Apple Drop Scones with Cinnamon Butter

These are just the thing for an autumn breakfast, brunch, pudding, afternoon tea or a midnight snack.  They are spectacularly quick and easy to whip up and can be eaten hot or cold, or reheated in the toaster the next morning for breakfast (if there are any left).

For the drop scones:

9oz/225g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1oz/25g caster sugar

1tbsp golden syrup

2 eggs

275ml milk

About 2 eating apples (at this time of year there is no excuse for them not being British, coxes work particularly well)

For the cinnamon butter:

2oz/50g soft butter

2tsp honey

1tsp cinnamon

 (serves 4 ish)

(although I made half the quantity and managed to get through the lot by myself...oops)

Place the first set of ingredients in a bowl and whisk like billy-o until you have a smooth batter.

To make the cinnamon butter, mix together the butter, honey and cinnamon with a fork, mashing together until well combined.

Cut the apples into 4, remove the core, and slice each piece into about 5 slices.  If you have an apple corer you could remove the core first and then slice the apples across the middle to make round slices with holes in the centre.

Heat a frying pan lightly greased with a little oil or lard.  It's hot enough when a drop of water dropped on the surface crackles.  Drop large tablespoonfuls of batter into the pan and top with several slices of apple.  Bubbles should appear on the surface and when these start bursting to make little holes, the pancakes should be ready to flip over.  Turn with a spatula and cook until golden brown on both sides.

Best way to make these is to do them before everyone is at the table drooling - turn the oven to a low temperature and as each batch of pancakes are cooked, place them on a plate in between 2 sheets of kitchen roll or a tea towel folded in half, and tuck them in the oven.  This means you can cook the whole batch and then place a huge mountain of piping hot pancakes on the table where everyone can eat them at once.

More to the point this system prevents that distressing phenomenon wherein the person cooking the pancakes never gets a look in, as they have all been eaten by the time you are done cooking (- devastating).

Anyway, top with the cinnamon butter (lots of) which should melt in deliciously cinnamonny dribbles all over the place.

And they have fruit in so are practically good for you!