Back to Sainsbury's Basics: Cheese Scones

Amidst a month of wedding-related logistics, running out of ideas, busy work hours and a two week holiday spent at home, I have not been updating this blog. Now that most of that is out of the way I can get around to publishing again, with a fresh batch of ideas.

So we start with something that is quintessentially British. Scones are something that I encountered when I was younger and travelling with my family. I think I was in Somerset when I had it with clotted cream and tea. In more recent times I've found myself in places like the Muffin Man in London and the famous Orchard Tea Gardens in Cambridge, enjoying this simple pleasure.

The recipe on BBC's food website lists just five ingredients: self-raising flour, salt, milk, caster sugar and butter. It turns out though that the Sainsbury's Basics pancake batter mix contains the first three ingredients in one convenient packet, so I cannot resist the temptation to use this as a shortcut. Since I'm hungry and have nothing in the fridge for dinner since I've just returned, I'll add cheese to the scones.

I really should have spotted the Sainsbury's Basics Grated Hard Cheese when starting this blog, as the unit cost price of this is lower than even the Sainsbury's Basics Mild Cheddar blocks. It's in pretty convenient form too where an even layer of cheese is required.

Because some of our ingredients are already premixed, I'm going to have to adapt some bits of the BBC recipe to suit our ends. Which makes things straightforward. Simply put, rub 25g of Basics butter into one packet the batter mix, add 3 teaspoons of sugar, then pour in 75ml water and work into a soft dough.