Cheesy Pumpkin Scones #BreadBakers

Made with cheddar AND Parmesan, these cheesy pumpkin scones are tender inside and toasted golden outside, perfect for breakfast or afternoon tea. 

I’m not a big fan of pumpkin spice all the things like many people get excited for during this season but I do love actual pumpkin. In soup, pasta sauce, gnocchi, muffins and so much more. Big fan.

That’s why when our Bread Baker’s host for today’s event chose “pumpkin” for our theme, I was excited. I bought a beautiful little pumpkin and got ready to bake. 

Cheesy Pumpkin Scones

For my mashed pumpkin, I roasted wedges of pumpkin in their skins with just a light drizzle of olive oil until fork tender. Then I scooped the soft flesh out, mashed it and measured out one level cup. It weighed 255g. 

Ingredients

For the scones:

2 cups or 250g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 cup or 113g cold unsalted butter, cut in little blocks

3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

1 oz or 28g Parmesan, coarsely grated 

1 cup or 255g mashed pumpkin (see note above ingredients list)

Optional glaze:

1 tablespoon mashed pumpkin

1 tablespoon milk

Method

Preheat your oven to 425°F or 218°C and prepare a baking sheet lining it with baking parchment or a silicone mat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, salt and cayenne.

Use a pastry blender or a couple of knives to cut the butter into the flour. 

You want little lumps and flecks of butter still showing, not the homogenous sandy texture we want for pastry crust. 

Mix your two cheeses together and set aside a generous handful to use as topping. 

Toss the bigger pile of cheese with the flour mixture.

Add in the pumpkin. 

Fold and fold until the dough is just evenly moistened and holds together. It might look too dry at first, but the pumpkin should have enough moisture. If it truly doesn't, I shall roll my eyes at you but you can add a drizzle of water or milk.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. 

Wet your hands and use them to shape the dough into a 3/4"or 1 cm thick square. The dough won't stick to damp hands. This avoids adding extra flour to the dough which can dry it out.

Cut the square into 9 pieces. As you can see, mine weren’t very even but I’m sure you’ll do better! 

Transfer the scones to your prepared baking pan. 

Mix together the mashed pumpkin and milk to make the glaze. 

Brush onto the scones. If you don’t have any leftover pumpkin, you can brush them with just milk.

Top with the reserved grated cheese.  

Bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Turn the baking pan around halfway through for even cooking. 

Serve warm, as is or with butter. These are so cheesy and delicious! We meant to share them with the neighbors but ended up eating them all. I made little ham sandwiches with the bigger ones. SO GOOD.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers and I to share our bakes. Our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm chose “pumpkin” as our theme. Check out all the links below. 

• Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Pumpkin Scones 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Sourdough Pumpkin Bread 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Sourdough Pumpkin Rolls 
• A Messy Kitchen: Pumpkin Hazelnut Babka
• Sneha's Recipe: Red Pumpkin Paratha

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Cheesy Pumpkin Scones!

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Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia #BreadBakers

A little bit sweet and a whole lot savory, this Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia makes a great brunch, lunch or snack with drinks. 

A while back we had a friend visiting for a few days and I knew we’d be out and about showing her the sights of this beautiful island. I wanted to prepare something that could be made ahead then baked when we got home. 

This sourdough focaccia is perfect for that. It can have its last rise in the refrigerator and is very forgiving if you leave it a little longer before baking. 

Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia

Start at least one day ahead of when you want to bake this to allow for overnight proofing. This recipe was inspired by one on the Good Food website. I’ve since made this three times and it never fails to please!

Ingredients

For the base: 

1 cup or 240ml water

1 oz or 28g bubbly active starter

2 2/3 cups or 332g strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the topping:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4-5 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 purple onion

2 garlic cloves

4-5 fresh figs,

3 1/2 oz or 100g serrano ham slices

2 1/2 oz or 70g feta

flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

freshly ground black pepper

Method

In your mixing bowl, mix the starter with the water. Stir the starter and water loosely together just to lift the starter off the bottom of the bowl.

Next, add the 332g of strong white bread flour to the bowl, and the 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

Mix it all together loosely, so that it’s pretty ragged but all the flour and water is mixed; I use a Danish whisk for this first rough mix but you can use your hands, if you prefer. I follow this up using a bowl scraper to clean round the bowl and make sure it is all nicely roughly mixed together.

Cover the bowl with a shower cap or cling film, and leave it for an hour or so on the kitchen counter. 

After an hour, remove the cover, and start to lift and fold the dough to build up the structure in the dough, wake up the gluten, and bring it into a smooth ball of dough. Literally pick up a small handful of dough from one side of the bowl, lift it and fold it over the rest of the dough to the other side of the bowl. Then turn the bowl and repeat the process, do it about 20-25 times maximum, until it is a smooth ball.

Please note: you will only need to perform this many pulls and folds on this first occasion; after this, far fewer pulls and folds will be required to pull the dough into a ball before covering and leaving it again. You do NOT need to perform 20-25 each time. At this point the dough will be at its stickiest, from this point it will become less sticky with each handling.

Cover the bowl again with your same cover, and leave it out on the kitchen counter.

Over the next few hours, perform sets of the pulls and folds/lifting and folding actions 2 to 4 more times; these do not need to be done at fixed time periods apart, as long as you fit in sufficient sets during that time, that’s the key. Aim for 4 sets in total. The dough will not be starting to grow at this stage.

