Garlicky cheese scones

In my last post, I said that the wild garlic in my garden had come to the end of its usefulness in the kitchen for this year - but in fact I managed to get one more recipe out of it before it finally lost its flavour (which happens once the flowers are all fully open). I used it in these lovely cheese scones and it tasted fantastic. But I've also tried the recipe with flatleaf parsley and a crushed clove of garlic and that works really well too, so feel free to swap them for the wild garlic if you can't get hold of any.

To be honest, I've never been brilliant at scone-making - the texture and taste are always fine but the scones never rise quite as much as I'd like them to. So I've been experimenting a bit and I think I've finally cracked it. For a start, I've come to the conclusion that I've been rolling the dough out too thinly. But I've also found that adding just a little baking powder, as well as using self-raising flour, makes a huge difference to the rise. Purists won't agree with doing that, I know, but I'm happy with the results now. The key thing with scones is to work the dough as little as possible as that helps ensure a light and fluffy texture once they're cooked. So add the milk all in one go to the dry ingredients then stir as briefly as possible with a table knife until it's all just combined.

Be sure to use a plain cutter here (fluted cutters are for sweet scones only - apparently you get severely marked down for getting that wrong at our village flower and produce show according to my neighbour, who was caught out by that rule!)

Garlicky cheese scones

225g self-raising flour
half a teaspoon baking powder
50g butter
handful of wild garlic leaves (or use flatleaf parley and a chopped clove of garlic)
50g strong cheddar
150ml milk

Whizz the flour, baking powder, butter, wild garlic leaves (or parsley and clove of garlic), cheese and plenty of salt and pepper together in a food processor until you have fine breadcrumbs. Pour in the milk and stir together with a table knife to form a dough, then tip out onto a floured worksurface, bring together to make a neat round and press lightly down down with your hand until the dough is about 1 inch (2.5cm) thick before cutting out the scones.

Brush with milk and bake at 220C (fan oven) for 15 minutes until risen and golden.

Makes 8-10

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