If you’re looking for a delicious alternative to bread, these Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones are a must-try. The sharpness of mature cheddar cheese and the mild acidity of sourdough make these Sourdough Discard Cheese scones a perfect savoury treat. Try them with a warming bowl of soup, slathered with salted butter (my favourite!), or enjoy them as a light lunch with ham and salad.
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Scones are a very popular British Tea Time staple. Traditionally, they are served with cream and jam as part of a ‘Cream Tea’. While that is absolutely delicious, I have to say that this savoury take on the traditional scone is my favourite. I love to serve them warm with a large knob of salted butter that melts into the scone – so good!
If you like the look of this recipe, you might be interested in my Lemon Sourdough Scones that are a zingy twist on the traditional sweet scone recipe!
Watch me make Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones here!
Ingredients Needed to Make Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
Makes 8 large scones
- 300g plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 85g butter
- 1-2 tsp herbes de Provence
- 100g sourdough discard
- 100ml milk
- 1 tsp apple cidre vinegar
- 1 tbsp mustard
- approx 150g mature cheddar cheese (you might want to add more for more cheese flavour!)
- Extra milk to glaze
Flour
I use plain flour for this recipe (otherwise known as all-purpose flour). I add baking powder, so there is no need to use self raising flour. If you do decide to use self raising flour, you will need to reduce the baking powder to 1/2 tsp.
Baking Powder
Since we are not using sourdough starter to make the scones rise, you will need to add some baking powder. This can also be replaced by bicarbonate of soda (baking soda).
Butter
Butter is an essential ingredient for any scone recipe. Using real butter instead of margarine will give you a much better result.
Sourdough Discard
This is the central ingredient of the scone and will provide a lot of flavour. Sourdough discard is what is left during the process of feeding your sourdough starter. Since we only need to feed a small amount, we often have to discard the rest. Many of us keep that discard in the fridge as a back up plan, if anything goes wrong with our starter, or to use in discard recipes like this.
Sourdough starter contains wild yeast, which is what enables sourdough bread to rise. If you’re interested in making sourdough bread, I have a great recipe for beginners here.
Since the discard in this recipe is probably not active (has not been fed beforehand), we will not be relying on it to help the dough to rise. However, if you are using sourdough for health reasons, you may want to let the uncooked scones ferment in the fridge for a few hours before baking. This will allow the sourdough discard to start to ferment the gluten in the dough and make it more digestible. You may have to increase the cooking time, however, since the dough will be cold from the fridge.
Flavourings Used for Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
Cheese
Being British, I might be slightly biased, but I find that the very best cheese to use in baking is cheddar. It is sharp, it generally melts well and gives the scones that delicious cheese flavour we are looking for.
Other options are Comté or Gruyère. Make sure you get mature cheese otherwise the flavour will not be strong enough for you to taste once the cheese is baked into the scones.
Mustard
This is a hack my Mom taught me. For some reason, mustard always brings out the flavour of cheese. We use it in these scones and in cheese sauces especially. I also like to spread it on the pastry when I’m making a quiche to deepen that cheese flavour even further.
You can substitute mustard for mustard powder if you have it – the flavour will be even stronger. Be careful, you will not need as much mustard powder as mustard – 1 tbsp will be too much! Unfortunately I cannot get mustard powder here in France so I haven’t tested the amount you would need.
Herbes de Provence
Since buying a large jar of these wonderful herbs at Costco recently, I have been using them in many different dishes! I think they go very well in these cheese scones, bringing another dimension of flavour. They are, however, completely optional, so just leave them out if you don’t have any.
How to Make Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
Preheat the oven to 200°C with the baking tray in it.
(I like to make this recipe in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but you can also easily make it by hand.)
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, butter and herbs in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or by rubbing the mixture with your finger tips.
Meanwhile, heat the milk until lukewarm and add the vinegar to the milk so that the milk curdles.
When the flour and butter mixture ressembles bread crumbs add the milk mixture, sourdough discard, mustard and 100g of cheese (keep the rest of the cheese to top the scones with). Mix until the dough only just comes together. Be careful not to over mix as this will make the scones tough. The dough will be quite dry, this is normal.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a round disc, about 2.5cm (1 inch) thick. Using a bench scraper, cut the disc into 8 equal parts.
Place the scones onto the hot baking tray, brush with milk and sprinkle with cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for approx 18 minutes.
Serve hot with salted butter on it’s own, or with a cosy bowl of soup!
How to Store Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
These cheese scones will keep in an air tight container for 1-2 days at room temperature. I like to ‘refresh’ my scones before serving them by warming them in the oven for 5-10 mins at 160°C.
Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones also freeze very well. You can reheat them from frozen in the oven at 160°C for about 15-20 mins.
How to Serve Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
These cheese scones are one of my favourite things to serve with a hearty soup. When I’m bored with bread, this is what I make!
I also enjoy eating them as a snack – I warm them, cut them in half and slather them with golden butter that immediately starts melting – so delicious!
Another great way to serve them is as a lunch with ham and salad. I don’t think they would make a good sandwich vessel as they are quite crumbly, but with ham and salad on the side, they are perfect!
Another delicious way to serve these sourdough cheese scones would be as a side to a rich stew. It will change thing up from mashed potatoes and will be almost like eating a pot pie or cobbler!
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Did you make these Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones? Let me know how they turned out in the comments below!
Looking for more sourdough discard recipes? Check out these Sourdough Lemon Scones or these Sourdough Apple Oat Muffins
Sourdough Discard Cheese Scones
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 85 g butter
- 1-2 tsp herbes de Provence
- 100 g sourdough discard
- 100 ml milk
- 1 tsp apple cidre vinegar
- 1 tbsp mustard
- approx 150g mature cheddar cheese you might want to add more for more cheese flavour!
- Extra milk to glaze
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C with the baking tray in it.
- I like to make this recipe in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but you can also easily make it by hand. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, butter and herbs in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or by rubbing the mixture with your finger tips.
- Meanwhile, heat the milk until lukewarm and add the vinegar to the milk so that the milk curdles.
- When the flour and butter mixture ressembles bread crumbs add the milk mixture, sourdough discard, mustard and 100g of cheese (keep the rest of the cheese to top the scones with). Mix until the dough only just comes together. Be careful not to over mix as this will make the scones tough. The dough will be quite dry, this is normal.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a round disc, about 2.5cm (1 inch) thick. Using a bench scraper, cut the disc into 8 equal parts.
- Place the scones onto the hot baking tray, brush with milk and sprinkle with cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for approx 18 minutes.
- Serve hot with salted butter on it’s own, or with a cosy bowl of soup!
So soft! Just love it!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed them!