Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
Combining two of my favorite loves – red pepper and goat cheese bruschetta and scones, to create one heck of a savory scone! These Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones start with red peppers that are slow roasted with a balsamic glaze, bringing the pepper flavor out and creating that deeply sweet profile. Next, comes the goat cheese, which is extremely tart and pungent, which beautifully contrasts that flavor of the balsamic roasted red peppers. Lastly, a little bit of parmesan is added for some salty umami balance. All this goodness wrapped up in one tender, flaky, flavor-packed little scone that can be enjoyed any time of day!
Using the Right Ingredients
Flour
Making these Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones starts with using the right kind of flour. In this recipe I utilized both pastry flour and All-Purpose Flour. When making scones, or many different type of pastries, you want a flaky and tender final product. This is achieved with pastry flour, which has about 8-9% gluten content. Although less gluten provides a tender dough and final product, it also comes at the cost of structure. This is why I mix AP flour in as well. The AP flour’s higher gluten content provides the little networks of structure needed to hold the scone together. By mixing these two flours, the Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones will be tender, flaky, and most importantly – not falling apart!
Butter
The butter must be cold. I repeat – the butter must be COLD! It is absolutely crucial in making these Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones that the butter has to be very cold. I personally actually use butter that is straight out of the freezer, so that it remains cold enough while I work it with my hands. Cold butter is what creates all those flaky delicious layers in the Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones. 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, it will ‘cream’ with the batter, leaving no little air pockets, leading to a dense solid pastry.
Making the Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Scones
Roasting the Red Peppers
Start by quartering each pepper, removing the stem and seeds. In a medium bow, toss the pepper quarters with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet, skin side-up, and season well with salt. Place into the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, and place the steaming hot peppers into a lidded container for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the red peppers, and peel the skin off with your fingers. Place the peeled peppers into a balsamic/olive oil mixture and allow to cool in that marinade. When cooled, remove from the marinade and chop into 1” cubes.
Starting the Scones
Making these Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones is quite easy, although it is a little bit of a messy job and requires a little bit of elbow grease! Start by adding both flours, sugar, baking powder, spices, salt, chopped rosemary, and the cubed cold butter to a large bowl. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, cut the pieces of butter up until they are all around the size of peas (some can be larger, just don’t go too small). For this process I like to start with my hands, pinching the butter pieces between my fingers to break them up. Then I typically finish with the pastry cutter, using it to break the butter up to generally the same size. From here, we add the cooled and chopped red peppers, goat cheese, and parmesan. Toss this all to combine it.
Shaping and Cutting the Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
Now, we add the cold heavy cream, and stir to combine. I like to use my hands for this, as I find it better disperses the liquid everywhere, and then I can also begin to shape the dough in the bowl. Using your hands, begin forming the dough in the bowl. The dough should be quite shaggy, but it should still come together. If you need more liquid, slowly add more cold heavy cream until the dough comes together better. When you feel like the dough has begun to come together, turn it out onto a flour work surface. Begin patting the dough into a disk shape (try not to play or knead the dough too much as you will activate the gluten). Once in a disk shape that is 6-7” in diameter and 1” thick, cut the disk up like a pie, forming 6 equal pieces.
30 Minute Resting Period
Next, place the scones onto a plate or baking sheet with parchment, and place into the fridge for a 30-minute resting period. The purpose of this resting period is two-fold. One, it allows can activated gluten to relax. Two, it allows the flour to properly hydrate, lending a better final mouth-feel. And three, it allows the butter to resolidify – which of course will lead to those little air pockets and a flaky final product.
Baking the Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
Remove the scones from the fridge, arrange them evenly onto a parchment lined baking sheet, brush the tops with heavy cream, sprinkle with a bit of salt, and place into the oven for about 22 minutes! After the Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones come out of the oven, transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool a bit before enjoying!
Get the Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
Ingredients
Balsamic Roasted Red Peppers
- 1 lb Red Bell Peppers,, tops and seeds removed, quartered
- 4 tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 tbsp Quality Balsamic Vinegar
- 1/4 tsp Salt
Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
- 1 ½ (180g) cup All-Purpose Flour, †
- 1 (120g) cup Pastry Flour, †
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
- 7 tbsp Cold Unsalted Butter,, cut into small cubes
- Chopped Roasted Red Peppers, (above)
- 3/4 cup Crumbled Soft Goat Cheese
- 1/2 cup Finely Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 2 tsp Finely Chopped Rosemary
- 3/4 cup Cold Heavy Cream,, plus more if needed
- 1 tbsp Heavy Cream,, for brushing
- Flaky Sea Salt,, for sprinkling
Instructions
Roasted Red Peppers
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Add all ingredients to a large bowl, toss well together to ensure each pepper is well covered. Remove peppers from marinade and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet, skin side up. Pour half of marinade over top of peppers, then place into oven and cook for about 55 minutes.
- Remove roasted peppers from baking sheet and immediately transfer to a Ziploc or a lidded container. Allow the peppers to ‘sweat’ for 15-20 minutes in there. Afterwards, peel the skin off with your fingers (it should come off pretty easily). After the skin has been removed, place peppers into the remaining marinade, and allow to cool in the marinade for 20 minutes. After cooled, remove from marinade, pat dry, and roughly chop.
Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scones
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, pepper, and garlic powder. 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 chopped roasted red peppers, goat cheese, parmesan, and rosemary. Toss well with your hands until the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout.
- Add 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 sprinkle with sea salt, then place into the preheated oven, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until turning golden brown. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Related Recipes
Love Scones? Check out these scone recipes below:
CARROT CAKE SCONES WITH MAPLE CREAM CHEESE GLAZE, These tender flaky scones feature all the great flavors we all love from carrot cake, plus a delicious maple cream cheese glaze.
BACON GRUYERE BREAKFAST SCONES. Scones with a savory twist! These scones feature bacon, gruyere, and thyme for maximum flavor!
