Thanks to my OH’s work colleagues, we’ve recently been getting a lot of great home grown organic produce as gifts. Kevin Cooke gave us some lovely courgettes which, as I mentioned before, are not the OH’s favourite food. So, once again, I was faced with the challenge of glorifying this great vegetable. I created some delicious courgette, chive and cheese scones. The courgette in these scones make them deliciously moist and they’re a perfect lunch box filler.
Here’s how:
– 1 small (about 100g) courgette
– 300g self-raising flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling
– 1 tsp caster sugar
– 1/2 tsp. of salt
– 120g grated cheddar
– 3 tbs finely chopped chives
– Pinch of cayenne papper
– 250ml buttermilk – reserve some for brushing on top
– Freshly crushed black pepper (optional)
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Begin by removing the top and bottom stalky bits of the courgette with a knife. Next remove the skin from the courgette with a vegetable peeler. I left most of the skin on as I like the texture of the skin. Next, using a cheese grater, grate the courgettes into a bowl. Once you have grated the courgettes, squeeze out the excess moisture in a paper towel. It’s really important to get rid of the moisture as otherwise the mixture will be too wet. Next, sieve the flour into a large bowl. Combine the flour with the courgettes, sugar, salt, grated cheddar, chives and cayenne together in the large bowl. Gradually add most of the buttermilk and mix with a spoon until it forms into soft dough. Reserve some buttermilk for glazing. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until it is about 2cm in thickness. Use a round pastry cutter or glass dipped in flour to cut out the scones. Paint the scones with the reserved buttermilk. I put a sprinkling of freshly crushed black pepper over my scones before cooking. Place in the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden in colour. Serve with some lovely country butter.
