Neither Tom or I are fond of food shopping, yet for some unknown reason we have never ordered our supplies online using one of the many delivery services now available. I finally tried this the other day, and of course made the mistake of failing to adjust the default units under which some items are measured. This rookie error resulted in the delivery of a kilo of taleggio cheese. I required just 100g to make a tart, and was now in possession of 10 times more than the recipe required. . . . Tom had a good laugh, and Bruce kindly offered to help out by devouring the excess, but, I reminded him (as I often have to) that dogs don’t eat cheese.
Unfortunately, taleggio is a substance with limited uses, and not really the sort of cheese you can just chow down on wholesale — it is quite strong and salty and very squashy. What to do?
Well, I just made taleggio scones for lunch, and they turned out so well that I thought I’d share the recipe!
There are a few key things to remember when making these:
1) stick the taleggio in the freezer for half an hour so that it hardens up
2) cut the taleggio into small pieces
3) do not work the scone dough in any way. Just bring it together and plonk it down on your floured surface.
Thyme and Taleggio Scones
(Makes 6 or 7 large scones)
6oz / 170g self raising flour
2oz / 56 g butter
3.5 oz / 100g taleggio
ground black pepper
sprig of thyme
5floz / 150 ml buttermilk
Put taleggio in freezer for 30 mins
Preheat oven to 180c / 350f / gas mark 4.
Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the thyme leaves and the ground black pepper.
Take the taleggio out of the freezer and cut into small cubes. Using your hand, mix it lightly into the breadcrumb mixture.
Add the buttermilk, and, using a butter knife, stir the mixture gently until it starts to come together.
Bring the mixture together carefully with your hands into a rough dough. DO NOT KNEAD, OR OTHERWISE WORK THE DOUGH!
Place dough on floured surface and lightly press to 1.5 in thick.
Cut out scones with pastry cutter.
Place on floured baking tray and bake at centre of oven for 15 mins, or until golden.
Eat warm.
Well, that’s 100g of taleggio down, only 900g to go . . . .
KDD & Co 
I have a wee dog who is constantly offering to help with anything cheese related. He’ll do anything for a cheeses treat!
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Kate, you can taste the Taleggio with Polenta!! IT’s very good : a Nord Italy recipe!
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Nigel Slater also uses tallegio in his delicious caramelised onion tart-roll puff pastry to size of baking tray, caramelise onions in butter for about half an hour on low heat. Prick the tart base all over and brush the edges with the onion butter. Then just put on the onions, nestle the cheese in slices all over (and some thyme if there’s still some lurking) and bake! Lovely supper dish (and if you’re lazy you can even use the ready rolled pastry!)
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just saw this, bet it would work fantastically well with the mountain of taleggio.
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014529/Polenta-al-Forno-With-Spinach-Ricotta-and-Fontina.html
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Kate, the scones were delicious! I substituted Fontina for the Taleggio and it worked beautifully. Thanks for a great recipe.
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Heaves deep sigh. So sad to be gluten and lactose intolerant. I’ll enjoy from afar.
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They look delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I love your beautiful designs and blog, and of course Bruce’s posts :-)
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Well this “cat” eats cheese – but we don’t have that sort Downunder – I must find a substitute!
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PS Love your blue and white plates!
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You need a Mr. Webb. In the late 1950s my mother-in-law would order food from her local grocer, Mr. Webb, in Faversham, Kent. He had a little red book into which he wrote the order on a Monday and the food would arrive Wednesday neatly packed in a cardboard box. He only once sent something skuzzy – a dozen eggs that had gone off. Don’t think refrigeration was all that common then. Ahhh, Mr. Webb, where are you now?
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I made this exact mistake with tea last month. Intended to order 6 oz and actually order 16 oz! A freaking POUND of tea. Fortunately, I have tea loving friends who were happy to relieve me of my burden.
