Bacon Cheddar Scones
Flaky, buttery scones studded with crispy bacon and sharp cheddar — a hearty American-style take on a bread first documented in 17th-century Scotland, where the earliest known written recipe already offered a savoury bacon version.
- 2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1 tbspbaking powder
- 1 tspsugar
- 0.5 tspkosher salt
- 6 tbspcold butter(cubed)
- 6 slicesbacon(cooked crispy, crumbled)
- 1 cupsharp cheddar(shredded)
- 0.75 cupcold buttermilk
- 1egg(for wash)
- 2 tbspchives(minced)
Can be made ahead and frozen unbaked. Bake from frozen, adding 5 minutes to time.
- 1Preheat oven to 400°F and line baking sheet with parchment
- 2Whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in large bowl
- 3Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs
- 4Toss in bacon, cheese, and chives
- 5Add buttermilk and stir until just combined - don't overmix
- 6Turn onto floured surface and pat to 1-inch thickness
- 7Cut into 12 triangles or use round cutter for 24 mini scones
- 8Arrange on baking sheet and brush tops with beaten egg
- 9Bake 15-18 minutes until golden brown
- 10Serve warm
Cold butter is essential for flaky texture - freeze it for 10 minutes before using. Don't overmix or scones will be tough. The dough should be shaggy and barely come together. Buttermilk adds tang that complements the bacon and cheese.
The scone is a Scottish invention whose documented history begins in the early 16th century, though its precursors — the flat oatcakes and barley-based griddle breads of the Scottish Highlands — are considerably older. The word scone first appeared in print in a Scottish translation of Virgil's Aeneid published in 1513. Multiple food historians suggest the name may derive from the town of Scone in Perthshire, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Scotland where monarchs were crowned on the celebrated Stone of Scone, or alternatively from the Dutch word schoon, meaning clean or beautiful. By the 17th century, "A History of Scotland from the Earliest Times" records that the poorer classes would bake "oat cakes, or the scone of bere or barley" on a griddle — a round flat technique that predates the oven-baked versions familiar today. The earliest known written recipe for a scone is held in the Wellcome Collection and dates from 1669: titled "Mrs Fellard's scone cake," it includes flour, currants, eggs, sugar, yeast and cream — but significantly also offers a savoury alternative with bacon and gravy, confirming that the combination of scone and bacon has been a natural pairing for at least 350 years. The sweeter, lighter, oven-baked scone that is now standard in British afternoon tea only emerged after baking powder became commercially available in 1843; before that, all scones were leavened with yeast or bicarbonate. The first recorded reference to scones as part of a cream tea appeared in a Cornish newspaper in 1932. American savory scones — triangular, dense, and layered with cheese and bacon — represent a transatlantic evolution of the Scottish original, borrowing the basic structure and substituting the cream-tea sweetness for the salty, hearty flavours of the griddle tradition.