Savory Scones
At Easter, Mom asked us each to bring something:
I brought appetizers: cream cheese with chive mini muffins and cheddar cheese with broccoli scones. Quite good actually. Bonnie also brought veggies and dip. Dad made a bread-wrapped baked ham, lamb stuffed with spinach and feta, scalloped potatoes, carrots, beans and peas. Fantastic! The ham in particular was done with whole wheat (Sobey’s didn’t have rye) and gave it an interesting texture because it had been effectively steamed inside the dough. It was also noticeably less salty! For dessert (my favourite part), Meaghan made mini cheesecakes and Mom made a pineapple upside down cake with extra chunks of pineapple inside that gave it more texture.
So for the first ones, I modified a mini banana muffin recipe to make:
Cream Cheese – Chive Bites
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ tsp each: baking powder, baking soda, salt
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbs sugar (optional)
- 2 Tbs oil
- 2 Tbs fresh chives, minced
I mixed all the dry ingredients together. Then I cut in the cream cheese with a pastry blender until in had a crumbly texture. This took a while because I used a low-fat cream cheese (PC blue menu, actually). Everything else got blended in but I omitted any sugar – I knew there were enough sweet treats for dessert.
These went into a mini-muffin pan and baked at 375F for 18 minutes. They were so easy to pop in your mouth!
Cheddar-Broccoli Scones
These ones were a little easier to adapt. It was based on a buttermilk scone recipe:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened (in lieu of butter)
- 1/3 cup buttermilk (which is 1 Tbs of vinegar or lemon juice plus 1 cup milk. Let stand 5 minutes to curdle)
- ½ cup broccoli florets, bite size pieces
- ½ cup grated cheese
Combine the flour, baking soda and butter. Cut with a pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in the buttermilk, broccoli and cheese, until just blended.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 5-6 times, or until no longer sticky. On a greased baking sheet (or silicon mat) form the dough into a 5″ circle about ¾” thick. Score the top to make 8 wedges.
Bake at 375F for 23 minutes, or until golden brown. Break into wedges and serve warm. I had the left overs for breakfast with a Laughing Cow wedge!
