These easy Roasted Jalapeno, Garlic, and White Cheddar Savory Scones Recipe with Smoked Sea Salt are my family’s new favorite weekend treat. The are salty, cheesy, and packed full of soft pepper and garlic flavor.
When Fall Won’t Fall
I don’t know about you, but here in Tennessee we are still having temperatures between 80 and 90 Fahrenheit every day. It’s still dress and sandal weather when I am eyeing jeans and boots with longing every day.
I’m not a fan of winter myself. I grew up in Florida, and those long stretches of rainy cold just DEPRESS me.
I do, however, like fall.
Especially here in Tennessee. We live adjacent to the Smoky Mountains, and I honestly think fall is the most beautiful time of year here. The mountains turn into a riot of color that dapples and dips and stretches for miles in every direction.
Every hill you crest is a surprise.
The reds, the golds, the deep orange and the bright yellow – they’re all astounding. The sky, even, seems to always want to get in the color changing game too. There’s something about the clear, cloudless, cerulean blue that you don’t see any other time of year.
There’s the promise of blankets, and fires, of pies, spiked coffees, of prettily wrapped presents, and soft twinkling lights.
In short, I love this point in the year. I just wish, this year, that it would hurry up and get here!
I want to snuggle into a fleece, grab a flat white, and hit a trail with my baby bundled up in the stroller.
I want to start planning for the holidays, for big meals, and surprises under the tree.
But until that time, I am making the most of pepper season.
Peppers will grow here happily until first frost. So I made this Vegetarian White Bean and Chicken Chili, and this Hatch Green Chile and Black Bean soup, and now I have for you an ADDICTIVE baked good.
Savory Scones Recipe
Some people say a scone can’t be savory.
Ok, then, this is a triangle shaped biscuit.
Frankly, this savory scones recipe is too good to quibble over a thing like terminology!
If you’re interested, though, in learning what the actual, technical difference is between biscuits and scones, check out my Lemon Iced Blueberry Biscuits!
Fresh Peppers
Honestly, I think this dish should be made with fresh jalapenos. But if you don’t have those available, a little canned chili might work too. Let me know if you make them that way!
Garlic
Don’t be afraid to use the whole amount of garlic this recipe calls for – which is a whole head. Garlic, when roasted till its soft, loses some of its bite, and becomes softer and almost sweeter. It blends perfectly with the bright pepper flavor and the nutty cheese.
Why Smoked Sea Salt?
So almost every savory scones recipe I see out there involves bacon. I, of course, do not eat bacon.
But if we think about what bacon DOES in a recipe, we can emulate it other ways. Bacon basically brings that salty, smoky umami. But we can get that smokiness other ways, and one of the ways in which I like to recreate that is with smoked paprika or smoked salt.
Frankly, I was out of smoked paprika, and didn’t fancy the idea of pinkish a pinkish savory scones recipe anyhow.
But smoked salt? That I have! I’m a bit of a salt junkie. You can check out in my kitchen tips the different kinds of salt I typically have on hand and why!
And if you’re interested in other ways I turn meat based recipes vegetarian, sign up to get info about my coming-soon-e-book, The Crafty Vegetarian’s Survival Guide!
Don’t have smoked sea salt?
That’s ok! You can buy some smoked finishing salt here. In full disclosure, that’s an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase from that link, but I promise I HIGHLY recommend smoked salt. And any small profits I make go to helping keep this website running!
Roasted Jalapeno, Garlic, and White Cheddar Savory Scones Recipe with Smoked Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour When baking, I like to use a softer, lighter all purpose flour like White Lily.
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (1 stick)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 1 Cup White Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 2 Whole Jalapenos
- 1 Head Garlic
- 1/2 Cup Half and Half or Milk
- 2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
- 1/8 Teaspoon Smoked Sea Salt Amount is approximate. I add just a few flakes of smoked sea salt to each scone just after bruhsing with melted butter, and prior to baking.
- 2 Tablespoons White Cheddar This is optional - it's for sprinkling on top prior to baking.
Instructions
- Place two jalapenos and garlic on a sheet of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil and close foil over the top of the jalapenos and garlic and place in a preheated oven (350 degrees) for twenty minutes.
- Add flour, salt, and baking powder to a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk to combine.
- Using a pastry blender, or two knives, cut the butter in to the flour mixture until it looks like small peas.
- Add shredded cheese and continue the process until the cheese is well incorporated into the mixture.
- When garlic and jalapenos are done, remove from oven and vent the foil to allow to cool.
- Turn oven heat up to 400 degrees.
- When cool enough to handle, dice the jalapenos and add to the mixture.
- Remove garlic from its wrapping and add to the flour mixture. This will be mushy.
- Gently whisk in the jalapenos and garlic.
- Slowly add milk or half and half a tablespoon at a time to your dry mixture until all the flour is incorporated and you have a sticky, wet, dough.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and pat out to about 1/4 inch thick circle.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into eight triangles.
- Place triangles, not touching, on a baking sheet lines with parchment.
- Sprinkle each scone with some of the reserved shredded cheddar cheese.
- Melt your final two tablespoons of melted butter and brush the tops of each scone with melted butter.
- Sprinkle each scone with a few flakes of smoked sea salt.
- Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes, or until scones are golden brown.
- Remove from oven, let cool for about five minutes, then serve warm.