Bacon Gruyere Breakfast Scones
A savory take on traditional scones, these bacon gruyere breakfast scones are incredible. These delicious breakfast scones feature finely crumbled smoky bacon, sharp salty Swiss gruyere cheese, as well as fresh herby thyme to add a robust earthy flavor to these scones. These savory little bacon gruyere breakfast scones can be enjoy at room temperature, or warm with butter. They’re even great served with a touch of honey as well!
When we think of scones, we usually thinks of the sweet variety. Now, while a good sweet scone is awesome, I thought I would create a take on the scone that was savory, instead of sweet. As scones are typically enjoy during breakfast, I thought what is a better breakfast food than bacon! And if you’re having a savory breakfast, than you just have to have cheese. Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Scones – now I just needed to decide what cheese. I thought gruyere would be perfect, as it is a little less conventional than cheddar, while still maintaining those salty sharp qualities of cheddar, that everyone loves so dearly.
Behold – Bacon & Gruyere Breakfast Scones!
The Flour
I used a combination of pastry flour and all-purpose flour. Many people don’t know the difference between the two flours. Well, pastry flour is essentially just flour with a lower protein (gluten) content. Sitting at around 9% gluten content, compared to the 11% for All-Purpose, pastry flour is great for making flaky, tender baked goods. The higher the gluten content in bread the more chewy it gets. So for example, bread flour has a gluten/protein content of 14%, which makes sense why bread is chewier than say a biscuit or strudel. So, as we want scones to be very tender and have a fine texture, pastry flour is great! If you do not have pastry flour, you can use all all-purpose flour in the recipe, you just need to be extra careful about not over working the gluten when the liquids are added!
Cold Butter is a Must
It is absolutely crucial that very cold butter is used. In fact, I actually use frozen butter to ensure that the butter stays cold up against the room temperature, and my warm hands. Cold butter is essential to any pastry dough, such as croissants, pie, puff pastry, etc. This is because the cold butter is what creates all those flaky delicious layers in the baked good. This happens due to butters physical make-up. Butter is about 80-82% milk fat, and 16-17% water! So when the dough, with its multiple layers of the cold chunks of butter, hits the hot oven, the water in the butter quickly evaporates off, leaving little air pockets in the dough, creating those wonderful flaky layers! As such, if the butter is too warm, and mixes cohesively with the batter, there will not be any spots with air pockets created, leading to a dense solid pastry.
Shaggy Dough
When this dough it ready to be patted into its final shape, it should be quite shaggy. That being said, it should still come together, just not look like a cohesive bread dough, for instance. It is important that not too much liquid is added. Water (such as the water in the cream) is what activates gluten production in flour. Too much liquid = too much gluten = chewy tough scones! We don’t want that. That is why it is important to only add the bare minimum of liquid required to get it to form a shaggy dough. As another little note on gluten formation, we also want to make sure that we do not knead the dough, or play with it too much, as working the dough also toughens the dough as well. The shaggy dough just needs to be patted into a disk, then cut into wedges. No rolling and no kneading!
30-Minute Resting Period
These Bacon Gruyere Breakfast scones also require a short 30 minute resting period in the fridge. This resting period has 3 functions. The first is that it allows the butter to get cold again, and any melted butter to re-solidify, making sure these bacon gruyere breakfast scones come out nice and flaky. Secondly, this resting period also allows any gluten that was formed during the whole process, to relax, ensuring the scones are tender, and that the scones can rise without being restricted by the gluten structures. And lastly, the resting period also allows the flour to properly hydrate with the liquids in the dough. Proper hydration of the flour not only softens the flour, but also eliminates any grittiness in the flour, resulting in a smoother mouth-feel.
Use a Food Processor for Bacon & Thyme
Use a Food Processor for the Bacon & Thyme I personally use a small food processor, or coffee grinder, to properly mince up my cooked bacon, and the thyme. I find that pulsing them in the food processor creates a fine texture that can easily be dispersed evenly through the dough, ensuring that every bite of the bacon gruyere breakfast scone has that smoky flavor from the bacon, and that earthy roundness from the thyme. If you choose not to use a food processor, ensure that your bacon and thyme are well minced!
Get the Recipe: Bacon Gruyere Breakfast Scones
Ingredients
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour,, measured correctly †
- 1 cup Pastry Flour,, measured correctly
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
- 6 tbsp Cold Unsalted Butter,, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 lb (227g) Bacon,, cooked, cooled, and chopped finely
- 1 1/2 cups Coarsely Grated Gruyere
- 2 tsp Minced Fresh Thyme
- 1/2 cup Cold Heavy Cream, , (plus more if needed)
- 1/4 cup Full Fat Buttermilk
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment, a silicone baking mat, or simply a light coating of grease. Then, in a large mixing bowl, add both flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk well to combine. Add in cold butter cubes, and work the butter into flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work the butter until it is crumbly and about the size of peas (it is okay if some larger ones remain, just don’t go too small).
- Add in the crumbled bacon, gruyere, and thyme. Toss well with your hands until the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout.
- Add buttermilk and cream and stir until combined. I usually use my hands for this, as I find they best incorporate the ingredients and you can also tell if the dough needs more moisture or not. After the liquids have been added and mixed, try to squeeze all of the dough together. If the dough does not ALL come together, and there are crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, then keep adding heavy cream in small increments until the crumbs comes together with the rest of the dough (the dough should still be shaggy looking – too much liquid will activate the gluten, so we don’t want that). If and when the dough all comes together into shaggy dough it is ready to be turned out onto a well-flour work surface.
Shaping, Cutting, and Resting
- Pat the dough, on every surface of it, to get it to form a smooth 6-7” disk, that is about 1” thick (Make sure every once in a while that you are ensuring that the dough isn’t sticking to your work surface). Using a bench scraper or a knife, cut the dough into 6-8 equal pieces. Then, transfer the wedges, spaced apart, onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Baking the Scones
- Remove scones from the fridge, brush the tops with more heavy cream, and place into the preheated oven, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
