What’s a lovely summer picnic without a lovely savoury scone?

These scones make wonderful picnic food and are packed with flavour and texture. Whip them up, wrap them in a clean tea towel and head outdoors to picnic under the shade of a leafy tree with good company and an equally good book. Scones are best eaten soon after they come out of the oven so if you can’t make the mad dash to your nearest tree, then throw a picnic rug out over the lounge floor, put the jug on and enjoy.    

SAVOURY SCONES

Makes 8

• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 100g butter, cubed
• ¼ cup herbs (I used a combination of parsley, rosemary and thyme)
• 1 cup spinach leaves
• 100g tasty cheese, grated, plus extra for the top (substitute with edam/colby/parmesan)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• pumpkin seeds for sprinkling on the top

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and butter into a food processor and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Next add the herbs, spinach and cheese and process again until incorporated. Lastly add the egg and the milk and pulse until just combined. 

Turn out onto a floured surface and using wet hands (so the dough doesn’t stick), shape it into a disc about 3cm thick. Using a knife (as the dough is quite wet, you may have to wash it in between cuts), cut the disc into eight wedges.

Grate extra cheese over the top then sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and bake for 15-17 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and cut into wedges before serving with butter.