It gets dark early here and is properly can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark by about 5pm.

The best part of the day up in Scotland, where we are for 3 or so weeks, is used up going on long, blustery walks – with dogs in tow – after lunch, followed by tea in front of the fire.

By tea, I mean proper afternoon tea involving lashings of butter spread on hot homemade drop scones cooked on the hotplate of the Aga.

I used to eat these as a child and they are addictive.  They can actually be cooked perfectly well on any large non-stick pan or griddle but somehow do, infuriatingly, taste so much better when they’re done on an Aga.

As most of you know by now, I did not study at Le Cordon Bleu. These, however, are ridiculously easy to knock-up at a moment’s notice.

 Mix together 100g self-raising flour, 1 desert spoon of caster sugar, 1 egg, 150ml of milk and a pinch of salt in the magimix.  Dollop on to a lightly oiled griddle/pan/Aga top.

Flip them just as they start to bubble, then let them cook on for another 30 seconds or so.  Eat immediately with butter (and jam if you must but I’m a butter-only fan) and a cup of Earl Grey tea by the fire:

The recipe for drop scones is taken from Mary Berry’s Aga Book, page 106 (she calls them Scotch pancakes and puts 25g of sugar in her mixture which I have lessened as think it’s too much).