FRIDAY FISH: Whole Wheat Smoked Salmon + Cheese Scones

April 1, 2025April 3, 2025 / More Time at the Table

My friend Thomas, who attends a weekly Wednesday class with me, often asks, “Any scones today, Alyce?” Once in a while, given an early morning with extra time, I’ll throw together some blueberry or peach or strawberry and chocolate chip scones (or some muffins) and bake them off, bringing them along in a basket with butter for the class to enjoy with our coffee. But that’s not every week and maybe not even every month. For Thomas, however, hope springs eternal. I thought of him today as I worked on a new savory scone for this week’s FRIDAY FISH — I know, a bread for FRIDAY FISH!! — and wondered what he’d think of a not-sweet, craggy whole wheat scone featuring smoked salmon, two cheeses, and some finely chopped brightly-colored veggies. I’m guessing he’d go right ahead and eat a couple anyway but might be a little surprised to not find berries or even currants in his scones. While you might be surprised, too, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy them, especially alongside a bowl of tomato or asparagus soup, a crisp salad, a brunchy egg dish, or even spread with a bit of goat or cream cheese with a glass of sparkling wine at appetizer time. Everyone loves homemade bread but not everyone has the hours it takes to make it. Scones, a for real “quick bread” can be tossed together, baked, and in your tummy in about 45 minutes.

Scottish baking doyenne Sue Lawrence’s Cheese Scones

Savory scones have been around a very long time — even the Scots sometimes make cheese scones (see above link for a fine recipe) — it’s just that our American tastes often run to sweeter varieties made with cream. You’ll see my fruit scones are made with sour cream, but here I use tangy buttermilk to ramp up taste and cut down fat. Original Scots scones were totally savory and made from oats; I need to try an oat recipe! To get a bead on today’s More Time quick bread, you can think a tiny bit in terms of our American biscuits or cornbread — also often made with buttermilk — which are savory and eaten for all meals and snacks. That’s closer to the aisle I’m going down though this version, half whole wheat, makes use of several other yummy additions for nutrition, taste, color, flavor, texture, and interest: 4-ounces finely chopped smoked salmon, 1/2 cup grated sharp Cheddar, a little minced scallion, minced red onion, along with some spices, of course. Here’s a photo tutorial to give you an idea of how they’re partially made in the food processor, but you can also make them completely in a large bowl with a pastry cutter or using only your fingers and a big wooden spoon. That’ll give you one less bowl to wash and fill in as today’s workout to boot:

American biscuits originated in the British Isles as scones, first mentioned in print in the 16th century. Traditional scones were never sweetened, said Elisabeth Luard, a director of the annual Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery and the author of “The Old World Kitchen.” The proto-scone is believed to come from Scottish kitchens, where rounds of oat and barley dough were cooked on large griddles, then cut into wedges. They were a simple combination of fat, flour and liquid, which became softer and lighter as wheat, butter and leaveners like baking soda and baking powder became widely available.

courtesy NYTimes

Whether you make the scones using a food processor or your strong hands, I think you’ll be glad you did when you try this:

Print Recipe

FRIDAY FISH: Whole Wheat Smoked Salmon + Cheese Scones

Savory scones are lovely as accompaniments for big hot bowls of soup, crunchy salads, brunchy egg dishes, or served with soft goat cheese and a glass of sparkling wine for appetizers. This quick bread featuring smoked salmon, cheese, and some chopped vegetables comes together in a matter of minutes. It can be baked immediately or frozen and baked next week when company is on the way. I prepare these partway using a food processor, but they can easily be made in a large bowl with either a pastry cutter or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour mixture.

16 small scones

Ingredients

1 cup EACH: unbleached all-purpose flour (120 grams) and whole wheat flour (113 grams)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon EACH: ground cayenne and powdered garlic
¼ teaspoon dill weed
½ cup (8 tablespoons, 4 oz, 113 grams) cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup (2 oz, 57 grams) grated sharp Cheddar cheese
2 scallions, about ¼ cup (20 grams), white and green parts, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons (.5 oz, 13 grams) minced red bell pepper
4 oz (1/2 cup, 113 grams) smoked salmon, finely chopped
¾ cup (6 oz, 170 grams) buttermilk
1 egg, beaten (to brush on the dough)
2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for topping the dough just before baking

