cream cheese can have the same effect on scones.
So, being a lover of cheesy scones, this seemed the perfect trial recipe.For my first cream cheese scones, I used a cream cheese with chives and added fresh chives. And very good they were too.But, for the recipe I want to share today, I’ve upped the flavours even more by using a cream cheese with garlic and herbs.
By all means, use whichever cream cheese you like, flavoured or not.Other delicious dairy products in these scones include mature Cheddar cheese, butter, and your choice of yogurt, milk, buttermilk or whey.
I’ve chosen to use yogurt. I always have some of my Homemade Yogurt in the fridge and I think it makes scones fluffy and light.
But ordinary milk, buttermilk, or even the whey strained from yogurt or cheese making will work equally well.
As well as the herbs in the cream cheese, I like to add some fresh ones too.
In these Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones I’ve used snipped chives again. But you could use parsley or, just coming into season as I write, wild garlic.
EASY CHEESY SCONES
As anyone knows who’s made them before, scones really are very easy.
In this case, you start off by stirring together self-raising flour, the herbs, baking powder, salt and pepper.
Next, you grate in cold butter. Dipping the block of butter in the flour mix now and again will stop it sticking to the grater.
Plenty of grated Cheddar goes in next, along with the cream cheese.
Aiming for a rough, crumbly result, you rub the butter and cream cheese into everything else.
Don’t worry that the mixture looks a bit lumpy. This will just add to the tempting flakiness of the finished scones.
Sufficient liquid (yogurt, milk, buttermilk or whey) is then added to bring the mixture into a soft dough.
Although I start by stirring in the liquid, once things start to come together, I think it’s better to switch to your hands. Different flours absorb different amounts of liquid and, in my experience, your hands are the best way of judging whether the dough is too wet or dry.
Start with just 125 ml of liquid, only adding more if needed.
Even in this, uncooked, state the dough will smell appetizingly of garlic, cheese and herbs.
ROLLING AND CUTTING OUT THE DOUGH
While I do like a classic British round scone, there’s a lot to be said for what I think of as the American method and this is what I’ve used for my Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones.
Here, the dough is patted or rolled out into a square or circle and the scones cut with a knife into squares or triangles.
The advantage of this, besides being quicker as there’s no gathering up of the scraps and re-rolling, is that the dough is handled less. And handling the dough as little as possible is another tip for getting well risen, light and fluffy scones.
I find it convenient, as with my Easy Homemade Crackers and Beetroot Crackers, to roll out and cut the dough on baking paper.
This means I can lift the whole thing up and put it straight onto the baking tray. For me, a bonus is that clean-up of the worksurface is quicker too.
You’ll want to separate out the scones to give them space to rise, spread and get brown all over.
By the way, if you’re expert at rolling dough into a square, well done you. You’ll be able to divide it into 12 perfectly square scones.
I have no such skill, so my corners are rounded rather than ninety degrees. This means I have 8 square scones and 4 triangle ones, which is fine with me.
Using a little more of your chosen liquid such as yogurt, brush the tops of the scones. Finish with more Cheddar cheese sprinkled over.
The Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones then go into your preheated oven.
BAKING & EATING CHEDDAR & CREAM CHEESE SCONES
The scones will take around 15 minutes, give or take 2 or 3, to get risen and beautifully golden.
If you can bear it, leave a few minutes so that they’re warm rather than finger and mouth burningly hot.
Then tear open (better than using a knife which squishes that tender fluffiness you’ve worked for) and breathe in the wonderful aroma of cheese, garlic and herbs.
These Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones are so full of flavour, and rich from cream cheese, cheddar and butter, that I’ve eaten them just as they are.
But I do think a generous amount of proper butter, melting over still-warm scones, is one of life’s simple but comforting pleasures and just has to be done.
If you’ve some of the cream cheese left over, then spread some of that instead of (or as well as!) the butter for an even garlick-ier, even herbier kick.
I’m so pleased I tried adding cream cheese to a savoury scone recipe.
As well as adding a tanginess, I thought it did increase the flakiness of the dough too. And I’ll definitely be experimenting with cream cheese in other baked goods.
If you can stand not to eat all the scones straight away, they’ll be fine for a day or two but also freeze wonderfully well.
Being impatient, I reheat scones in a microwave for a few seconds. But do it in a low oven if you want to keep the exterior crusty.
Have you made these Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones with garlic & herbs?
Leave a comment and don’t forget to rate the recipe!
4.8 from 5 votes
Cheddar & Cream Cheese Scones with garlic and herbs are soft, fluffy & intensely flavoured. Perfect for a snack, picnic, savoury afternoon tea, or alongside soups. Eat as they are or spread with butter or more cream cheese.
CourseSide Dish, Snack
CuisineBritish, World
Keywordbaking, cheese, scone
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes
Total Time 38 minutes
Servings 12 scones
Author Moorlands Eater
Ingredients
- 300gself raising flourplus extra for dusting
- 10gfresh chivesfinely chopped
- 1level tspbaking powder
- ½-1tspsaltamount depends on how salty your cream cheese is
- ¼tspblack pepper
- 60gbuttercold from the fridge
- 150gmature Cheddar cheesegrated and divided 125g/25g
- 120gcream cheese with garlic & herbsroughly broken up
- 140-175mlmilk, yogurt or buttermilk
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200C / 180C Fan / Gas 6.
Grease a baking tray or cut a piece of baking paper to fit the base.
Put the flour, chives, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl and stir together.
Grate the butter into the mixture (dip it into the flour if it sticks to the grater).
Stir in 125g of the grated Cheddar cheese and all of the cream cheese.
Rubbing the mixture between your fingertips, work in the butter and cream cheese.
Aim for a rough, crumbly mixture with some larger pieces of butter and cream cheese remaining.
Stir in 125ml of the milk, yogurt or buttermilk to start bringing the mixture together into a soft dough that isn't sticky. Add a little more of the liquid if necessary: using your hands to bring the dough into a ball is the best way of feeling whether more liquid is necessary.
Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface.
Roll or pat into an approximate square 2.5 cm thick.
Cut into 12 pieces and transfer them to the prepared baking tray.
Tip: I roll out the dough directly onto the baking paper so I can just lift the whole thing up and put onto the tray.
Brush the tops with some the remaining milk, yogurt or buttermilk, then sprinkle over the reserved 25g of grated cheese.
Put in the preheated oven and bake until risen and golden (13-18 min).
Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little.
Serve slightly warm, split and spread with butter or more cream cheese.
If not using straight away, cool completely before storing in an airtight container or freezing.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe.
