What do I do with a beautiful, luxurious, creamy wedge of blue cheese?

My first instinct is to break off chunks with my hands and eat it in quantities that I only allow when I’m home alone with a bottle of wine. My second instinct is to toss it into a lovely summer salad, which is equally delicious and significantly less embarrassing.

Food-Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones-13662-20150422.jpg

My third instinct is to bake it onto a flatbread with figs and arugula or to spread it onto a crostini, and while all of those would be wonderful, they’ve all been done before.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

That’s why when I partnered with Castello for their “Summer of Blue” campaign, I decided to get more creative.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

In recent years, scones have become my go-to breakfast pastry. I’ll take them sweet or savory, and think it’s even better when a single scone embodies both flavors.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

Scones, unlike my arch-nemesis the croissant, are incredibly easy to bake at home. Croissants are much more enjoyable (and usually taste better) when eaten at your local bakery or coffee shop. It also means that you weren’t the one that had to get up at 3:00AM so you could eat it for breakfast.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

But scones, these you can make at home in under an hour. You can even freeze the dough and bake it in the morning for that extra fresh straight-out-of-the-oven taste.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

So what’s special about this one? Castello’s Noble Blue cheese is creamy and slightly spicy and pairs wonderfully with dried apricots and walnuts. When baked into a scone, it creates little pockets of melted deliciousness that you’ll love biting into.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones | Things I Made Today

Sweet, nutty, creamy, and slightly salty—now that’s the type of breakfast I can get excited about. A tea or coffee in hand, it tastes like perfection.

Apricot, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Scones
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 2 eggs
  • ⅔ cup buttermilk (alternatively, you can use ⅔ cup whole milk with ½ tablespoon lemon juice stirred in)
  • ½ cup walnuts, chopped
  • 20 dried apricots, quartered
  • 4½ ounces (about 1 cup) Castello Noble Blue cheese, crumbled into large chunks
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400F.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until coarse lumps form. Add eggs and buttermilk and mix until well combined.
  3. Stir in walnuts, apricots, and blue cheese. Use your hands to knead the dough in the bowl until ingredients are mixed throughout.
  4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into an 8 inch round. Cut round into 8 even triangles. Transfer scones to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. At this point, you can freeze the scones.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes, until scones are golden brown. Some cheese may ooze out the sides. If baking scones from frozen, bake for 30-35 minutes.
  6. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I was compensated to create recipes for Castello Cheese. As always, I only work with products I use myself and all opinions are my own. Thanks for continuing to support Things I Made Today!

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