Savory Oatmeal Scones

When the planets are correctly aligned everything seems right with the world and this has been such a time. Wally passed his Kung Fu black belt with flying colors and his play The Perfect Party came off brilliantly and Jason returned from his two month tour of Asia and surprised everyone! We had a wonderful dinner at Marty & Marcie’s last night even though we couldn’t hook Jason’s computer to the TV to see the slides from his trip.

This morning Jason & I went to the grocery and got in breakfast supplies. He made a wonderful coconut milk fruit smoothie and fruit granola. I made savory oatmeal scones. Super good breakfast. The scones were wonderfully crunchy on the edges and moist and savory on the insides. The onion was really good in the scones.

The background picture at top is a painting Jason brought back from Vietnam.

These are basically the same scones as I posted on April 1 except those were sweet with fruit.

Savory Oatmeal Scones

1.5 c (4.5 oz) old fashioned rolled oats (I used 1 1/4 c oats and 1/4 c chopped almonds)

1/3 c chopped red onion

1/2 c pepper jack cheese

1/2 c soy milk

(original calls for 1/2 c whole milk and 1/2 c cream; their notes say 1/2 c half & half can be used;)

1 large egg (1/4 c egg beaters)

1.5 c (7.5 oz) all purpose flour (1 1/4 c all purpose + 1/4 c whole wheat)

1/3 c (2 1/3 oz) sugar (I reduced this to 1/4 c brown sugar since these were to be savory)

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

10 T (1 1/4) sticks cold unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375°

Spread oats (and nuts if using) on baking sheet and toast until lightly browned about 9 minutes. Remove oats to cool and

Raise oven temp to 450°

Mix milk(s), egg (reserve 1 T for glazing the scones.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in food processor with metal blade. Scatter cold 1/4 inch cubes of butter over dry ingredients. Process 12 to 14 1-second pulses (mine took 17 pulses) to get to this consistency:

Remove flour & butter mix to a bowl and stir in cooled toasted oats, onions and cheese. Fold in liquid ingredients until large lumps appear. Knead into cohesive mass. I then divide the dough in half and form two balls. Pat out into a circle about an inch thick. I use my bench scraper to cut the circle into 6 pie sections.

Place on parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Brush tops with reserved milk/egg mix.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes (mine take 15 to 16). Four or five minutes before the scones are done, remove from the oven and top with a little grated cheese and return to the oven to finish cooking and the cheese is melted.

Here’s the thing: Top the scones with the cheese when you first put them into bake and the cheese gets golden brown and a bit dry. Top the scones with the cheese a few minutes before their done and the cheese comes out melted and moist. I like the cheese melted and moist but you may prefer the toasty effect. Either way they’ll be great. Enjoy.