Be-Ro Cheese Scones - Gluten Free Version
My new favourite lunch, paired with tomato soup.
Hi,
This is the third instalment of Bex Baked It baking the whole Be-Ro recipe book, but Gluten Free.
Recipe number three is for Cheese Scones. THESE WERE SO GOOD. I have no idea why I’ve never made them before. I thought I might be bored of scones by now, but I’ve made these multiple times since testing this recipe.
This Cheese Scone recipe was super quick and easy, and crazy delicious. I did the washing up whilst they were in the oven and the smell was so awesome it had my stomach rumbling. I couldn’t wait to be done photographing them so I could dig in and eat them for lunch.
What is a Cheese Scone?
As it sounds, a Cheese Scone is a scone with cheese in it. It’s definitely a savoury scone, and it paired beautifully with butter, and Heinz tomato and basil soup.
For something so small, they are super filling. I tried to eat three scones, with a mug of soup, because I’d been photographing the three and didn’t want them to go to waster. I managed to eat two and a half scones, and half the soup. So filling, but so delicious. A couple hours later I wrote the first draft of this post and still had my jeans unbuttoned.
In terms of the baking, these were very similar to the other scone recipes I’ve made so far, except there was no kneading. I did opt to mix the recipe with my hands, but there was a moisture issue with the recipe (which I’ll get into later) so I wanted to be able to feel the mixture coming together which I can’t do with a wooden spoon.
Gluten Free Rich Scone recipe overview
How did it taste?
Absolutely delicious.
I think I could have used a little more salt in the mixture than I did, but they were incredible regardless. It tasted like a scone, so there was nothing too unexpected, but it did also taste cheesy - especially the browned cheese on top. Beautiful.
How was the texture?
Perfect and fluffy. These held together even better than the Plain Scones and Rich Scones, which I think is thanks to the cheese. I ate mine hot, as suggested in the recipe, and you can see the stringy cheese when the scone is pulled apart. They were perfect. When I dipped them in my soup, there were no crumbs left floating in the top which was an absolute bonus for me!
What difficulty was this recipe?
Super easy. There was no kneading, which made this scone recipe particularly beginner friendly as there is no way to overwork the dough on this one. I did have to add a little more liquid than instructed (1.5tbsp extra), but I’ll discuss that in more detail further on.
Would I make this again?
I already have, multiple times! I think these Gluten Free Cheese Scones paired with tomato soup are going to become a frequent lunchtime treat in our house, definitely through Autumn and Winter.
Which Gluten Free substitutions were made?
This recipe uses the following ingredients.
Self raising flour
Butter (I used unsalted)
Mustard Powder
Milk (I used semi-skimmed)
Egg (I used medium)
Grated Cheese
Salt and Pepper
The only gluten free substitution I had to make was the flour. I used Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour, which is available in most UK supermarkets.
A lot of gluten free recipes add in extra ingredients to try and replace the gluten, but this can get complicated. I want to find out which recipes will work without adding a bunch of other stuff and empower gluten free bakers to easily attempt any recipes they like.
I did have to add more milk
I really wanted to make these recipes exactly as instructed, but with the gluten ingredients swapped. On this occasion though, the dough was so dry that when I mixed it, I just had a bowl of crumbs. I was squeezing it in an attempt to get it to bind and it just wouldn’t, so cutting it into triangles would have been impossible.
You can see in the GIF below, it was just lumpy cheese and flour - this was as combined as I could get it before adding additional liquid.
I added an additional 1.5tbsp of milk, and this was enough to get the mixture to hold together. I was unsure how much of a dry or sticky dough it was supposed to be, so I got it to hold together and then didn’t add anymore liquid, meaning it still looked like quite a dry dough.
In the GIF below, I started rolling the dough as instructed, but you can see it’s still looking a little dry and cracked, so I ended up just shaping and patting it to the correct size and thickness, as to not break up the dough.
In all of these scone recipes, when the liquid is added they tell you to leave a little behind to brush the tops with. For the Plain Scones and Rich scones I forgot and poured it all in, then had to use additional liquid to brush the tops. For this recipe I remembered and held some back. I think if I’d just poured all the liquid in, it would have been fine, so that’s worth bearing in mind.
The most golden of golden Gluten Free scones
The key to a golden top on your Gluten Free scones is to brush them with a mixture of egg and milk.
For the Rich Scones I did this, but they were still kinda pasty on the sizes which I think it normal. As this recipe had golden melted cheese on top, I wanted the sides to look golden too, otherwise I think the cheese would have looked more like it was dumped on top of a pasty scone.
I achieved this by just brushing the egg and milk mixture onto the top of the scones AND all the sides. It made a bit of a mess on the baking sheet, but it wasn’t an issue. I will absolutely be doing this again. I think they look so delicious being golden all around.
Did it work as a Gluten Free Rich Scone recipe?
It did!
There was the moment where I had to add more liquid, which could have been a gluten free issue, or it may have just been that I held too much liquid back to brush on the scones.
Despite the liquid issue, I’m counting these as a resounding win because I will be making them a million more times in the future.
The next few recipes that I test as Gluten Free bakes will also be scones, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything:
What I would change for future bakes
I might try experimenting with a more mature cheddar, I think.
Where is the recipe?
I don’t think I can give you the recipes for copyright reasons.
If you would like to bake any of the recipes you see me making, or just follow along and have some context, you can buy the recipe book from Be-Ro here. It’s £5.99, plus shipping and in my opinion, well worth it.
What is the next Gluten Free Be-Ro bake?
My next bake will be the Be-Ro Sunblush Tomato and Olive Scones. I’ve enjoyed the Cheese Scones so much that I absolutely can not wait to make these ones next!
Thank you for reading!
Bex.