What to bake this weekend: Tear and share smoked garlic and cheese scones

Fluffy scones. Melted cheese. Garlic butter. Warm smokiness. This tear-and-share bake ticks all the right boxes, and believe me, once you’ve made it you’ll be addicted. Serve this bake straight out of the oven while it’s hot, molten and buttery.

Graham Herterich’s tear and share smoked garlic and cheese scones
Makes 12

Ingredients

For the scones

• 350g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 85g cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 140g Cheddar cheese – 65g grated, 75g cut into 12 cubes
• 1 small bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 180ml buttermilk

For the garlic butter

• 75g butter, very soft
• 4 cloves of smoked garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.
2. To make the garlic butter, simply blend the soft butter with the smoked garlic and chopped parsley. Liberally brush the bottom of a 23cm square ceramic baking dish or a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper with half the garlic butter and set aside.
3. Place the flour, baking powder and smoked paprika in a large bowl and mix well using your fingers. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the grated cheese and the parsley and season with salt and pepper. Use a table knife to stir them through, then add the buttermilk and mix together using the table knife to form a soft dough.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough and gently bring it together, then divide the dough into 12 pieces.
5. Using your thumb, push a dimple into the centre of a piece of dough and add a cube of cheese. Close the dough around the cheese and lightly roll into a ball. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and cheese cubes.
   Arrange the 12 balls of dough in the dish and brush with the remaining garlic butter. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Serve warm.

I often make a double batch of the garlic butter (you can never have too much garlic butter!) and serve a little more on the side for extra indulgence.

Extracted from Bake: Traditional Irish Baking with Modern Twists by Graham Heterich (Nine Bean Rows).