Cheddar, olive and chive scones

Leisurely Sunday morning brunches are one of life's little pleasures and this one was quintessentially English. We invited our friends S&M (ha!) for brunch on Easter Sunday and they unwittingly became the guinea pigs for my cheddar, olive and chive scone recipe. I started with the Joy of Cooking's base recipe for plain scones, then added the savoury flavours, and also substituted half the cream for buttermilk. 

 

I forgot to pour the eggs I'd already beaten and set aside, so the scones were drier and less fluffy than they should have been (I even kept adding cream to make up for what seemed to be a bad dry-to-liquid ingredients ratio). Luckily with good friends you can laugh it off. We topped the scones with sweet mustard, sliced ham, sliced cheddar and Boston lettuce, with scrambled eggs on the side. We rounded out the meal with berries topped with a dollop of lemon curd and lots of laughter. I then made a second, much more successful batch of scones (shown below) for my Mom's birthday.

xx

Sift together 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 2 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1T sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut 1/4 cup cold butter into flour mixture until the pieces of butter are the size of small peas. If, like me, you don't have a pastry cutter you can use two knives instead (instructional video here). This will take about 5 minutes. Stir in 50 g finely grated sharp cheddar, 25g chopped and pitted black olives, and 3T chopped chives.

In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs, setting aside 2T of egg for brushing the tops of the scones. Whisk in 1/4 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup cream in with the eggs.

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in liquid ingredients. Combine with a few swift strokes. Handling the dough as little as possible, place it on a lightly floured surface, then pat or roll out until 3/4 inch thick. Cut into scone-sized squares (about 4" x 4").

Brush the scones with the reserved beaten egg, and sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes.