Scones

This recipe gives about 2-3 trays’ worth of scones, depending on the size of your tray, and how thick you’ve made them.

Take the flour and baking powder, and mix them together. Then mix in the soft butter, salt, and shredded cheese.

In the meantime, in a separate bowl, take the yeast, sugar, lukewarm milk, and mix them together. Cover the bowl and let the yeast activate. If you’re using dry yeast, you can skip this step and mix in the ingredients directly.
Make sure the milk is lukewarm before adding in the yeast. If it’s too cold, the yeast may never activate. If it’s too hot, it’ll burn.
The yeast is active once the top of the mixture is foamy after a few minutes. If it’s not, the yeast is dead and won’t rise.

Once the yeast is active, mix it with the flour. Then add the egg yolks, water, and cheese spread. Mix it well, until you get a dough. Depending on the flour used, the dough may be too dry, in that case keep adding water little by little.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes under cover.

Once the dough has rested, put it on your work area, and flatten it with a rolling pin. Keep it a bit thick. Fold it over itself, like you would a blanket. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

TIP: At this stage, before letting it rest, my grandmother’s generation beats the dough with a long stick or rolling pin. Not sure what purpose it serves.

You can repeat this step a few times, and each time you can cut the resting time by about half.

Prepare a baking tray (with low walls) with brown baking paper.
(Depending on your region the white ones may be usable as well, but the ones I can get are nothing more than glorified printing paper.)

Once the folding is done, lightly roll the dough out to the thickness you prefer. Now you can either cut them into strips, and you’ll get bread sticks. Or you can get your shaped biscuit cutters and cut whichever shape you prefer.

Put the cut shapes on the prepared baking tray. Leave some space between them, as they’ll rise. Once the tray is full, let them rise until they double in size.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C, top and bottom baking mode.

Take the leftover egg whites, and mix it with yet another whole egg. Beat it well. Now grab a baking brush, and coat the scones with the egg mixture. Cover the scones in shredded cheese.

Put the tray in the oven for 15 minutes. If you want your cheese softer, take the tray out at about half time, and do the coating and cheese spreading step now.

Enjoy your freshly baked scones!