Savory Skillet Scones
The perfect thing for a lazy holiday morning or a lowkey Sunday brunch.
Bacon-shallot-Gruyère skillet scones
This is a recipe for scones with bacon, shallot, Gruyère, and thyme, but it’s highly customizable to your preference. The key is this: The aromatic ingredients are all replaceable with like items. Just use the same formula as below, then swap one cheese for another, one herb for another, one allium for another, and so on. You can also leave out the bacon, the shallot (or other allium), or the herbs all together if you want. As long as the base formula stays the same, you should be good to go.
Some ideas to spark your imagination: bacon, chive, and cheddar scones; parmesan-rosemary scones; lavender and goat cheese scones . . . If/when you come up with something incredible, let us know in the comments!
Time: 45 min
Active Time: 20 min
Makes: 8 large scones
Drink: A damn fine cup of coffee.
EQUIPMENT
1. Preheat oven to 425 F
2. Cook yer bacon
Line a sheet pan with foil and place strips of bacon in rows. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until nicely browned but not too crispy. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to cool and drain.
3. Sautée shallot and thyme
Melt a half a tablespoon of butter in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add the diced shallot and whole thyme leaves and cook until soft and light brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. (I used the same one that I used for the bacon.)
4. Prep cheese
Cut the cheese into rough chunks and pulse in a food processor to make rough, pea-sized pieces. (If you don’t have a food processor, just a rough chop with a knife will do.)
5. Combine dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar until well-combined.
6. Add cold butter
Add the chunks of cold butter to your dry mix and squeeze with your hands to incorporate, like you would with pie dough. Mix until the butter and flour have created uneven, pea-sized chunks, like a coarse meal.
Place the whole bowl in the fridge to keep the butter cool.
7. Crumble bacon
Once fully cool, pulse the bacon strips in the food processor to make bits. (Again, if you don’t have a food processor, crumbling with your hands or with a knife is fine.)
8. Add bacon, shallot, and cheese to flour mixture
Remove flour mixture from the fridge and add bacon, shallot, and cheese. Mix to combine.
9. Add cream to other ingredients.
Slowly add cream and mix—first with a spatula or wooden spoon, then with your hands—until the dough starts to come together. Add cream just until all the dry bits are incorporated into a shaggy ball of dough—not so much that it’s wet. (If you overdo it, just add a bit more flour to balance it out.)
10. Turn onto a well-floured surface; pat into a disk
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and gently shape it into a 8–10” disk, about 3/4-inch tall. Pinch any big cracks.
At this point you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and reserve in the fridge or freezer until later, or forge ahead.
11. Prep your skillet.
About ten minutes before you cook, coat your cast iron with a fine mist of cooking spray. (If your skillet is already well-seasoned that’s fine. The cooking spray is just for insurance.) Put the empty skillet into the oven to preheat.
12. Add dough to skillet; brush with cream or buttermilk
Pull the preheated skillet out of the oven and place your dough disk in the middle. (It’s okay if it doesn’t reach all the way to the edges of your pan.) Using a bench scraper or a large knife, cut the dough into eight pieces in the pan. Brush with a light layer of cream or buttermilk to help with browning.
13. Bake 22–25 minutes
Bake those babies until golden-brown. Let cool on the pan for about five minutes before serving.
14. Serve warm!
Best enjoyed with slippers, crew-neck sweatshirts, and a hot cup of coffee.
Um, excuse me?
I have a skillet that’s bigger / smaller, what should I do?
Just make the same amount of dough. You can always use a bit less if your skillet is smaller, and if your skillet is bigger, the scones can just cook right in the middle of it. It doesn’t need to fit exactly.
Can I make the dough in advance and cook it in the morning?
Yes, you can do everything up to step 10, and then wrap the dough in plastic and reserve it in the fridge or freezer. (If you freeze it, be sure to let it thaw in the fridge before baking.)
Can I use onion instead of shallot?
Yes, always. A quarter of a medium-sized onion (any color) will work as a substitute.
Should I use salted or unsalted butter?
It doesn’t matter. I use salted because I like my food saltier, but if you’re the opposite, use unsalted.
Should I use all-purpose flour or pastry flour?
They’ll both work fine. Pastry flour has lower gluten content than other flour blends, yielding tender, soft baked goods—perfect for something like scones. If you have it on hand, use it! If not, AP is great.
Can I cook the bacon in a skillet?
Definitely. You can cook it any way you want. I happen to think baking is the easiest/best way to cook bacon.
Can I grate the cheese instead of pulsing it or chopping it?
Yes, but I like how the rough chunks bubble and steam in the oven, adding to the flaky texture of the scone. Grated cheese will definitely work, but I think it’ll make for a denser pastry.
I want to sub out ingredients. What should I keep in mind?
Though I have not tested every possible variation, it should be fairly straightforward to swap the Gruyère for just about any medium-texture cheese (cheddar, Parmesan, Romano, goat cheese, and Manchego would all work fine). You can swap any allium for the shallot (onion, garlic, green onion, chive); herbs like rosemary, lavender, and sage could easily replace the thyme; and the bacon can be left out all together. Be sure to keep the ratio of dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and wet ingredients (butter, sugar, cheese, cream) as consistent as possible for best results.
What do you recommend for a damn fine cup of coffee?
Herkimer. Elm. Heart. Stumptown. Intelligentsia.
