Sunday 24 March 2013

Goat Cheese, Chive and Mascarpone Scones









 



My friend Marie from Little Kitchie recently made a version of these. I knew as soon as I clapped eyes on them, I would be eating them in my own little kitchie some time soon after. Here's my take on them. The original recipe calls for feta and sour cream, but I used what I had in the fridge, which was goat cheese and mascarpone. I love a recipe that gives me a magnificent afternoon tea and cleans out my fridge at the same time... I need all the help I can get on the fridge cleaning front.



Goat Cheese, Chive and Mascarpone Scones
adapted from Joy the Baker
Makes 15

3 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
170g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup Greek yoghurt
1/3 chives, chopped
115g goat cheese, crumbled or pinched into small pieces
1 egg for egg wash
Sea salt flakes, cracked black pepper and smoked paprika for topping

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and black pepper. Rub the butter into the flour, using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles a course meal. There should be some pea-size lumps of butter throughout.

In a small bowl or jug, combine the egg, buttermilk, mascarpone and yoghurt. Beat to combine. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir until it just comes together. Add the chives and goat cheese. Turn the dough out onto a counter and knead it lightly, just until it comes together. It should only take about 10 kneads.

Roll the dough out to about a 2cm thickness. Cut 4.5 cm rounds using a cookie cutter. Gather up the remaining dough and roll it out and continue cutting rounds until you have use up the dough.

Place the rounds into the prepared baking tray, brush with egg wach and springle with sea salt flakes, cracked plack pepper and the smoked paprika.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

18 comments:

  1. I have nothing else to say that WOOOOOOWWWWW! I love eveything in this recipe!!

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  2. They look beautiful, luscious and I am sure have amazing flavor. Not too shabby using up the refrigerator items - kudos to you.

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  3. These look really scrumptious. Anything with goat cheese is pretty much fantastic in my mind. Gorgeous blog, equally gorgeous photos!

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  4. Whenever I clean out my fridge, I never have ingredients to make anything this tasty looking. I want a huge stack of these biscuits for dinner tonight and just the biscuits.

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  5. Thank you so much Pink Patisserie. Everything is better with goat cheese, right?

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  6. Thanks Nicole. There's absolutely nothing wrong with biscuits for dinner... not that I would know anything about that.

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  7. Thanks Gabrielle. Great snack food for a busy/hungry woman.

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  8. Thanks Patty. Two types of cheeses, buttermilk and yoghurt - I just about cleaned out the whole dairy section of my refrigerator.

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  9. Absolutely LOVE what you did with these!!! Goat cheese makes everything better, and throw mascarpone in the mix?! Even better. Drooling...

    Thanks for the shout-out :)

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  10. Hey Little Kitchie. I have one word for you... Cheese.

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  11. @Pretty Things. Thanks for stopping by.

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  12. Hi! I LOVE THS RECIPE!! However, I've tried making it twice, and I just can't seem to make mine turn out as fluffy as yours look :(

    I haven't been using caster sugar..would that be enough to make that much of a difference? or perhaps I'm compressing the dough too much as I'm putting it together? Do you have any tips?

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  13. Hey kg, I'm so glad you like this recipe.

    Caster sugar is also known as super fine sugar and shouldn't make any difference to the fluffiness of your scones. I've made lots of scones in my time and had quite a few failures in the early days resulting in dry, hard and heavy scones. I learned that there are a few "golden rules" when making scones:

    1. Don't over-work the dough. You need a really light touch. Handle the dough as little as possible. The dough should just hold together and be a little sticky.

    2. Don't flatten the dough out too much before cutting the scones. This mixture should make 15 scones max. If you're getting more than that, the dough isn't thick enough. They need that thickness to stop them from over cooking; which brings me to the third and final rule.

    3. Don't over cook them. Take them out of the oven as soon as they are cooked, no longer or they'll be dry.

    I learned this through trial and error and listening to and learning from people who make terrific scones. I'm no expert, but I stick to these rules and get light, fluffy scones every time.

    Good luck and I'd love to hear how you get on if you make them again. It was great to get your feedback.

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  14. How much bicarbonate of soda should be used? I don't see it in the ingredient list.

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  15. @Penny. 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. My mistake... sorry. Amended in the recipe now.

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  16. Awesome! I think I may have used 1 tsp., but they still turned out delicious! I nibbled them last night and had another for breakfast. And I fully intend to have another at lunch today. :)
    Thanks for the deliciousness!

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  17. I'm so glad to hear it Penny. I couldn't stop at one either :)

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