Each time you perform these pulls and folds, stop when the dough comes into a ball, that is the dough telling you it has had enough handling at that stage.

Complete the final set, pulling the dough into a nice firm ball, then re-cover the bowl, and leave it on the counter overnight. This is often called the “bulk fermentation” period.

The ideal temperature for this is between 64°F- 68°F or 18°C – 20°C for 8-10 hours. If it is a lot colder than this, it will take longer, just give it a few more hours. 

The next morning, the dough should have really grown within the bowl, to at least double, with a smoothish, slightly domed surface. There should be a nice structure to the dough, it does not need to be bubbly, just grown. 

Prepare a large baking tray by lining it with parchment. 

Using a bowl scraper or your hands, gently ease the bubbly risen dough from the bowl and let it fall onto the parchment. Gently stretch it out. 

Pour over about half of the olive oil. Cover loosely and leave it on the counter to prove again for 1 1/2 – 2 hours. If you won’t be home to bake then, you can pop the dough in the refrigerator for a longer rise time. 

When you are ready to bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. 

Slice the onion as thinly as possible. Remove the stems and quarter the figs. Crumble the feta and mince the garlic. Pick the thyme leaves off the stems. 

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Tear the ham into bits. 

Use your finger tips to firmly press dimples all over the dough. Toss the thyme leaves, onion, garlic, figs, ham and feta with one tablespoon olive oil, then scatter these over the top. 

Use your fingers to press the toppings into the bread a little, and spread the bread to fill any gaps. 

Cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 20 minutes more until it has puffed up.

Drizzle over the remaining oil, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, and bake for 30 mins until risen, golden and crisp on top. 

Leave to cool in the pan for 15 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut into rectangles to serve. Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s the day my fellow Bread Bakers and I share our recipes, this time for sourdough bread. Many thanks to our host Radha of Magical Ingredientst.

• Food Lust People Love: Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia
• Sneha's Recipe: Quick Sourdough Discard Burger Buns
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Sourdough Seeded Bread with Tangzhong
• A Messy Kitchen : Hot Honey Sourdough 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Sourdough Multi-Grain Bread
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Sourdough Jewish Rye Bread

 

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia!

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Tattie Scones #BreadBakers

A traditional part of a full Scottish breakfast, savory tattie scones are easy to make and even easier to eat, dipped in sunny-side-up egg yolks.

We have very good friends who are from and live in Scotland so we get there to visit as often as we can. Breakfast out at a café means ordering a “full Scottish” which includes not only tattie scones but a slice of black pudding, two eggs, bacon (usually middle bacon, not streaky), a square patty called lorne sausage, grilled tomato and mushroom, baked beans and fried bread or toast.

One of those big plates will set you up for the day, not just the morning! I must confess that sometimes I bring a little baggie in my purse because I cannot eat it all and will save the bacon and/or sausage for later. 

Tattie Scones

This recipe is easily doubled or trebled if you need more tattie scones. Just cook the circles of dough one at a time and if you aren’t frying them again to serve, keep them warm in a slow oven, wrapped in foil. I used one large baking potato for this. If you have smaller ones, try to choose ones that will give you the approximate weight below. Do not peel!

Ingredients

For the dough:

10 1/2 oz or 300g floury potatoes, unpeeled

2 tablespoons or 28g butter

63g plain flour, plus extra to dust

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch fine sea salt 

For optional frying:

2 teaspoons butter

Method

Put the potato in a pan, cover with water, salt generously and bring to the boil. Simmer until cooked through, then drain well on a cutting board. Peel off the skin as soon as you can handle it. Leaving the skin on keeps the potato from being waterlogged which helps make it fluffier.

If you have a potato ricer, push the peeled potato through it then add the butter and stir gently to incorporate the butter as it melts. If not, add the butter and mash with a potato masher. 

Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the potatoes and mix well to form a thick dough. 

It may look like it’s not going to hang together but if you take up a small handful and squeeze it, you’ll see that it will. 

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 in or 5mm thick. You can cut around a plate to shape it into a circle but I hate to waste dough so I just push the sides in a little to make them less uneven. It’s a rustic look but that doesn’t bother me. Don’t let it bother you. 

Dust lightly with flour and prick all over with a fork. I completely forgot the fork pricking so I did it when I had just transferred the tattie scone to the pan. 

Heat the remaining butter in a griddle or large heavy based frying pan over a medium-high heat.  

Fry the dough circle until golden on both sides (about 5-6 minutes). 

Cut into triangles and serve immediately, or cool in a tea towel for later.

Several recipes I found said to let the tattie scones cool then fry them again in more butter for serving. Since I made them one afternoon, I did that the next morning for breakfast with some bacon and eggs. 

I highly recommend doing this. The double frying is worth the time and effort.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my Bread Baker friends to share recipes for our chosen theme of scones. Many thanks to our host, Renu of Cook with Renu. Check out the links below. 

• Filled Ginger Scones from A Messy Kitchen
• Fresh Peach Scones from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Gingerbread Scones from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Irish Scones from Cook with Renu
• Onion Cheese Scones from Sneha's Recipe
• Preserved Lemon Scones from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Tattie Scones from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Tattie Scones! 

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