I’m surprised I haven’t written more often here about scones because I make them pretty frequently. They’re very easy to throw together on a weekend morning, and as long as you have flour, butter, eggs, baking powder, a bit of sugar, some dairy (cream, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk) and some dried or frozen fruit around, you’re well on your way to a nice batch of scones.

Scones are really so easy and low-maintenance. You can roll out scone dough and use a round cutter, or cut them into wedges, or shape them as you would drop biscuits, or you can do what I do and use a scone pan.

Mostly I make blueberry or currant scones. I’ve made a few attempts at savory versions but they were just never remarkable enough to repeat. UNTIL NOW.

I had some chives in the fridge that needed to be used more or less immediately, and a withering hunk of Kerrygold cheddar in the same condition (this already sounds super promising!). We also happened to have part of a jug of buttermilk leftover from buttermilk roasted chicken. I didn’t want to rely on one of my sweet scone recipes for a base, so I did some googling and came up with a very straightforward cheddar and chive scone recipe.

I was able to get a heaping tablespoon of chives and about 1/3 cup of grated cheddar, both less than the recipe called for; then I remembered the Black Forest ham in the fridge. I chopped up a slice and tossed it in.

Reader, these scones were delightful. The increased amount of baking powder, left to react with the buttermilk over a 10-minute resting period, results in a very high rise and fluffy, flaky final product. No word of a lie, these rose the highest of any scone I’ve made. You will be extremely proud of these should you choose to make them. Recommend!