Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Scones
Use fresh roasted pumpkin in this delicious recipe which combines squash, fresh herbs and goats cheese for a perfect savoury snack. Perfect with pumpkin soup!
Ingredients
- 250 g Self Raising Flour I often mix with half spelt flour and add an extra teaspoon of baking powder
- 50 g butter cold from the fridge and cut into small cubes
- 6 fresh sage leaves washed and finely chopped
- 1 pinch smoked maldon sea salt use plain if you don't have smoked
- 1 pinch chilli flakes optional
- 50 g grated goats milk cheddar I used Wookey Hole- but plain mature cheddar if fine too
- 30 g pumpkin seeds roughly chopped
- 100 ml buttermilk you can also use fresh milk here
- 1 egg beaten
- some sage leaves & pumpkin seeds to garnish
- 200 g roasted pumpkin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220℃/ Fan 200℃. Line a baking tray with non stick paper
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl (You can make these by hand or using a stand mixer). Add the cold butter and stir through the flour with a metal spoon. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. With a metal spoon stir in the chilli flakes, chopped sage, grated cheese and pumpkin seeds.
- Now add the pumpkin puree and as much milk as you need to form a dough. Do this gradually as you may not need all of the milk. Stir into the mix with a spoon or beater but take care not to overwork. The flour will take a couple of minutes to absorb the liquid so give it time. Once the mix looks wet enough start to press it together to form a dough,
- Press the dough out by hand or using a rolling pin using extra flour so it doesn't stick to the work surface or your hands. It should be around 2cm thick. Cut into rounds using a 6-7cm cutter (larger if you like).
- Remove lid, use spatula to scrape down the sides of the bender, then add half of flour mixture to blender and pulse 2 times. Scrape down sides of blender again, then add remaining flour mixture and blend on speed 3 for 15 seconds.
- Assemble the cakes. Use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of four of the citrus fruits. Slice the citrus into very thin rounds, no thicker than 1/8". Remove any seeds from the rounds and place one small citrus round in the bottom of each sugared muffin cavity. (See Chef’s Notes for choosing/placing citrus.)
- Slowly fill each muffin cavity to a little more than halfway full. (A pastry spatula is helpful in portioning the batter from the blender and into the cavities.) Bake cakes for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out clean.
Notes
This is a brilliant way to use up pumpkin from Halloween. In fact pumpkin should be on your radar for the autumn and beyond. Its nutritious, versatile and very easy to prepare (once you know how). Do check out my pumpkin preparation guide which makes using whole pumpkins a breeze. Link here.