Was intending to make plain scones today, but ended up adding rosemary and cayenne, plus some oats. It worked very well. They had a lovely flavour from the rosemary, and a bit of a kick from the cayenne. The oats gave them quite a different texture, more short than usual. Nice tho

I used
100ml veg oil, Aldi, £1.25/litre, 12p
210g self raising flour, 45p/1.5kg, 6p
60g value oats, 75p/1kg, 5p
1 egg, beaten, Aldi £1/6, 17p (optional)
heaped tblsp grainy mustard, Asda 48p/180g, 3p
tblsp rosemary from the garden, chopped fine
cayenne pepper, Asda 78p/40g, maybe 3g altogether, 6p
Total of 53p, 4p each

I have a large pot of grainy mustard from Approved Food that I am using. Any mustard that you like will be fine here. Aldi aren’t showing a grainy one in mySupermarket, so I have put the Asda one.
Similarly, I have put cayenne pepper from Asda, but I know it can be bought cheaper than that, from Indian shops for instance
I used an egg this time, I often don’t use one in scones. The only difference seems to be a slight change in amount of crumbliness. If you don’t use one, add a little water or milk to replace the moisture from the egg.

The mustard can be any that you have or like, or leave it out altogether.

The oats aren’t essential either, replace with flour if you don’t want to use them. DP likes to have oats or red lentils in everything savoury!

To make the scones, put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together.  Add a good shake of cayenne if using. Mix the wet ingredients into a jug and mix. Then mix the dry and wet ingedients together into a dough. Tip onto the worksurface and pat into an oblong about 2cm thick. Cut down the middle with a knife, then cut each half into 6

Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle a little cayenne on each one if using, using more if you like the heat.

Bake at 220C/425F/Gas 7 for about 20 minutes until golden.

Other herbs would be lovely here, fine chopped sage, lots of chopped chives or the wild garlic that is in season right now, marjoram or thyme. Not sure if basil would work, might be worth a try. Or you could use a little dry mixed  herbs. To judge the amount, mix the dry ingredients and add half a teaspoon. Mix well. Then stick your nose near to the mix and smell it. If you can smell the herbs, there are probably enough. If not, add a little more.

The spice sprinkled on the top could be anything at all that you like. Tandoori spice mix, garam masala, cumin, coriander, any of the spice mixes, anything you like.

In other news, we have the men here today fitting the side windows and the roof on the extension – exciting!

The lantern window in the roof will be sometime soon. The bi-fold doors at the end won’t be for a few weeks as the work still needing to be done will involve lots of dust and grit and would get in the mechanism. So we won’t be able to start taking down the wall between the existing part and the new part just yet. But it is all happening apace now and I can’t wait!