Sunset Chillies: Jalapeno, cheddar and chive scones

Wanting to always be the consummate host (well, patient recovering from surgery that may have visitors pop round), I figured I should have something on hand for any impromptu afternoon teas - and I am so freakin bored I needed something to do that wasn't watching rom-coms and doing Woman's Day crosswords (the cryptic ones, naturally).

So I managed to drag myself up from the lazyboy (trust me, quite the feat) and shuffle around the kitchen (with Elliot's assistance) to make these scones which are light and fluffy and deliciously cheesy with a touch of spice.

Scones are something people tend to tell you are hard to get right - I've never had a problem with them and they are great to whip up quickly as the ingredients are things most people have in the cupboard and only take 10 minutes in the oven.

Disappointingly, I have not yet made my own jam - that will come one day (I'm sure the goals then to follow will be to produce my own cream and cheese...) but was able to use homegrown and home-pickled jalapenos and chives from the garden.

I am not much of a sweet tooth but if I was going to choose something to tingle that particular part of the palate, it would quite possibly be a scone with jam and cream, so I decided to chuck a half batch of plain scones in too (well it was actually meant to be half a batch of plain, half a batch of jalapeno/cheese until Elliot had, um, well, issues halving ingredients).

We had the last few jalapenos of the season picked from our plants but decided to use pickled jalapenos as I find fresh jalapenos quite hard and bitter and figured the pickled ones would work well in these scones.

We have grown some epic chives in the wheelbarrow garden since moving - the best I've ever grown. Most tend to be sad, limp looking things that are pretty sad flavour-wise, but this variety were nice and big and tender (can a chive be tender?) and full of flavour.

I used the Edmonds recipe for the plain ones and as a base for the jalapeno ones.

Plain scones (makes 6):

1 1/2 cup plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
37.5g butter
1/2 cup milk

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cut in the butter and use your fingers to combine until you get the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.

Before he was put on the job of whipping cream which was met with the question
"How do you whip cream?"

Add the milk and mix until just combined. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until it comes together.

The key to getting light, fluffy scones is to not over mix the dough. It is very tempting to over knead (I never want to massage humans, but something about this elastic, gooey dough feels so good between your fingers), so once you add the milk, mix it in until just combined and then knead it only a couple of times until it just comes together.

Cut into six even sized pieces, brush with milk and bake in a 220°C oven for 10 minutes.

Serve hot with lashings of jam and cream.

Jalapeno, cheddar and chive scones (makes 12):

3 cups plain flour
6 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
75 g butter
1 cup milk
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1/3 cup chopped pickled jalapenos
2 Tb chopped chives
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Sift the flour, baking powder, cayenne and salt into a bowl. Cut in the butter and use your fingers to combine until it's the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.

Add the chives, cheese and jalapenos and mix through.

Add the milk and mix until just combined. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until it comes together.

Cut into 12 even sized pieces and place on a baking paper lined tray. Brush with a touch of milk, add a little grated cheese to the top and a couple of chives.