These Savory Scones are so delicious with soups and stews! Made with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions, they are wonderfully flavorful. Whether enjoyed fresh out of the oven or warmed up the next day, they will soon become a favorite!
Why You’ll Love Savory Scones
Scones are one of the fastest baked goods you can whip up! There is no rising involved, so they come together quickly and bake in under 20 minutes, with very little planning.
I often make these instead of rolls. Smokey, earthy, buttery, and flaky, these savory scones are the perfect accompaniment to soups and stews– that is, if you can stop yourself from eating them before the soup is made. That was my problem-haha!
Savory Scone Recipe Ingredients
- Flour: I love a combination of all-purpose flour and rye flour. Rye flour gives the scones a smoky earthiness that I love during colder months. You also just use only all-purpose, or add whole wheat, spelt or einkorn. 🙂
- Cheddar: I use smoked cheddar, but you can use regular or sharp cheddar if you prefer. Gruyere would be tasty too. Use a block of cheese and grate it.
- Onion: Find a large red, yellow or white onion. You can also just leave this out if short on time!
- Caraway seeds: These are also optional, but so delicious!
- Butter: For a buttery, flaky texture.
- Sour cream or Yogurt: Adds moist texture and tanginess, as well as a shiny finish when brushed over top. You could substitute with full-fat yogurt.
- Egg: Use a large egg. Adds moisture and binds the dough together.
- Baking powder and baking soda: For soft texture and rise.
- Flaky sea salt: Optional, for sprinkling over top. Use fleur del sel or Maldon.
How to Make Savory Scones
1. Freeze the butter. Place the butter in the freezer and preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Caramelize onions. Sauté the onions in olive oil, for two minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking until caramelized, about 5-7 minutes. Let cool.
3. Prep for baking. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Whisk the dry ingredeints: In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and caraway seeds.
5. Grate the butter. Remove the cold butter from the freezer and grate with a box grater into the flour mixture. Add the cheddar cheese and mix.
6. Mix wet ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and egg.
7. Combine the dough. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir in the onions and stir until the scone dough just comes together. If the mixture appears dry, add a small amount of cold water to help hydrate it. Some whole-grain flours are “thirsty” and require a little more moisture.
8. Shape the scones. Flour your work surface. Pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick round. Cut each scone into 8-10 wedges and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving 1 inch of space between each scone. Brush the tops with a bit of sour cream and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
9. Bake. Bake 15-17 minutes, or until the undersides are golden brown and the tops are just golden, and the internal temperature reaches 200°F. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. Best served warm.
Chef’s Tips
- Freeze the butter: Grate butter straight from the freezer to create ultra-flaky scones.
- Don’t over-mix the dough: This prevents a tough texture.
- Let the onions cool: Let them cool completely to avoid melting the butter.
- Use a block of cheese: This melts better than pre-shredded cheese.
- Brush the tops with sour cream: Adds a golden finish with added tangy flavor.
Storage
These savory scones can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 or 4 days. Or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Best served warm, you can gently reheat the scones in a toaster oven if desired!
Serving Suggestions
Serve warm alongside soup or stew, or enjoy for a savory breakfast or brunch! Here are some recipes we enjoy these scones with:
- Sorrel Soup
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Lemony Chickpea Soup
- Cauliflower Cheddar Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Scrambled Eggs
- Baked Eggs
FAQs
Yes! Here we use grated smoked cheddar and caramelized onions, but you could even make these with just cheese and fresh herbs like chives or green onions.
Avoid over-mixing the dough. For each step, simply fold in the ingredients.
Use cold ingredients, particularly when it comes to the butter. We freeze the butter then grate it into the dough to create deliciously flaky, buttery scones.
Hope you enjoy this savory scone recipe! Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Ready to try sweet scone recipes? Try our Maple Pecan Scones!
More Recipes You Might Like
Savory Scones with Cheddar and Onions
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 2 mins
- Yield: 10
- Category: Baked, Bread recipes, scone recipe,
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Savory Scones are so delicious with soups and stews! Made with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions, they are wonderfully flavorful. Whether enjoyed fresh out of the oven or warmed up the next day, they will soon become a favorite!
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds ( optional, but delicious!)
- 1 onion, sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt
- 1 cup rye flour (or use whole wheat, spelt, einkorn, or all-purpose)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup sour cream plus more for brushing, or use whole milk yogurt.
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese ( smoked cheddar is really nice here!)
- flaky sea salt, like fleur de sel or Maldon, for sprinkling (optional).
Instructions
- Place the butter in the freezer, and preheat the oven to 400F
- In a large, dry skillet over medium heat, toast the caraway seeds if using until fragrant, about 1 minute. Set aside. In the same skillet, add olive oil and sauté the onions on medium-high heat, stir for two minutes. Lower heat to med-low, and continue cooking until tender and caramelized, about 7 minutes. Add a pinch of the fine sea salt, and cool.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, ½ teaspoon of the fine salt and the caraway seeds. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, and egg.
- Remove the butter from the freezer, and using the large holes of a box grater, grate it into the flour bowl. Gently toss with the flour mixture. Stir in the cheddar cheese.
- Stir the wet ingredeints into the flour and butter mixture and add the onions.
- On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into an inch-thick round. Cut into 8-10 wedges. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet, allowing 1 inch of space between each scone. Brush the tops of the scones with a little sour cream and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
- Bake scones until the undersides are golden brown but the tops are just golden, 15 to 17 minutes (or 200F internal temp). They are best served warm.
