Bacon, Cheddar, and Spring Onion Scones

I love pastries. Anytime there is a box of pastries around, I end up eating nearly half of the box! I’m not exaggerating. This feat is typically accomplished in individual small bites. I break off a tiny chunk of one pastry, you know, just to sample it. Then, I walk away. A few minutes later, I decide to sample another one. This process repeats itself (including the walking away every time) until I’ve sampled every single pastry in the box and returned for seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths of my favorites. I especially love savory pastries and like to switch up one small piece of a sweet pastry with a small piece of savory. These bacon, cheddar, and spring onion pastries are some of the best savory treats I’ve ever had. Which is not surprising, given that they are a Thomas Keller recipe!

Thomas Keller’s recipes are notoriously finicky and this recipe is no exception. It is from his cookbook Bouchon Bakery, which if you don’t own, I would highly, highly recommend. For the last few years, I’ve done all of my baking in grams. It’s a much easier, much cleaner method of baking. The results are more reliable and there are no tiny measuring cups to clean at the end. The cookbook has all of its recipes in both cups and grams, but interestingly, almost all of the recipes have rather strange measurements. For example, the original recipe for these scones called for 107 grams of all purpose flour which equals 3/4 cup and 1 teaspoon of all purpose flour. I found this to be rather surprising, as typically the strange measurements come from converting whole, round numbers of either grams or cups to the opposite measurement. Due to this, I decided to modify the recipe to nice round grams, just to make it a bit easier to follow along. Other than that, the method is flawless and created some absolutely incredible scones. In fact, they were so good that I knew I couldn’t risk eating them all (one bite at a time) and I took them to the recording studio for Srini and his band, Wolf Meetings, to enjoy whilst recording their first album! They were deemed a success there as well! So even though I did the unthinkable and modified a Thomas Keller recipe, the scones were still a resounding success!

The scones have several steps to bring them together, but most of it is done in the stand mixer, making the process go smoothly. They use a mix of cake flour and all purpose flour for a very tender crumb. The butter is incorporated at slow speed in the mixer to create large flakes and increase the airiness of the scones. The scones use both heavy cream and sour cream to bind it all together. Once the dough is formed, you add in chopped, cooked bacon, spring onion, and cheddar cheese. There is a large amount of cheddar cheese in theses scones and I think it adds to the flaky, richness in a beautiful way. 

Once all of the ingredient have just come together in the stand mixer, you place it on the counter between two sheets of plastic wrap, press into a rectangle, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Then, the scones are cut into pieces, placed on a baking sheet, and frozen thoroughly. They are baked directly from frozen after a quick brush with some cream and a sprinkling of pepper. I think this is the best part of the recipe. If you only want two scones for a delicious morning breakfast, that’s all that you need to pull out as the rest can remain in the freezer for future deliciousness.

The scones are baked until they are golden brown and your whole house smells amazing. They are fantastic for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I enjoyed them with a crisp salad and it worked beautifully! I hope you enjoy these as much as I have and these are definitely worth consuming in their entirety–one small bite at a time.

Bacon, Cheddar, and Spring Onion Scones

From The Hathi Cooks at https://www.thehathicooks.com/bacon-cheddar-spring-onion-scones/

Prep: 30 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

Yield: 15 scones

Total: 65 minutes

An unbelievably delicious savory scone with crisp bacon, spring onions, and plenty of cheddar cheese. Perfect for anytime of the day!

You'll Need...

• 100 grams All Purpose Flour (3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp)
• 175 grams cake flour (1 1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp)
• 8 grams baking powder (2 tsp)
• 1.5 grams baking soda (1/4 tsp)
• 25 grams sugar (2 Tbsp)
• 3 grams salt (1/2 tsp)
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes and kept cold
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, plus a few tablespoons to brush on at the end
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 10 strips thick cut bacon, cooked until crisp, cooled, and diced
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup minced spring or green onion

Directions

1. Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Sift together the all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt into the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix together on low speed until combined.
2. Add the butter to the stand mixer, and pulse at the lowest setting to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. Increase the speed to low, and mix for about 3-4 minutes until the butter seems to be broken up and well incorporated into the flour.
3. Keep the stand mixer running on low and pour in the heavy whipping cream slowly. Once the cream has been added, add the sour cream. Mix for an additional 30 seconds until the dough seems to come together and no dry bits of flour remain. Scrape down the bowl and the paddle and pulse a few more times to ensure that the flour has been entirely absorbed. Add the bacon, cheddar cheese, and spring onion and pulse until all the ingredients have been evenly incorporated into the flour base.
4. Pour the dough out onto the counter and bring together into a ball. Place the ball between two sheets of plastic wrap and press into a rectangle about 1/2"-3/4" thick. Wrap well and place in the refrigerator on a baking sheet to cool for 2 hours.
5. After the 2 hours have passed, remove from the refrigerator and slice into 15 pieces. It's easiest to do this with a pizza cutter. Place on the baking sheet again, with some space between each scone, and place in the freezer for at least two hours, but ideally, overnight.
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Remove as many scones as you would like to bake from the freezer. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarsely ground black pepper. Place in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the scones have puffed up. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack and allow to cool.
7. Store the remaining scones, tightly wrapped, in the freezer and bake as needed!

Additional Notes

Vegetarian? Substitute the bacon with vegetarian bacon bits or jalapeno.

Adapted from Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel's Bouchon Bakery

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