I made these with caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms. Oh, and gruyere cheese. All on my scone. Mmm-hmm, that’s right.
If you don’t know Saveur magazine, you should. I’ve started following them online after being introduced by a neighbor. They feature some really well done – and super-easy – recipes! One such recipe is for these savory scones. This is variation on more traditional, sweeter scones – I think the dough for scones in general is versatile enough for all sorts of sweet or savory additions. They featured several savory combinations to choose from – caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms were the most appealing in my house.
Start by combining some flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. What the heck is cream of tartar, anyway? I know it’s used to help form meringue, but that’s it. Looks like I need to google this! Whisk and combine well and then start adding piece of super-cold butter until it turns into a crumbly mess.
Then slowly start adding some milk and cream and combine as best you can until a dough starts forming. Now you’ll start seeing progress. At this point, stir in the cheese, caramelized onions (the more finely chopped, the better) and some chopped up, sauteed mushrooms. Stir and combine it all together.
Transfer the dough to a heavily floured surface. Can I just tell you how much I hate this part? My kitchen is pretty small, with limited counter space. So, basically, this means I have to pour flour all over my kitchen and make a big damn mess. But these scones are totally worth it.
So, turn your kitchen into a big flour-y mess and knead the dough for a bit, making it elastic.
You’re a Big Mess
Roll out and shape into a rough square, about an inch thick. I remember shaping this out and thinking I had a LOT of dough, so I did this in sections. I formed smaller squares and sectioned out diagonals, forming the triangular pieces. It did seem like a had a lot of dough, and it did yield a lot more scones than I thought. And I wasn’t the most consistent with size, either. This was my first time making scones, so some were a little thicker than others.
Next Stop – Scone Town
Place them on some parchment lined baking sheets – I yielded enough to take up my 2 biggest baking sheets. Bake them for about 30 minutes, rotating around so they cook evenly. You might think about cleaning up the mess you made at this point. The kitchen’s not gonna clean itself, you know. Once they’re golden brown and done – remove from oven and enjoy.
Finished Product
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Ingredients
- 6 ½ cups flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp salt
- 16 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 6 oz shredded gruyere cheese
- 1/2 cup finely chopped caramelized onions
- 1/2 cup sautéed mushrooms
Directions
Preheat oven to 450°. Combine flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and rub into dry ingredients with your fingers until pea-size crumbs form. Slowly add milk and cream and stir until dough forms. At this point, also stir in 6 oz. grated gruyere cheese, ½ cup finely chopped caramelized onions and ½ cup sautéed mushrooms.
Transfer dough to a heavily floured work surface and knead briefly; pat into a rough 1″-thick square. Using a knife, cut dough into 3″ x 4″ rectangles and halve each rectangle diagonally. Transfer triangles to two parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake, rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through cooking, until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve warm.
I love gruyere, especially the smell when they’re backed
Oops, I meant baked!
Yeah – the gruyere was perfect for this. Added a bit of saltiness and was so great with the caramelized onions.
Even with 6 1/2 cups of flours, I bet I could eat that whole batch. Looks awesome.
It DID yield a lot – and they were perfect and delicious –
Very impressive! Love the pics too!
Thank you, very much!~
Thank you, very much!~
I want to be your neighbor! I flew through O’Hare the other day. Picked up $40 worth of Vosge’s (which isn’t much) but have had a delightful time eating through the chocolate library while catching up on movies this weekend. I know that has nothing to do with those amazing scones. You make me want to bake. Like immediately.
Gruyère is one of my favourite cheeses, Bill. Costco sells a very good quality version for a reasonable price. I always thought that scones shouldn’t be kneaded, but your scones look wonderful and light and fluffy. Right out of the oven, I simply couldn’t resist with some fresh unsalted butter slathered on them.
For all the effort you’ve put in, these look great — mushrooms, onions, and cheese, hell yes! I also feel your pain when it comes to flouring/rolling counter space… I have the same counter space issues, and the counter I have to use overhangs onto a patch of carpet (hello, bad design much?), so I’m pretty sure I’m not getting my damage deposit back.
But whatever. Fresh baked, homemade scones = WORTH IT!
These scones sound sooooo good. I love everything about this recipe. Once again, you have shared a recipe that we will no doubt love here in this house. Thanks Bill, I can’t wait to make these! They are perfect in every way
I just subscribed to Saveur last week! I can’t wait to read it, I love their website.
Man, how did I miss these?! I love when recipes take something that’s normally sweet and make it savory. Good stuff.
Thank you very much!