Pumpkin, Cheese and Rosemary Scones
These moreish pumpkin, cheese and rosemary scones are best served warm, and generously slathered with butter or dunked into a bowl of your favourite soup.
From the book
Soup Broth Bread
A loving homage to soup in all its forms
From quick fixes to weekend feasts
Plus breads, garnishes, and accompaniments
Introduction
Deliciously savoury and gorgeously light in texture, these scones are great served with a big bowl of soup. You can use any squash instead of pumpkin, and, if you fancy, add lardons of crispy bacon or diced chorizo to the mix.
Ingredients
| 175g | peeled and deseeded pumpkin (weight when peeled and deseeded) |
| 1 tbsp | olive oil |
| 200g | plain flour |
| 1 1⁄2 tsp | baking powder |
| A pinch of | cayenne pepper |
| 2 tsp | finely chopped rosemary |
| 1⁄2 tsp | salt |
| 50g | finely grated cheese (Cheddar or a hard cheese such as Parmesan) |
| 1 | egg |
| 100ml | milk, plus 1 tablespoon extra for brushing the top |
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.
Cut the pumpkin into 1–2cm chunks and place on a roasting tray. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until completely tender. Tip the pumpkin into a bowl (leaving the oven on) and mash very well with a fork, or blend in a food processor, then allow to cool. If using canned pumpkin purée, you’ll need 125g.
Sift the flour, baking powder and cayenne into a bowl and add in the rosemary, salt and all but 2 tablespoons of the grated cheese, reserving the remaining cheese for scattering over the scones before they go into the oven.
Whisk the egg and mix with the pumpkin purée and milk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients, then, with your hand in a claw shape, mix the two, making sure you don’t knead but just mixing until it comes together.
Tip the mixture out on to a floured surface and tidy the sides, working it into a rough square and patting the dough out to 2cm thick. Brush a little milk over the top and scatter with the remaining cheese, then cut the dough into 3 x 3, to make 9 scones.
Place the scones on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. They should sound hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.
