Spelt, cheese and spring onion tatie scones

Serves 4-6

Spelt, cheese and spring onion tatie scones (Jason Lowe)

These are not scones in the cream-tea sense of the word, but are adapted from the basic scone mixture. Still, they can be eaten for tea, and are delicious with some slices of cured or home-cooked ham or you could serve them instead of fried bread for breakfast with a fried or poached egg on top.

500g floury potatoes, cooked and mashed
30g melted butter
½tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
125g spelt flour, plus a little extra for dusting
1tsp baking powder
120-140g cheddar or hard cheese, grated
8 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
Lard or butter for greasing

Put the mashed potato in a bowl and mix in all the other ingredients, apart from the lard, to make a stiff dough. If the dough is a bit sticky, add some more flour.

Roll the dough on a lightly floured table to a thickness of about 1cm and cut it into saucer-sized rounds. You can re-roll the dough left at the edges and cut out more rounds.

Score a cross about 2mm deep over the circle to make 4 quarters. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Grease a griddle, heavy cast-iron pan or baking tray with the lard and bake the scones for about 15 minutes until lightly coloured. Eat warm.