Gluten-free Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Scone on a wire rack. — Jalapenos give these cheesy scones an extra kick.

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My gluten-free buttermilk cheddar cheese scones have become a holiday dinner tradition with our family. Last year, they even asked me to bake a double batch, so everyone could take home extras to enjoy with their leftovers. I happily obliged, but I was also itching to do something a little different. That's why I whipped up a batch of these gluten-free jalapeno cheddar cheese scones for us at the same time.

I Like to Keep Things Spicy

While I can't handle my food at Thai-hot levels, I do like a little heat to keep things interesting. I've got a huge flat drawer full of spices next to my stove, kept organized so I can see them all at-a-glance with the very cool and useful YouCopia Spiceliner (affiliate link) spice drawer liner). I always have a ton of dried peppers, including jalapenos, on hand to make my own low-FODMAP friendly taco seasonings, which is what inspired me to give these scones a little heat.

This time, I was lucky to have fresh jalapenos on hand from making guacamole. If you are using dried jalapenos instead, you won't want to use ¼ cup in this recipe unless you really want to give the scones an infusion of heat. 1 tablespoon of dried jalapenos is probably enough for most palettes.

While you can roll out the Gluten-free Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Scone dough and cut it with biscuit cutters, I prefer to make these as drop scones to maximize the crispy edge and top bits.

Preparing Your Gluten-Free Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Scone Dough

While baking these gluten-free jalapeno cheddar cheese scones is pretty simple once you get the hang of it, there are a few tips to make it easier:

Don't try to speed things up by making this dough in your food processor! It's a pretty wet and sticky dough, and you don't want to break the cheese or the jalapenos into smaller pieces.
Using your thumbs to work the butter into the flour is an essential part of the process, delivering just the right amount of butter in all the right places. A pastry cutter just doesn't deliver the same results.
For making these as drop scones, I like to use a ¼ cup cookie scoop to get my sizes close to each other, while still allowing for some irregularities for those essential crispy bits.
Always use parchment paper or a Silpat (affiliate link) to line your baking sheet when baking these scones. If you place the scone dough onto a greased baking sheet, you are likely to end up with excessively browned or even burnt bottoms before your scones are baked all the way through.

Serving and Storing Your Scones

My favorite way to eat my gluten-free jalapeno cheddar cheese scones is fresh out of the oven, but that's obviously not always possible. If you are baking the scones close to serving them, wrap them in aluminum foil and keep them warm on a low setting in your oven until you are ready to serve.

Like most gluten-free baked goods, any leftover scones should be refrigerated in an air-tight container or Ziploc bag. To reheat, place the scones on parchment paper, and reheat at 325 degrees until warm, which is about 10 minutes in my convection oven.