If you are looking for an easy savory scone recipe, this easy cheddar cheese and chives scones recipe is for you. Made with simple quality ingredients like cheddar cheese, all-purpose flour, butter, eggs, and cream, they are delicious and one of my favorites. These are great at breakfast, for a snack, or the perfect side dish for any dinner.

Why add cheese to scones

I am a really big fan of scones! Normally I will make vanilla scones, blueberry scones , apple scones or blackberry scones. However, sometimes you just want a delicious savory scone and that is when I make these light and fluffy cheddar scones with chives.

Adding cheddar cheese scones are basically like an upgraded gourmet biscuit and are so easy to make. The cheese in these scones merely adds a light flavor so you can still taste all that delicious butter but the main thing that I love about it is it produces the crispest scones. When the cheese melts into the layers of the scone it is amazing.

We love making these savory cheddar scones in the Fall and Winter.

Let me show you how to make them!

What You Will Need

All-purpose flour: This type of everyday flour works the best.
White cheddar cheese: I prefer using white cheddar cheese so the scones do not look orange. If orange cheddar is all you have, by all means use that.
Unsalted butter: Using unsalted butter helps me control how much salt is in the scones.
Heavy cream: This keeps the cheese scones moist.
Kosher salt: I like using kosher salt but you can also use regular table salt but make sure to use half the amount in the recipe.
Baking powder: Gives rise to the cheese scones.
Eggs: Large eggs work the best.
A pinch of sugar: The sugar helps improve the structure of the dough and you will not taste it. I promise.

How To Make Cheese Scones

Here is a quick rundown of making these cheddar and chive scones so you can see how easy it is(full recipe below).

Preparing the cheese scones from: mixing the wet and dry ingredients separately then adding the butter to the dry ingredients and mixing it all together.

Mix dry ingredients: Very easy just mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Shred the butter: On a cheese grater (the coarse side).This gets added to the dry ingredients later.
Mix wet ingredients: Like the dry ingredients, super simple, just mix it all up in a large bowl.
Mix butter with dry ingredients: The crucial and most important part of making scones is cutting the cold butter into the flour mixture (dry ingredients). It's easy!
Mix it all together: Finally, you get to mix all of this together to form a dough.

Preparing the cheese scones including: forming the dough, cutting the dough into triangles then topping with cheese.

Shape the scones: Here is where you fold the dough a few times.
Cut Scones: Press out the folded dough and now you get to cut those scones!
Bake: Bake them up until golden brown. They rise when baking and you get to see those layers you worked so hard on come to life.

Storing

Scones of any variety are always best on the first day but you can store these with success if you do it right.

If you don't eat all of these scones on the first day, place them in an air-tight container and store them on the countertop for up to 2 days.

More like these

If you love these cheese scones, you may also love these other cheesy recipes:

If you do make these scones, share a picture, review or message me! I love seeing what you create.

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Easy Cheese Scones

A delicious savory cheese scone recipe made with cheddar cheese that is perfect on its own or as a side to any meal.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

cooling5

Total Time35

Servings: scones

US Customary - Metric

Author: Melissa Oleary

Ingredients

2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 ¼ cup Shredded white cheddar plus a little more for the top of the scones
2 eggs. One for the scone dough and the other for the egg wash
8 tablespoon unsalted butter cold and finely cubed
½ cup plus 2 tablespoon of heavy cream
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon flake salt or ¼ teaspoon kosher salt if you do not have flake salt
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees
Now add all of your dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix together. Set aside.
2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour, 3 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
Shred your butter on the coarse side of a cheese grater and place in the fridge.
8 tablespoon unsalted butter
Add your cream and one egg to a small bowl and whisk until incorporated.
½ cup plus 2 tablespoon of heavy cream
Now add the shredded cheddar to the wet ingredients and mix well.
1 ¼ cup Shredded white cheddar
Place bowl in the fridge.
Make your egg wash by mixing one egg in a small bowl and whisking until smooth.
Set aside the egg wash for topping the scones later.
Now take your butter out of the fridge and add it to your dry ingredients.
With a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until you barely see any more lumps of butter. If you are using a food processor, add your flour and butter to it and pulse it 5-7 times until it resembles coarse sand.
Now with your finger tips, grab some of the flour and butter mixture and rub it between your fingers. You are trying to find any lumps of butter that you missed. Keep doing this until you stop finding any large clumps of butter.
Now grab your wet ingredients from the fridge and add to your dry ingredients.
Mix it well.
If dough is very dry still, add 1-2 tablespoons more of the cream. The dough will be a little shaggy but should also not be overly dry.
Now dump your dough onto a lightly floured work surface. It will look like large chunks and crumbles at this point.
With your finger tips, make a dough ball. Keep moving it around and pressing it together. It is going to look very shaggy and this is good.
Now press it down into a disc about 6-7 inches in diameter and ¾ inches thick. It may fall apart a little at this stage and that is normal.
Fold your disc in half. If the dough begins falling apart just bring it back together.
Press it out into a lightly flattened disc again. With each pressing and folding of your dough, it will begin to come together more and more.
Repeat the fold and pressing into a disc 2 more times.
Now press your disc out again to a size of about 7 inches in diameter and ¾ inch thick.
With a large knife or bench scraper, cut your scones like a pizza pie into 8 slices. Note: I like to dip my bench scraper (which is just a wide sheet of metal with a grip) into flour each time I make a cut. This helps keep the dough from sticking to the knife and makes better layers during baking.
Place the scones on to a large sheet pan.
Grab the egg wash that you made earlier and brush that on top of the scones gently with a pastry brush. You may notice some flaking of the dough on the top as you do this and that is normal. If any pieces come off just press them back on.
Sprinkle the flake salt then a little cheddar on top of the scones. Make sure to cover the whole top of your scones.
½ teaspoon flake salt
Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and top. Start checking at around 10-12 minutes since all ovens vary in temperature.
Remove sheet pan from the oven and place on cooling rack for 5 minutes.
Enjoy.

Notes

Helpful tips to help you perfect your scone making the next time:

If you see lots of butter bubbling out of your scones on to the sheet pan during baking: This means that there were still lots of butter that should have been worked into the flour. Next time you make these scones, pay extra attention to this step and try to rub the flour and butter together more.
Scones look a little flat or lopsided: This could mean that when you cut your scones you pushed too hard through the dough and basically sealed down layers of it during baking. Make sure you are using a very sharp knife or cutting implement and remember to dip the knife into flour before each cut.

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