Beef and Onion Scones

Do you remember my savoury chicken and rosemary scones the other week? Well, I thought I would play about with the savoury side again and came up with these beef and onion scones.

I never used to make scones, but I love it now. They are very adaptable and are great either sweet or savoury. These ones were dreamt up because of my love of beefy flavour crisps. Of course, there is no pieces of actual beef, but all the flavour of beef stock cubes.

And to impart the onion flavour, I decided to use those yummy little fried onions that you can but to shake over salads. You know the ones.

The recipe is very similar to that of the chicken and rosemary variety…

Yield: 12 – 14 scones

Ingredients:

150 grams self-raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 beef stock cubes, crumbled

1 teaspoon sugar

70 grams cold, unsalted butter, cubed

3 or 4 teaspoons onion salad crispies (more if you like it oniony)

180 ml buttermilk

Coarse salt (optional)

Method:

In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, beef stock cube and sugar. Add the butter cutting into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or the two knife method. You should be left with pea sized pieces of butter throughout the mix.

Add the onions and buttermilk and mix just until the dry ingredients have absorbed the liquid.

Turn the dough out onto a floured worktop and shape into a rough oblong about ½ inch thick. Cut out shapes (  I used a rectangle cutter) and place the cut scones on to a lined baking tray, slightly apart.

Cover the tray with clingfilm when all scones have been cut out. Place the tray into the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C in the meantime. After the hour, brush the tops of the scones with a little buttermilk. Grind some salt on top, if using. Bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes. They will rise and become golden brown on top.

Denise in my office loves my savoury bakes and she snaffled these up. They are great with or without a little butter spread on them. And Joanne in my office said they would make perfect little party hors d’oeuvres spread with a little cream cheese and bit of chive on top.

If you make I hope you do like them. I did think about making more savoury scones with a fish stock cube, but everyone turned their nose up at that idea. What do you think…?