Lea Hogg

A day of humidity, close cloudy skies but for me a glorious day everyday on this little Mediterranean island.

Today I am going to mum’s for tea and although she adores my cakes and pastries, she prefers something savory so I am making some Parmesan and Rose Peppercorn Scones and I use the basic recipe from Delia’s online cookery course www.deliaonline.co.uk. I omit the sugar, add Maldon Salt, Parmesan and fresh pink peppercorns which I cut from her tree in the garden.

Scones remind me of England and in the USA you call them biscuits, so here is the recipe for scones with a Mediterranean twist. They are delicious and can be eaten fresh on their own or like mum eats hers smothered in butter !

You will need:

40g butter
225g self-raising flour
Pinch of Maldon Salt
110ml milk
3 spoons grated Parmesan
1 spoon fresh Rosé Peppercorns
I used a plain cutter 5 cm. but use what suits you and you can also cut them manually in squares or triangles

Preheat the oven to 220°C

A baking sheet with a non-stick liner, and a 5cm plain (or fluted) cutter

Sieve flour.
Rub in butterusing your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the salt, rose peppercorns and Parmesan.

Use a knife to mix in the milk little by little

Knead the mixture to a soft dough

Add a free drops more milk iPod mixture is to dry.

It is very important not to overwork the dough.

Place the dough on a floured pastry board and with a rolling pin lightly roll it out to a thickness of about 3cm.

This thickness is important and a lot of times people make a mistake in the thickness and knead too much and this is why the scones do not turn out well.

Cut the scones using a pastry cutter or a knife. Do this with one sharp tap so that the scones do not twist when baking.

Place the scones on a baking sheet, dust each one with Parmesan and bake on the top shelf until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack. They are delicious warm and freshly baked !

And this is what they mean when they say Paradise ……