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Scones look delicious, I have no taleggio recipes and don’t do on line shopping as my husband goes but he is just as fallible. Once he bought face cream instead of cream cleaner for the cooker. I was really perplexed for ages until I realised what he had done.
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They look scrummy. I’m only disappointed because my shopping comes this evening no time to order some Taleggio.
You do get some strange shops ordering on line. I have ordered the ‘other way’ and ended up with 1 carrot instead of 1 Kg. I usually order a lot of mushrooms, 500g, which we will eat in a week and the pickers give you 6 mushrooms, or 2, no where near the 500g you were expecting. We once had a arguement at home regarding some ready meals I’d ordered, I never order ready meals, and it turned out we’d got someone elses shopping!
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Those look yummy – must get hold of some Taleggio! I can also recommend a fab recipe from Nigel Slater using Taleggio with ham and green beans – http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/greenbeanswithhamand_92489
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Yes, dogs do eat cheese…the successful digestion of said cheese is another matter. From observing cheese rapture in my own two labs, this is a very small inconvenience.
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oops! We’ve all made that mistake! If you realise quickly enough when the delivery person is still there, they can take it back and refund your account later. Alternatively, you could take the excess back to the supermarket for a refund :)
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Ah, this reminds me of a question. My mother in law says the way our family pronounces scones (rhymes with tones) is wrong. She says scones (rhymes with Hans). How is the word pronounced in Scotland?
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looks so good- what kind of cheese is close to taleggio? I have never seen it.
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We bake sweet potatoes, then scoop out the guts and mix with taleggio and herbs and almonds. It’s super good.
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Sounds lovely! I also love pizza base/dough, covered with slices of par cooked potato and taleggio cheese with thyme sprinkled on it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 mins. Delicious.
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Oh – I see it’s been mentioned already – oh well – extra vote for taleggio and potato pizza!
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I have some thyme that needs using – this might be the ticket! I don’t have Taleggio, but a quick search makes it look like brie would be a decent substitute. . .
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What a surprise to read this post! Last tuesday I made Ravioli di Taleggio for my restaurant. Next time I’ll try your recipe!
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Make a double batch of scones and freeze them for later… that’s another 200g taken care of.
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Can you buy taleggio cheese in Edimburg?I’m Italian and I think that recipe is good idea! I can try!!!!!
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Those scones are absolutely beautiful specimens of fine cuisine ! Um… Emma didn’t know that dogs do not eat cheese… and perhaps I ought to stop sharing mine with her … :)
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Easily done. A friend of mine, on her first attempt at online grocery shopping ended up with 6kg of bananas! Still, your scones look absolutely delicious. I am very tempted to give them a go.
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My goodness… did you have to take out a mortgage to pay for your online shopping?!!
Taleggio is lovely in risotto – very rich & creamy. Your scones look delicious, by the way!
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Scones look good – there’s a good nigel slater taleggio recipe involving charlotte potatoes that is quite tasty, I seem to recall – also fine in smallish doses in a cauli or broccoli soup. However, guess you don’t want taleggio every day for the next 9 days.
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Looks delicious, I must try your recipe.
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Nigel Slater’s potato and taleggio pizza is a seriously delicious and sustaining combination of two carbohydrates and cheese! We like it in the winter with a watercress salad.
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We freeze cheese all the time. Perhaps you should portion yours into recipe sizes and freeze them. Just think – scones on demand with no need to let stand in the freezer beforehand.
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The scones look gorgeous, though I have to say that both Gromit and my old dog Sandy would agree with Bruce that dogs are in fact great cheese lovers!
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My dog, a Labrador, eats cheese , it’s his favorite food!
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Online grocery shopping changed my life! I love it. Thanks for sharing the recipe – but can I just say I really LOVE the plate! Could you share with me the makers of it please – it’s so sweet.
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I could be mistaken but I think its by Emma Bridgewater Pottery.
