EASY Olive Oil Scones

Olive Oil Scones

Want to whip up a quick and tasty treat? These savoury olive oil scones are quick and easy and use olive oil in place of butter. They come together easily using a simple method of mixing scones with a butter knife. These savoury scones were flavoured with nduja and cheddar cheese and are well worth making!

Scones are the ultimate easy treat. They are super easy to make and require no special equipment. They can be made sweet or savoury and in no time you'll be pulling out a freshly baked batch of scones from the oven!

Which Olive Oil?: Only use extra virgin olive oil. I used a Portuguese extra virgin olive oil but Australian EVOOs are also excellent. If you are curious to read about the extra virgin olive oil process take a read of this post.

What is Nduja? Nduja (pronounced "en-doo-yah") is a Calabrian spicy pork spread that gets its heat from Calabrian chillies. You can buy it at Italian delis and providores and sometimes at Italian cheese shops. It doesn't have to be cooked before you eat it but can be cooked if you want to.

Don't have nduja? You can replace it with diced salami, chorizo, ham or bacon. For a vegetarian version green spring onions work well with cheddar.

Shapes of scones: I made round scones but if you don't have a round cutter, you can also use a glass or cup. You can also cut them into squares or shape it into a large round and then cut them into triangles American style.

Serve these with: extra nduja and butter or sour cream!

This scone recipe makes 12 but you can easily halve it to make 6 scones. I always think that scones are best on the day that they are made (ideally fresh from the oven) so depending on how many people you have either make the full or half quantity. Extra scones can also be frozen, just defrost in the oven.

Olive Oil Scones

I made these scones using my lovely friend Tandy's recipe for Olive Oil Scones. She is hosting International Scone Week where we share a range of scone recipes.

These olive oil scones are the most popular recipe on her blog and after I made them I can see why people were eager to try them. I didn't realise until I saw her recipe that you could make scones with olive oil as I've always made them with cream or butter. They work beautifully with the olive oil and are so simple that it feels like it is almost too easy!

This was my last minute contribution to ISW and I literally made these yesterday. On Monday I made pineapple scones but that didn't quite go according to plan. I was going to use dried pineapple but a friend had suggested using fresh pineapple for extra moisture.

However the fresh pineapple was so wet and juicy even after draining that it made the scone dough impossible to work with, no matter how much flour I added to the dough. I think I added about a cup of extra flour. Slightly defeated I pushed the tray into the oven while covered in flour. I don't actually know how I ended up with flour in my ear (which I discovered later).

The pineapple scones were hideous. Like easily the worst thing I have made all year. They had a strange taste on the tongue, perhaps from the enzymes in the pineapple and I ended up throwing the whole lot into the bin. Thankfully, even though I was on a time crunch and had no time for a third attempt at scone making, these ones turned out like a treat!

So tell me Dear Reader, what is the last thing, if ever you've just had to toss into the bin? Do you have a fast and tasty treat? How often do you make scones?

Olive Oil Scones

Olive Oil Scones With Nduja & Cheese

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An Recipe by Lorraine Elliott, adapted from Tandy Sinclair

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes 12 scones

  • 270g/9.5ozs. plain all purpose flour plus extra for sprinkling
  • 4 teaspoons/16g/0.5oz. baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 130ml/4.6ozs. buttermilk
  • 50ml/1.7flozs. olive oil
  • 80g/2.8ozs. cherry tomatoes, cut into small pieces
  • 100g/3.5ozs. finely grated cheddar cheese
  • 100g/3.5ozs. nduja
  • Beaten egg to glaze

Step 1 - Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add the buttermilk and olive oil to a jug and whisk and then add to the flour and mix with a butter knife halfway until it starts to come together. Then add the tomatoes, cheese and nduja and mix until combined.

Olive Oil Scones

Step 2 - Line a baking tray with parchment. Dust flour on a clean surface and roll the dough to 2cm/0.8inch thick and cut out your scones using a 6cm/2.4inch round cutter (make sure not to twist the cutter as this will prevent them rising straight up). Place on the parchment an inch apart and brush with egg wash. Place in the fridge while you wait for the oven to get to 210C/410F. When the oven is ready bake for 15 minutes.

Olive Oil Scones

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