red onions, spinach and cheese scones
Most of the time I eat relatively healthy with little to no dairy, limited meat, sugar and carbs.
But sometimes, my body craves comfort food. And these scones fit the bill.
I love eating them when they first come out of the oven - they are warm and melt in your mouth. AMAZING! The recipe comes from a cafe located in the Scottish Highlands - about 20 minutes from where my sister lives. We love going there whenever we visit Scotland.
The Mountain Cafe Cookbook - Kirsten Gillmour
Ingredients
450g self- raising flour (very important to use self raising flour and not regular flour)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
125g cold butter, cut into small pieces
190g mature Cheddar, grated
1 small red onion finely chopped
10g chives, finely chopped
60g spinach, roughly chopped (I remove any large stems)
210g full fat milk
1 large egg
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Grease and flour a large baking tray.
Put the flour, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl and rub the butter in with you fingertips until you get a fine breadcrumb consistency. If you have a cake mixer, mix on a low speed with a paddle beater. Add 100g of the grated cheese, red onion, chives and spinach and mix through by hand. Pour the milk into a small bowl and whisk in the egg. Pour this into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix in to get a soft ball of dough - easy at this stage as over-mixing will result in hard, heavy scones, so be as light and gentle as you can and stop as soon as the liquid is incorporated.
Place the dough on a well-floured tabletop and gently knead to a smooth ball. Lightly flour the top and roll out to 4cm thick. With a sharp knife, cut nine scones from the dough and put on the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle each one with the remaining grated cheese and bake for 25 minutes till golden brown and cooked through. To see if the scones are ready, gently lift the lid of one and check that it isn’t at all doughy in the middle.
Serve warm with butter and your favorite relish!
Note: I have also used arugula and baby kale instead of spinach which I both like.