Notes
Leftover scones can be wrapped and stored on the counter for up to 4 days, refigerate, or frozen for up to three months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: one scone
- Calories: 264
- Sugar: 0.9 g
- Sodium: 252.4 mg
- Fat: 17.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 9.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 20.6 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 7.2 g
- Cholesterol: 60.1 mg
Love these scones! I did not use onions in this recipe, and skipped the sour cream and salt on top. They still turned out delicious! Super easy to make as well.
So happy you enjoyed these Aimee!
CANNOT wait to try these. I love rye and my husband loves scones. Marriage meant to be!
Let us know how it goes Deb!
These are beyond delicious! I made these to go with your Brothy lamb and cabbage soup as suggested.
I chopped the onions in a medium dice and mixed them in with the sour cream and egg to help distribute them evenly in the dough. The finished scones that remained froze beautifully. I had one left in the batch and used it for a breakfast sandwich filled with a scrambled egg. Fabulous! Thanks for another home run recipe!
Thanks Mary glad you are enjoying! And thank you for circling back and rating this for us. Very Appreciated!
Sylivia, what is “ 1 C grated smoked cheddar”, please (the 1 C is my problem). …. being from Europe might be the problem 😌
Oh sorry about that Urs, c is abbreviated for cup. Recipe is updated!
Great thank Sylvia. Fell for that one …. and I was the one suggesting you use “g” for gramms 😁
Sylvia, you may make a baker out of me yet! These turned out great even with just extra sharp cheddar. I want to try with the smoked cheddar though. I baked just two for dinner. How long can I keep the others in the fridge before baking? or should I freeze them? thanks again! your recipes do not disappoint.
Hi Mert- so happy you enjoyed these! I’m not sure about keeping in the fridge for too long because of the baking soda/powder? perhaps freeze?
You were right. They do NOT keep in the fridge. They got a bit watery(?) but I baked a few anyway. They didn’t rise well and were kinda oily. So I rolled out the rest super thin, like see-through and turned them into crackers. A good salvage but not great. I hate throwing food away!! There are only two of us so I was trying to find a way to bake the scones fresh each time. Next time I’ll try freezing the extras. Thanks!
Oh shoot Mert! I’m sorry. Yes whenever using baking soda/powderder, I would always bake at once, then freeze them baked. You can always toast them up after they are thawed. 🙂
Got it. Good to know. Still so much to learn. Thanks for responding!
Hi,
I was wondering if it’s also possible to use your sourdough discharge for this recipe?
Hi Juliette- I think it should work fine! You could use our sourdough biscuit recipe for an idea on proportions.
I was looking for a buckwheat cheddar scone and this recipe looked great so I got brave and did some subs: 3/4 c. buckwheat flour instead of the rye and 1T. baking powder (based on the basic buckwheat scone recipe I use). I also small-diced the onion – couldn’t get my brain around those larger sliced pieces. Then the dough wouldn’t come together (maybe because of the buckwheat?), so I took a risk and splashed in 1/4 c. 10% cream. Wow. Absolutely perfect – so great to have a delicious savoury scone to enjoy! Thanks!!
Great to hear your substitutions worked!
I made the cheddar scones with caramelized onions this afternoon, as I had just made some leek and potato soup. I didn’t have either rye or whole wheat flour, so I just used all purpose flour, and they still came out delicious. I would definitely make again, this time with the correct flours. YUM YUM
Glad you enjoyed this Barb!
Wow, are these good! I honestly could’ve made a meal out of just these scones. You’re right that they’re best warm, right out of the oven. But even zapped in the microwave they’re quite good. I had a bit of difficulty distributing the onions equally throughout the dough. Next time I may combine them with the sour cream/egg mixture before adding to the flour – I’m thinking that may make for a more easily accomplished distribution of onions throughout the dough without over mixing.
Thanks Mary!
Any tips for how to use use a rye sourdough starter here?:)
Hi Lana- I would refer to the sourdough biscuit recipe and see if you can use those proportions and timing here. It would totally work. Perhaps cut back the butter.
My 12 year old made these to go with your leek, lamb and cabbage soup. Although there is nothing like a good crusty bread, this was a fantastic change of pace to serve with soup.
Awesome, great to hear!
Yummy. I made it again the next week. Everyone I have shared with love it!
Yay! Glad yo uliked it!
Wow, so delicious!! Great instructions (as always) and so worth taking the extra step to caramelize the red onion. At first I didn’t think I had the liquids measured right since dough seemed dry but a few more stirs and it came together. I have been making the suggestions you send each Saturday: cabbage soup, leek bread (2x), cheddar scones and the recipes are so good. It is helping us survive staying home. Thanks for all the hard work it must take to create these wonderful recipes.
I made these last night to accompany beef stew, phenomenal! Can’t wait to make them thru the Winter to go with soup.
Amazing!
So glad you liked them!
I made those the other day and they were yummy, kids loved them too.
I left out the caraway seeds because I didn’t have any, but they were still really good!
So glad you liked them… I really enjoy them too! Great with Soup!
Wow, what I wouldn’t give to have one of these warm in my hand right this moment. <3 <3 <3 Well done (as usual!), Sylvia!
Thanks Em. 😉
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This healthy recipes looks delicious…I want to try this…How much is this?
Caraway seeds and smoked cheddar?! Yum 😀
Yowzas. Now THAT is a scone!
Thanks Christina!
these scones look amazing! how much honey? it isn’t listed in the ingredients.
Thanks…I just updated the recipe!
Positively delicious! I just love cheddar scones!