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Cheese scones with Jarlsberg, baked as one golden slab and cut into squares with browned cheese on top

Cheese Scones with Jarlsberg

Soft, cheesy scones made with melted butter and Jarlsberg — a Nordic everyday bake, bowl to table in under an hour.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Cooling 10 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings: 12 scones
Course: Bread, Breakfast, Side Dish
Cuisine: Norwegian, Scandinavian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g all-purpose flour 4 cups + 2 tbsp
  • 22 g baking powder 5 tsp — yes, that much; it's what gives the lift
  • 6 g fine salt 1 tsp — optional, but it wakes the cheese up
  • 50 g butter 3½ tbsp, melted
  • 400 ml whole milk 1⅔ cups, cold
  • 200 g Jarlsberg, coarsely grated 2 cups coarsely grated — or any firm cheese you like (see Notes)

Equipment

  • Digital kitchen scale Scone dough is all about ratios — the scale we actually use for every bake.
  • Box grater Grate the cheese coarsely yourself; pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch and melts poorly.
  • Large mixing bowl Everything comes together in one bowl — no mixer needed.
  • Bench scraper For lifting and squaring off the soft dough without overworking it. The one we actually use.
  • Half sheet pan We bake these on a perforated sheet for a drier base — a standard half sheet pan works too.
  • Parchment paper Shape, cut and bake on the same sheet. No transfer, no sticking.

Method
 

  1. Preheat. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C), conventional heat — top and bottom elements, not fan. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
  2. Butter into milk. Melt the butter, then stir it straight into the cold milk. The mixture will look slightly separated — that's fine.
  3. Dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
  4. Mix. Pour the milk and butter over the dry ingredients and mix just until it comes together into a shaggy, soft dough.
  5. Fold in the cheese. Add the grated Jarlsberg and fold it through with a few turns. Stop as soon as it's distributed — this is the step where scones get tough.
  6. Pat out. Tip the dough onto the parchment and pat it out to a rough 10 × 12 inch (25 × 30 cm) square, about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick. Use a bench scraper to square off the edges.
  7. Cut. Cut into 12 squares straight on the sheet, leaving them where they are so the sides stay soft and touching.
  8. Bake. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden and puffed with visible cheese browning on top.
  9. Cool and serve. Cool on the sheet for 10 minutes, then pull apart and serve warm with butter.

Notes

Chef's tip: melt the butter, don't rub it in. Stirred into cold milk, melted butter gives a soft, bready, pull-apart crumb instead of a flaky one — and it cuts the work down to one bowl and five minutes.
  • Grate the cheese coarsely yourself. The bigger shreds stay visible in the crumb and brown into crisp edges on top. Bagged pre-shredded cheese is cut fine and coated in starch, and it melts into the dough instead of browning.
  • Any firm cheese works at the same weight — see the post below for our favorites.
  • Storage: best the day they're baked. Reheat in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 minutes to bring back the soft crumb; the microwave makes them chewy. They freeze well — reheat straight from frozen for 10 minutes.