Pecorino Cheese and Chive Scones with Walnuts

As you know by now, I love to try out cake recipes.  However, as the days are getting shorter, and the nights a little longer, I thought it was time to move into the realm of all things Savoury for a while.

This recipe comes from the book Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, by Harry Eastwood. First published in 2009, this book was her first solo creation.   Harry Eastwood also collaborated on the Cook Yourself Thin books, and TV series.  She spends her time between New York and Paris, working on numerous television and writing projects.

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

You will need:

250g Wholegrain Spelt Flour

40g finely grated Pecorino Cheese, plus extra for sprinkling on the top of each scone

2 tspns. Baking Powder

Half tspn. Bicarbonate of Soda 

Quarter tspn. fine grain sea salt (if liked)

A few twists of Black Pepper (again, if liked)

3 tbspn. Clear Honey

220g finely grated Courgette (Zucchini)

40g Walnuts, roughly chopped

3 tspns. of chives, finely chopped

A little milk or beaten egg

The original recipe uses White Spelt flour, but as I only had Wholegrain, that is what I used.

Also, only 1 tablespoon of honey was used in the book, but, to me, it looked too dry, so I upped the quantity to 3 tablespoons.

Tip:  Cutting chives is much easier using a kitchen scissors

Place the flour, pecorino cheese,  baking powder, bicarb. of soda, salt and pepper into the bowl of a food processor.  Then add in the courgette and honey.  Blitz these in until all ingredients are combined.  Then, finally add the walnuts and chives.  Blitz again, until the dough is formed.

Turn the dough out, and bring together gently.  Roll out to approximately 4cm thick, and then cut into circles.  I used a 2" (4.5cm) scone cutter) and achieved 12 scones, with a little left over (cook's treat)!

Brush each scone with the egg, or milk, and sprinkle over some pecorino on each one.

Place on a well-floured baking sheet, and bake.

Harry's recipe states baking these in the top of the oven for 17 minutes.   She suggests serving them with Vegetable Soup, or filling them with goat's cheese and some sweet caramelised red onions.  

There is also very helpful nutritional information at the back of the book, regarding calorie counts and the amount of saturated fat for each recipe.  This one contains 141 kcals, and 4.6g. saturated fat (using only 1 teaspoon of honey).

There are really lovely recipes in this book, both savoury and sweet, and I know this is just the first of many which I will be doing.

Enjoy!