Bite-Size Bacon and Gruyere Scones

These scones go fast. I don’t just mean the making of them either. I mean the impressive consumption of them that occurred at about light speed. They were inhaled. By me. By my roommates. Not by anyone else though – there was no sharing of these glorious breakfast bites. Someone would have had to stage a pretty impressive sneak attack to get their hands on some of those scones. It’s certainly not surprising that we ate them all, or that no interloper got a hold of them. Why? Because they have bacon in them, obviously. And I would probably defend bacon foodstuffs with my very life or least a skillet. But you know what else they have? Cheese – and not just any cheese mind you. Gruyere. It’s Swiss and awesome. It keeps these scones from being anything but neutral. We should know. This isn’t our first Swiss cheese filled bacony rodeo.

 Bite-Size Bacon and Cheese Scones, from Home Baked Comfort, by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients
3 slices thick cut bacon
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (plus more for topping scones if desired)
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
3/4 cup heavy cream

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a frying pan, fry bacon until lightly crisp. Finely chop the bacon after draining it on a paper towel.

Step 3: Using a pastry cutter, combine the flour, baking powder, cheese, salt and pepper. Cut in the butter until mixture looks like a coarse meal.

Step 4: In a small bowl whisk together the egg and cream. Pour this mixture into the rest of the dough, and work until dough just comes together. (Note: the recipe instructs you to perform steps 3 and 4 using a food processor, but I, showing what I believe is incredible self restraint, do not have one at my college residence. So I opted for a pastry cutter.)

Step 5: Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead in the bacon. Use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to 1/2 in thickness. Using a knife, or a biscuit cutter, cut out as many 1 1/2 in biscuits as you can.

Step 6: Space the scones evenly on prepared baking sheet, top with extra grated cheese if desired, and bake until the tops are golden (about 10-12 minutes). Let cool slightly on wire rack before serving.

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