Cheese-y Beer Scones

The annual Great American Beer Festival took place all around Denver and Boulder, Colorado last weekend, and every year, it seems, I come across new and wondrous ways to get a little more beer into my food.  Granted, I’ve never been able to actually get to the beer festival, but there is no shortage of awesome recipes to be had whether you attend or not.

And seriously, what could be better than a cheesy beer scone?!  This scrumptious recipe comes to us by way of our good friends at The Culinary School of the Rockies (see sidebar note) in Boulder, Co., and are we ever grateful to them!  Their recipe suggests using an ale, a lager or a pilsner, but having none of those on hand,

I used a wheat beer I love which I thought would go really well with the cheese.  I was not wrong; it was a great choice, but it would be fun to experiment with a darker ale type of beer next time.

In addition to the beer, these scones contain no less than ¾ of a cup of chopped chives… do you realize how many chives that is?

I fortunately have them growing in abundance in my garden, but I had to make 3 trips out there to fulfill this recipe’s requirements.  To be unprecise, ¾ of a cup of chives equals about 3 fistfuls.  But I would not suggest skimping on the chives.  They’re mighty good in here.

Not only do we have copious amounts of beer and chives, but big nuggets of cheddar cheese which makes these scones about perfect, I’d say.  I can imagine serving them with soup, chili beans or stew, but they’re so good with beer that I may try making them a little smaller next time just for that purpose.

So, many thanks to those good people at CSR who continue to turn out great food and great chefs.  We’re pretty happy about our cheesy beer scones.

Cheesy Beer Scones

For a printable recipe, click here

Recipe courtesy of the Culinary School of the Rockies

Makes about 12

2 ¾ cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¾ cup minced fresh chives

1 1/2 cusp coarsely shredded cheddar cheese

¾ cup (or more) chilled beer, such as an ale,lager or pilsner

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425°F. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour (I just used parchment paper). Whisk first 3 ingredients in large bowl. Stir in chives and cheese. Whisk ¾ cup beer, 1 egg, oil, and mustard in small bowl. Gradually add beer mixture to dry ingredients, tossing until moist clumps form and adding more beer by tablespoonfuls if dough is dry (I ended up using a little more than a cup of beer). Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface; knead just until dough comes together.

Pat out dough to 1-inch-thick round. Using 2 ½-inch-diameter cutter, cut out scones. Gather dough scraps and repeat. Transfer to prepared sheet. Whisk remaining egg in small cup; brush over scones. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake scones until golden on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Cool scones on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to basket. Serve warm and enjoy!