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I’m Italian and Taleggio too..there are a lot of way of cooking it! Try to warm it with some milk warming..just to have a cream. You can have with pasta and vegetables. Or use it as a cream for beaf ;)
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No-one ever told Tara dogs don’t eat cheese. In fact, she happily consumed half an Edammer cheese once. And Edammers weigh about one kilo too.
http://mevrouwj.blogspot.nl/2009/11/blog-post.html
Thanks for the recipe! Must try that once I find out how to get hold of a *small* quantity of Taleggio or its dutch equivalent :).
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Hmmm, don’t have any taleggio in the fridge or I’d make some right now! Wonder if the Italian shop in town has any?
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It’s funny that so many people are telling you “dogs do eat cheese, you know.”
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Bruce…don’t let her kid you, we dogs eat cheese. At least the two of us (Abby and me, Jake) do when we come in from our morning walkies (Abby has to take a pill, so they wrap it in). In fact, we love cheese so much that the parents can’t say that word out loud…they have to call it “flat dairy product” so we don’t get all crazy. But if we hear the cheese drawer open in the refrigerator, all bets are off. Just saying. Mom did say she wants to try the scones.
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Long time lurker here. The mention of taleggio has finally prompted me to suggest a taleggio and egg sandwich- it’s a local panini here at my favorite lunch cafe. They make it with taleggio, scrambled eggs, and chives.
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My dog Izzy loved cheese: the stinkier the better! Unfortunately, cheese didn’t love him back, real room clearers. But my dog Theo can eat cheese without any difficulty. It depends on the individual dog.
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“Unfortunately, cheese didn’t love him back, real room clearers.”
Your comment made me laugh and smile. Thanks so much. :lol: hee hee! :)
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Tallegio is a great cheese. Your cunning use in scones looks delicious. I can see a bit of weekend baking in the offing. Tallegio is also lovely melted into steamed green beans with a handful of fried lardons and a generous sprinkling of black pepper. But remember it’s the cats you have to watch out for when cheese is around. At least it is in our house.
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Thank you so much for the recipe! Now I have to find how to transalte “taleggio” in a swedish kind of cheese!
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Dear Bruce,
When I have to take a pill my people put it in a dollop of jack cheese. Very tasty. Ask your people about it, then tell them you need to sample cheese first to make sure you like it.
Your friend,
Rudy
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Freeze the cheese in 100g pieces. Tallegio scones forever.
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Mmmmmm cheese!
I love taleggio, melts in the best way. I like it any anything gratinated, also in cheese sauce for leeks, cauliflower, croque madam or lasagne. We even used to breadcrumb and deep fry in the restaurant, served with cranberry sauce…. Naughty!
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900g taleggio cheese to go…think soufflé, panini or fondue.
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This sound and look really good! By the way where did you get this lovely plate?
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I know that dog must not eat cheese, but it is a really good treat for them some times… My dogs don’t like that when I clean their ears. So I give them a little bit of cheese, and every is fine… But I’m not saying the whole 900 g! ahah! I’ll try your recipe by the way! Great idea and I never tried tallegio. thantks!
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oh yum!
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I adore taleggio – it’s a really good cooking cheese. One of my favourite ways of using it is to layer it up with thinly sliced cooked and cooled polenta, and lightly fried mushrooms. On the diagonal, much like you layer up a bread-and-butter pudding. It’s a traditional North Italian dish I came across while working in an Italian deli a few years ago.
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Those sound delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
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Wow, those look phenomenal! Self raising flour isn’t widely available where I live. Does anyone have a sense of how much baking powder I’d want to add to my non-raising flour? I wonder if a teaspoon would do?
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They say 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 8 ounces, so, one and a half teaspoons should be good.
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Thanks very much! This is the top of my weekend baking list :-)
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That’s a great story! Glad I’m not the only one who does stuff like that.
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Tee hee! I did exactly the same & ended up with 6kg of bananas.
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Yum! They look amazing!
