Bundt cakes, misbehaving friendly hounds, England, scones, these are a few of my favorite things!

Imagine my delight when I learned of the apple and cheddar scone! The intro to this recipe (it goes on for quite a while) talks about how when we think of Dorset we think about apples and cheddar. Well, I’ve been, and when I think about Dorset I think about chilly, pelting rain in the middle of August. 

But cheddar and apples it is. I made this a couple of weekends ago. It’s very tasty. I’ll leave it to you to translate the measurements out of the Napoleonic foreign weights and measures and back into what we (mostly) are familiar with.

Makes around 12

Cheddar cheese, apple and sage scones

300g self-raising Flour
½ tsp baking powder
75g butter
125g mature Cheddar, grated
handful of fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1 large eating apple, cored and grated
1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
150ml milk

Preheat the oven to 200ºC / gas mark 6. [Lol. This is 400° F for those of us who didn’t acquire our gas cookers during the Heath administration.]

Grease a large baking sheet and cover with baking parchment.

Pour the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together. Chop the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour using your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs. [Quietly hum ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ and be thankful that butter is finally off the rationing list, and who knew really why it was on there in the first place, after 1945. Buckingham Palace certainly never lacked for butter, but then again—Anyway, I’m well aware that Dover is on the other side of the English Channel coast from Dorset, but I can’t think of a song related to Dorset. Maybe a pirate sea shanty.]

Stir two-thirds of the cheese into the mixture, along with the sage and apple.

Lightly flour the work top. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the beaten egg and milk. Use a knife to bring together into a soft dough. If it is too wet, add a little more flour. [You know, if it’s really too wet what you can do with it isRoll out the dough to a 2cm thickness and use a pastry cutter [large water glass, because you’re trash, like I am] to cut out your scones. Keep re-rolling the dough until it is all used up.

Place the scones on the baking sheet spaced well apart. Sprinkle the scones with the remaining grated cheese and bake for around 15 minutes until golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before eating.