These savory scones are so delicious and make a wonderful dinner roll or savory snack. Made with Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, feta and blue cheese, they are the perfect accompaniment to chicken or lamb dishes and fantastic in place of French bread to go with your next pasta dish. We really love serving them along with Lamb Burgers or our Family’s Favorite Mediterranean Pasta.
We use our basic scone recipe and omit the sweet stuff for these savory scones!
We just use our basic scone recipe for these savory scones but cut back on most of sugar and all of the vanilla and then add in all of the savory ingredients: cheese, olives and sun-dried tomatoes. The scones are also amazing with our brand new olive hummus recipe, coming soon!
Scones are simple to make!
Scones are a super easy to make and they are so delicious. We love the way the cheese and olives pair in this recipe, but you can also use Greek green olives and grated cheddar cheese if you prefer those flavors. There is any number of combinations you can use when making scones whether they are sweet or savory, and it’s really up to your own tastes and imagination!
The key to making good scones is very chilled butter.
The key to making good scones is to have your butter really cold and to handle the dough as little as possible. We use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dries and we cut the butter into small pieces before even adding it to the flour mixture. If you don’t own a pastry cutter, don’t worry, you can use your finger tips to cut the butter into the flour by rubbing it and crumbling the butter into he dries. Some people freeze the butter first and then grate it with a cheese grater to get the pieces of butter really small before cutting them into the flour. Also, chill the cut scones for about 10-20 minutes on the baking sheet in the refrigerator before baking them for a flakier scone.
Is milk, cream or buttermilk better for scones?
We normally use 2% milk for our scones, but cream or half and half also work beautifully, if you can handle the fat content! We have scones quite often, so we prefer to go with milk. Sometimes, we use buttermilk in our scones, too, and that offers up a slightly tangier flavor. It’s really up to you, which dairy product you prefer in your scones. If you decide to use buttermilk, cut the amount of cream of tartar in half, since buttermilk is also acidic, like cream of tartar. Both of the acids react with the baking soda creating carbon dioxide which helps the scones to rise.
Scones can be made ahead and frozen for later.
We often make a big batch of scones and freeze them for serving later. They last for several months in the freezer. When you’re ready to fish them out of the freezer, just reheat them on a low oven temp, or in the toaster oven until heated through and a little bit crispy on the top and edges. They also hold up well in the refrigerator for several days in an air-tight container.
Savory Scones with Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives & Cheese
Ingredients
Scones:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 oz. butter, chilled and cut into small 1/2-inch pieces (8 tbsp. or 1 stick, or 1/2 cup)
- 3/4 cup Kalamata olives, halved or quartered
- 1/3 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 3/4 cup milk (or half and half – your choice)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425⁰. Prepare a baking sheet with cooking spray or parchment paper.
- Sift flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Using a pastry cutter or cold fingertips, cut the butter pieces into the dries until the pieces of butter are like small peas. Stir in the sundried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, blue cheese and feta. Mix well.
- Add milk all at once and mix just until integrated. Turn dough onto floured cloth or board and gather into a ball. You may need to absorb a little of the extra flour for this step, but be careful to not over handle your dough. Use a very light touch.
- Roll the dough ball out to about 1 ¼ inch in thickness. Cut dough into 8 triangles for large scones, or 12 triangles for smaller scones. Or, you can also use a biscuit cutter dipped in flour if you prefer round scones.
- Place scones on prepared baking sheet and evenly distribute the Parmesan cheese over the tops of each scone. Refrigerate the scones for 10-20 minutes before baking. This lets the butter firm up, resulting in a flakier pastry.
- Remove scones from the refrigerator and bake for approximately 12-14 minutes, or until the tops begin to turn golden-brown and Parmesan is beginning to brown.
- Remove from oven and eat hot, or cool and store in an airtight container. Or, freeze the scones in an airtight container for serving later!
Notes
- We love the combination of blue and feta cheese in these scones, but you can also use either or on the feta and blue cheese.
- You may find that you need a little more or less milk than 3/4 cup. If so, just compensate by adding a little more milk or a tiny bit more flour to get to a soft dough that you can roll out. We find that different flours act differently and cause some variation in the amount of liquid they can absorb.