Himself took to the kitchen today. He had said he fancied making scones. As the eldest of 6 he did actually cook as a child, he remembers it well. Well ,he remembers cooking but what, well that bit he doesn’t remember.

Once upon a time he was a chemist and I assume a pretty good one at that, even fancied a career in academia ( until he met me that is) .

More recently, he cooked mussels and couldn’t understand why the sauce was so runny ( he mistook 75 mls of white wine and used 750 mls, a whole bottle !) it tasted pretty good!

Nowadays, I’ve been teaching him. Well, wash and tidy up as you go along and he on the whole obeys instructions.

Today I found a recipe for Bacon and Maple scones and so we/ he tried it out. The end result was really tasty, but made a mental note , More Bacon needed! The other thing he leant was do not leave the food processor running whilst wandering off and doing another job. End result, a bit of a mush.

That being said, the mush was salvaged by the addition of extra flour. Not necessarily  being a good idea, the end result a bit on the dry side, fresh out of the oven really good, and toasted for breakfast also good.

Maple and Bacon Scones

• 135 grms cold butter, cut into chunks
• 300 grms ( 2 Cups) plain flour
• 1 tabsp sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 130 mls milk or buttermilk
• 1 beaten egg
• 200 grms streaky bacon, cooked until crisp and chopped into bits
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cook the bacon until very crisp. Chop into bits ( without eating it all).

Put into a food processor all the ingredients except the milk and the egg, process until the butter stops clunking, STOP the machine.

Beat the egg and milk together and then with the machine running, pour it in, the machine will bounce around for a minute and then the mixture will basically form a ball, STOP the machine. Tip out the mixture onto a floured surface, add the bacon bits and knead lightly to form a ball. Cut into bitsIf you have a scale, measure each  bit to weigh roughly the same about 80 grms each, Make into balls and flatten them slightly, put onto a greased baking sheet, ( allow room in between for them to rise and expand.

Bake at 170 C fan, 150C or gas 4, for about 15 minutes, brush the top of each with an ample dose of Maple syrup and a sprinkle of sea slat. Bake for another 10 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and use a cooling rack leave them to cool.

Serve slightly warm with lashings of butter.

Moving on. Even I did not watch Master Chef last night! I find it all a bit silly for someone who has never made Marshmallow, nor Caramel, nor tempered Chocolate, can learn and execute, these fabulous crazy desserts in just 2 1/2 hours. Actually, it is the only TV cooking programme I watch, I prefer the professionals, though. The now deceased Julia Child was great fun, Oh I’ve dropped the chicken on the floor ! Never mind as she rinsed it under the cold water tap! A movie worth watching is Julia & Julia, starring Meryl Streep. A fun watch. ( and we do have the time )