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ummm :)) scones so easy, s’pose could try stilton, and without the buttermilk?? What is buttermilk btw – is it the milk after the cream’s taken out to make butter, or is it the creamy milk before the butter is made??
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Thank goodness I’m not the only one!
Everyone in my house loves the book yet I’m the only one who knits.
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Why not just make those scones every day until you run out of the cheese? They look delicious! (kidding – I bet you can freeze the leftover cheese. I do that with leftover queso fresco here)
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Sometimes the best recipes come about because of terrible ordering accidents. It was written, you see…
(Maybe dogs + scones was written as well. Just saying.)
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Hi Bruce,
these scones look delicious and I do hope that the odd crumb fell down for you to hoover up. Just to let you know that dogs are allowed a little cheese now and then in Wales too.
Whoofing luck you manage to find some
Max the Jack Russell from Wales
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These scones sound delicious, but dogs do eat cheese. Our dog training instructor suggested cheese instead of ham treats during their initial training, consequently we have a pooch full of cheese…and not a lot of training
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If it helps with the remaining 900g, I cut mine in to small pieces, freeze and the use in recipes like this, or porcini mushroom risotto as and when I need it. Those scones look utterly delicious, you could make nine more batches and freeze those too!
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Yes, I had wondered about freezing. It’s the sort of ingredient where having some handy would be a delight.
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Thanks for that my husband loves taleggio and I love making scones! My internet shopping faux pas happened in the other direction in that I inadvertantly ordered one carrot…….s/he picked me a really nice one!
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Oh yum! Love the dishes, too!
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Wah. Scones look lovely though!
I once ordered 3 bottles of wine for a good price from our online supermarket and when they arrived – yep, you guessed it – they were airport-sized. Made me feel like a giant ;-D
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I have never heard of Taleggio and will drop by the Italian market next time and get some. Muffins look delicious and both my husband and I make them to have on hand between meals.
Must look into home delivery of food. Great idea when there is snow and ice out there!Thanks for the thought.
Really enjoying your book Kate and playing innie, meenie, minnie mo to see which pattern I’ll do first.
Ann
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They sound delicious wonder if haloumi would work in a scone recipe? Hmmm a small experiment may be in order!
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Bruce,
Please tell Kate that dogs do eat cheese here in Virginia. I once got lucky and made off with an entire block of cheddar when my family was not looking! Delicious!
Winnie
The Golden Retriever
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“Free cheese with every book order!” ;)
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Great idea!
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Taleggio! I’d take a kg………really and dogs DO eat cheese :) Mine have their Cheese treats every day at 11AM……or esle! OK, they’re not getting Taleggio. Will definitely go out and get some to make these scones YUM YUM Thanks.
You can melt it for pasta, put some in the freezer and go to ‘that place’ the web and you’ll find things to do with your treasure, enjoy.
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Kate,
Taleggio is excellent in a cabbage/potato gratin.
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sounds good!
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Um (clearly I’m not much of a baker), why should the dough not be kneaded or worked in any way? That seems to be important.
PS. Big fan. Very very shy. Love your blog.
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hi! Welcome! Much like pastry, the more you work scone dough the tougher it tends to become . . . .and in this case, the dough also contains cubes of soft cheese that are likely to disintegrate if the dough is kneaded . . .
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Hi Bruce,
Some doggies can eat cheese. Have Kate give you a tiny morsel crumb or two and see if you can tolerate it. A lovely little snack if you can! Tell Kate her recipe is looks lovely.
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I started using a grocery delivery service when the Hubby retired and now we have our big grocery shop delivered….it saves a lot of aggro….we have a delivery scheduled for noon today as a matter of fact! Yes, getting the quantities right can be a bit tricky, but I’m sure you will catch on quickly!
Lovely looking Scones…hmmmm……
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They look lovely! I have never heard of that kind of cheese, but then I live out in the boondocks. Your photos make my hungry and I have two hours yet until lunchtime!
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