Sourdough Cheese Scones

These sourdough cheese scones are tender and cheesy with a hint of fresh chives. They're a great use for discard sourdough starter.

Scones are so versatile and a basic sourdough scone dough can be used to incorporate all sorts of flavors.

Often scones are sweet but these are savory sourdough scones, a bit like an American biscuit. They're tender and cheesy with flecks of flavorful green chives.

The dough can be made a bit ahead of time and kept in the fridge until you're ready to bake.

Jump to:

• Sourdough discard recipes
• The ingredients
• The dough
• Step by step
• Fermented sourdough scones
• Serving
• Related recipes
• Full Recipe

Sourdough discard recipes

A sourdough starter that hasn't been fed in a while, or the excess starter you don't need when you refresh your starter is the discard starter. It's often quite acidic and runny.

Sourdough discard is perfect to add to baked goods that can use this acid. In these savory sourdough scones, it helps to create a soft and tender scone base.

Sourdough discard recipes usually only rely on the acid component of the starter, not the yeast for leavening. Here are three other great sourdough discard recipes to try.

• sourdough banana bread
• sourdough puff pastry
• Pizza dough with discard starter
• pancakes with sourdough discard

The ingredients

The ingredients amounts are listed in the recipe card below but here is a run-through of them with a few extra details. 

• All purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Butter
• Sourdough discard starter
• Cheese
• Chives

The cheese

You can use what cheese you like in these sourdough scones, but those with a stronger flavor are preferable, such as cheddar cheese.

Alternatively use a mixture of different cheeses to bring the flavor, such as mixing a milder Edam cheese with stronger parmesan.

The chives

The chives bring a lovely mild-onion flavor to the dough, as well as a pretty pop of green.

They can be substituted with finely diced onion or shallots, wild garlic, green onions, or onion weed or simply omitted.

The dough

The tricks to flaky, fluffy scones are to keep the butter cold and work the dough as little as possible.

Cold butter is cut into the flour. The pieces become coated in flour and as they bake and the water in the butter evaporates, the scones rise and becomes light and flaky. 

When the liquid is added add only what is needed to create a shaggy dough that just holds together when pressed. There will be some parts that are dryer than others.

The scone dough doesn't really get kneaded, instead, it's laminated.

Adding in a few folds achieves extra layers in the dough. Lift up the bottom third of the dough and bring it into the middle. Bring down the top third of the dough and fold this over. Push or use a rolling pin to gently roll the rectangle out to flatten it, then repeat the folding.

Roll it out once more, then cut it into squares.

Step by step

• Chop the cold butter into cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into pea-sized crumbs, ensuring the pieces stay cold and don’t melt into the flour. You could also grate the cold butter instead of chopping it into pieces, but a pastry cutter is still handy to break up the grated butter further.
• Stir in the grated cheese and chopped chives
• Add in the sourdough discard starter and half the milk. Fold it together and add in the rest of the milk, or as much as is needed to create a slightly sticky and shaggy dough.

• Tip this dough out onto a clean bench and push it into a rectangle of about 7x10 inches (17cm x 25cm).
• Lift up the bottom third of the dough and bring it into the middle. Bring down the top third of the dough and fold this over, like you're folding a pamphlet.
• Turn the dough 90° so it's lengthwise in front of you, then push or use a rolling pin to gently push it into another 7x10 inches (17cm x 25cm) rectangle. Fold it up once more.
• Turn the dough 90° so it's lengthwise in front of you, then push or use a rolling pin to gently push it into another 7x10 inches (17cm x 25cm) rectangle.
• Cut it into 8 pieces for large scones or 12 pieces for small scones.
• Place the cut scones into the fridge for at least an hour, but up to 24 hours.
• Brush the scones with milk and top with grated cheese.
• Bake until lightly golden brown.

Fermented sourdough scones

To make fermented sourdough scones, you need to give the sourdough starter bacteria time to break down the starches in the flour.

To do this, simply refrigerate the scones for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Serving

Serve the scones hot from the oven with a pat of butter.

Cooled sourdough scones can be stored covered at room temperature for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to three months. Re-warm them in the microwave.

Related recipes

Try sourdough pizza or pain au chocolat!