Cheese and Spinach Scones With Turmeric

These "better-than-from-a-bakery" (my family's words, not mine!) buttery, flaky, mildly spicy and savory whole wheat scones with oodles of cheddar cheese, spinach, turmeric and spicy bits of Serrano are a delightful experience every delicious bite!

All you need to do is just mix everything gently to form a dough, roll, cut and bake!

The key step to remember is, again, be gentle while working the dough and keep the ingredients, dough and unbaked scones chilled or cold at all times for perfect flaky, melt in mouth scones!

These are just perfect to go with a bowl of soup, hot or even chilled but my family was loving every bite of it without any side; a perfect teatime/chai time snack for us!

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp black pepper powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup cold unsalted butter (freeze for best results)

1 cup finely chopped fresh spinach

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated, plus more to top the scones

1 small jalapeno/Serrano pepper (½ tbsp, finely chopped); (optional)

1 cup heavy cream plus some more as needed

Finely chop fresh spinach leaves. Chill in the refrigerator until the time you need to add to the scones dough.

Grate cheddar cheese; I have used a box grater. You can use a food processor too. Chill in refrigerator or freeze for a few minutes.

Finely chop Serrano peppers/jalapenos and slice a few into roundels to top the scones before baking. If you are not into spicy food, just omit it or stir in your favorite kind of chilies or even crushed black pepper.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

To a mixing bowl, add the whole wheat flour, baking powder, turmeric powder, black pepper powder and salt to combine thoroughly.

Whisk the dry ingredients thoroughly using a wire whisk or fork.

Grate the frozen butter using a box grater or even a food processor.

Add the grated frozen butter to the flour mixture.

Using the tips of your fingers or a pastry blender, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture gently, until it forms coarse meal like mixture but with some bits of butter still visible.

If you have a food processor, you can do this step in that too.

To this mixture, add the chilled chopped spinach, grated cheese and chopped chilies.

Mix again using gentle fingers to distribute evenly.

Pour chilled heavy cream and toss the mixture together, handling it gently to form a dough like mixture which you can gather to form a rough slightly wet ball. DO NOT OVERMIX; DO NOT KNEAD AND THIS STEP SHOULD BE DONE AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE.

If needed, add more cream but again; do not knead; just gather the dough mixture to form a rough ball.

Transfer the dough mixture onto a floured counter or silicone mat and press or roll using a floured rolling pin into an even but thick circle.

Cut into rounds using a cookie cutter dipped in more flour.

Gently remove the scones and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Reroll the dough, cut and make more scones with the rest of the dough.

Brush the tops with cream using a pastry brush.

Sprinkle some more cheddar cheese on each unbaked scone and top with a roundel of jalapeno or Serrano, whichever you use.

Chill in the refrigerator until you prepare the oven for baking.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F or 204 degrees C.

Once the oven reaches the above mentioned temperature, remove baking sheet with unbaked scones from fridge and bake in hot oven for 18-20 minutes until light golden brown and you can see some brown edges.

The time depends upon each oven so adjust accordingly.

Once baked, remove pan from oven and place baked scones on wire racks to cool slightly.

Serve flaky, buttery, spicy and delicious Cheese and Spinach Scones warm or at room temperature.

• Adding turmeric and jalapenos/Serrano peppers is totally optional.
• You can make these scones without spinach too.
• Instead of whole wheat flour, you can use plain flour instead.
• Handle the dough very gently; no kneading at all. Just gather to form a dough.
• Adjust the amount of heavy cream you need to form the dough, just enough to hold the dough together and to make it easy to roll.
• The key to good scones is: the mixture should be cold at all times. So chill the chopped spinach, grated cheese, flour mixture and heavy cream thoroughly.
• Butter is best kept frozen until it is grated.
• Chilling the unbaked scones is optional but highly recommended!
• Enjoy Foodies and Happy Baking!