Green Grass Scones!

Ooh ooh!! It's me Dear Reader! Can you see me behind the pile of scones with crumbs around my mouth? These "green grass" scones or rocket and cheese scones are so amazingly good! Light and fluffy they come with two caveats: a) you cannot stop at one and I ate 4 on the first day and b) it's a pushy recipe so please make this and you'll be duly rewarded.

You know when you see a recipe and you just know that you and that food are going to be one soon? That was me as soon as I saw these scones on Cakelaw's fabulous blog. It is from a calender by Red Tractor and I made these as soon as I got my hands on some rocket. And then four disappeared in my hungry mouth and I have no regrets. I discovered something eating these the next day after taking the photos and that was replacing the butter with avocado was a really tasty idea too!

I am always giving Mr NQN new things in his lunchbox every day. And even though my instructions to him every day are to heat these up I know he won't. He would rather eat something cold than walk to the kitchen and wait to heat it up. But these are really best warm (and actually straight from the oven but I did warn you right? ;) ).

There are some things that you know about your partner from spending a lot of time with them. For example we were discussing one of our favourite songs, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It's a song with three parts to it: ballad, opera or hard rock. Some people love the ballad and opera parts because they're quite unusual in a rock song while other likes the hard rock part.

"Which part is your favourite?" I asked him. We both agreed that it was the hard rock. Mr NQN also knows that once we hear this bit, that I am going to turn up the volume and that he shouldn't interrupt it by talking. Maybe it's predictability, maybe it's routine or maybe it's just knowing someone very well. And he also knows I'll eat four scones in a row if they're really good.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever not bother heating something up even though you know it will be better that way? And what is your favourite part of Bohemian Rhapsody? And can you eat several of something if they're really good?

Green Grass Scones

Adapted from Red Tractor via Cakelaw

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes 10-12 scones

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups rocket (arugula), roughly chopped
• 1.5 cups grated tasty cheese
• 150ml/5ozs. cream
• 150ml /5ozs.soda water
• 2 tablespoons milk

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Add the rocket and cheese and stir to coat in the flour. Measure the cream and soda water in a jug and add to the scone mixture. Mix until just combined.

Step 2 - Lightly flour a surface and shape the dough into a rectangle. Cut into squares of your desired size (not too small though, I find larger scones best). Place onto the baking tray and brush with milk. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm from the oven with butter or avocado.