Instructions

PREPARATION: Preheat oven to 400 F and set rack at center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
MIX DRY INGREDIENTS + CUT IN BUTTER: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse or mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cayenne, garlic, and dill weed. Add the butter and pulse carefully until you have pea-sized and smaller pieces of butter.
TURN OUT INTO LARGE BOWL, MIX IN CHEESE/VEGGIES/SALMON; ADD BUTTERMILK: Turn flour mixture out into a large bowl and stir in the Cheddar cheese, scallions, red bell pepper, and the salmon. Pour the buttermilk over the flour mixture and, using a table fork, mix and stir until all the dry bits are incorporated. If the dough feels dry, add another tablespoon or two of buttermilk. If too wet, add a tablespoon or two of flour. Using your hands, knead and/or gather the dough just until it just holds together in somewhat of a ball shape. Don't overwork the dough.
TRANSFER THE DOUGH ONTO A FLOURED COUNTER OR BOARD and gently pat the dough with floured hands into an approximately 6”x10”x1” rectangle. The dough won’t be smooth or uniform. Brush it with about a tablespoon of the beaten egg. (Cook the rest of the egg for the dog or you or save for another use.) Sprinkle with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the dough into first 4, then 8, then 16 squares or logs. Place scones on lined baking sheet. (You can cover tightly with foil and freeze them for up to 2 months at this point. Remove from freezer, uncover, and follow directions below, baking for a couple of extra minutes.)
BAKE 18-22 minutes or until brown on the bottom and golden on top. Remove to a rack and cool a minute or two before serving warm plain or with soft butter or goat cheese. Store scones well-wrapped in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. To reheat, split in half lengthwise, spread lightly with butter, and grill until toasty and hot in a stovetop grill pan or skillet.

Notes

COOK’S NOTES: For an appetizer-sized scone, cut the scones in half one more time for a total of 32 small scones. If you have time, freeze the dough on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before baking.
Copyright Alyce Morgan, 2025. All rights reserved.

***_{I don’t work for Honey Smoked Fish, though this is the smoked salmon I used in my scones!}***

TYPES OF SMOKED SALMON: Read up here for info on different sorts smoked salmon. My scones are made with “hot” smoked salmon rather than lox or gravlax, for instance. If you try another variety, let me know how it goes.

Sweet thanks to baking gurus Dorie Greenspan and Sue Lawrence, as well as others, for more than one idea about how to make and bake scones. Dorie’s directions for freezing dough and baking later are incorporated into this recipe.

CHANGE IT UP: Flours: use all unbleached, all-purpose flour if that’s what you have. Salmon: grilled or roasted salmon can sit in for smoked salmon. Cheeses: Other grated cheeses like Swiss, Gouda, Colby, or Havarti can be used in place of Cheddar. Pecorino Romano or Manchego might do instead of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Any minced onion can replace the scallions or try minced chives. In a pinch, if you’re out of buttermilk, add a teaspoon or two of lemon juice or white vinegar to regular cow’s milk and let it rest 10 minutes before using.

IF YOU LIKED THIS, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Cranberry Cheddar Biscuits

Butternut Squash-Pecan Scones with Coconut

Cranberry-White Chocolate Chip Scones

LIFE GOES ON:

above: There are days when there’s nothing better on earth to see but the sky right outside your own house. As spring begins, house finches are nesting on the front porch and spotted towhees begin their months’ long mating calls in the tall trees on our south side. We even had a little rain!

The world, our country in particular, is as frightening as it’s been since I began the blog in 2009 but I’m amazed at how many really difficult and precious moments we’ve had together in all those years. I often go back in time to check or rewrite a recipe or print one for dinner and can’t quite hold on to the number of frightening terror attacks, happy birthdays, climate disasters, weddings, school and other shootings, illnesses, new houses, losses mentioned…and then there’s COVID. While I didn’t catch it happening, the blog has been a journal not only of my cooking and life, but of my world as I type each post. This time, I’ll ask you to pray — if you’re a praying sort — for my nephew Michael McClendon, facing a really difficult cancer diagnosis and treatment plan. Keep the people of south-east Asia, recovering from such an earthquake, in your heart.

Yesterday, during a worship service focused on grief (It is lent, you see), our pastor sang this Carrie Newcomber song, “Sanctuary,” to us:

Will you be my refuge
My haven in the storm
Will you keep the embers warm
When my fire’s all but gone?
Will you remember
And bring me sprigs of rosemary
Be my sanctuary
‘Til I can carry on
Carry on
Carry on

This one knocked me to the ground
This one dropped me to my knees
I should have seen it coming
But it surprised me

In a state of true believers
On streets called us and them
It’s gonna take some time
‘Til the world feels safe again

You can rest here in Brown Chapel
Or with a circle of friends
Or quiet grove of trees
Or between two bookends

You may remember that every herb has a special meaning. Rosemary is for remembrance. And, it may literally help with memory. Check it out.

And somehow we keep cooking, try to not fall down listening to the news or reading the stock market reports, hold ourselves together with one another, and walk on trying to contemplate on the positive along with the horrific.

Today, you even have a smoked salmon scone to think about. Me, too. Keep on keeping on,

Alyce

Update: Next morning I got up and made Thomas his scones. Cherry and almond this time:

a recent Sunday night chicken salad…

More Time at the Table

Cooking with Alyce Morgan

FRIDAY FISH: Whole Wheat Smoked Salmon + Cheese Scones