Blue cheese and walnut scones with pear jam
April 20, 2012 |
| These salty, soft and crunchy scones go beautifully with the sweet and sticky pear jam |
These are a gorgeous teatime treat serves with either a cup of tea of a cold, crisp glass of apple juice.
Recipe:
Makes 8 scones and 2 ramekins of jam
For the scones-
200g self raising flour
20g butter
100ml warm milk
100g blue cheese, I used Danish blue but Stilton or Gorgonzola would also work really well
100g walnut pieces
1 egg
For the jam-
2 pears
200g jam sugar
Turn the oven on to 200c
I make the jam first as it can cook while you make and bake the scones.
Peel, core and chop the pears into pieces about 1 inch square, pop these in a deep walled frying pan with a splosh of water that almost covers the pear pieces but not quite. Bring the water to the boil and then turn it down to simmer until the pears are tender and translucent. Pour the jam sugar over the pears and swirl the pan around until the sugar has dissolved, leave the pears cook until the jam has bubbled down and is thick and glossy. You can prepare the scones whilst the jam bubbles down. You can tell when its ready when you drizzle a drop onto a cold plate and it becomes shiny and set.
To make the scones sift the flour into a large bowl and chop the cold butter on top. Then using your finger tips crush the butter into the flour until its completely mixed through and the flour resembles golden breadcrumbs. Break in the walnut pieces so that they are of varied sizes and stir through the breadcrumbs.
Pour in half of the warm milk and use a fork to stir it through the breadcrumbs, the mix should become sticky and lumpy, poor in the rest of the milk until the mixture form a dough. Once the dough is formed try not to over work it as this will make the finished scones tough and you want them to be all crumbly.
Pat the dough out flat until it about half and inch thick then use a cutting ring thats about 1 and a half inches in diameter cut the scones, I usually get eight from this mixture.
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or use a silicone baking sheet, place the scones on the tray making sure they are evenly spaced. Push your thumb into the centre of the top of each scone to make a shallow dent. Cut or crumble the blue cheese into eight even pieces and squash these into the dents you have made in the scones. Squeeze the scones a little so that they aren't too thin, if they crinkle that's fine as the blue cheese will melt into the cracks and caramelise.
Brush the tops and sides of the scones with beaten egg so that they will become golden and crisp when baked.
Pop the scones in the oven for 20 mins until golden brown and the cheese has bubbles and caramelises at the edges.
Serve the scones warm with a pot of jam to spoon over and melt into the gooey cheese.
0 comments