Jalapeno Cheddar Scones

I happened to come across a recipe for jalapeno cheddar scones and I thought that's a great idea. All this time I have tried orange cranberry scones and love it. So I had a good feeling that I would like this scone too. And boy did I like it. The taste reminded me of the childhood Chinese New Year staple kastengel (cheese stick). But this scone is richer and crumbly.

This recipe is from Steve - The Blackpeppercorn.com Cheddar and Jalapeno Mini Scones. Some changes made to suit what I have on hand. For my first try I used fresh jalapeno but I will try pickled jalapeno next time to see the difference.



Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter , cut into small cubes
1 cup cheddar cheese , grated
1/2 cup pickled jalapeno slices , minced
3/4 cup milk - as needed.

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F   375.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the cold butter to the bowl and pour in the flour mixture. Rub the butter into the flour using finger tips until it all become crumble small pieces of butter covered in flour.  Stir in the grated cheddar and minced pickled jalapeno peppers.

Pour the milk a bit at a time into the crumbly flour mixture and stir together with your hands or fork. Stop the milk when the mixture is wet enough and no longer crumbly but also not too wet and become overly sticky.

Spread a little flour on a flat work surface. Dump the batter onto the floured work surface and pat down to a square of thickness of 1 cm (about 3/8 inch). Cut into 4 squares and cut each of the square into triangular shape. You can further more shape the triangular if needed to make it more evenly shape.

Bake for about 15-16 minutes until about to turn brown or cook through. Best when served warm but still very nice a few days later at room temperature.