Cinnamon and Sultana Drop Scones

Saturday 11.30am

Saturday morning, all quiet, up late but nothing pressing to do. Nicola is bunged up with the flu so is in bed with Harry Potter. Breakfast calls for something comforting but quick and simple - Drop Scones or Pikelets as they call them here, there is nothing more comforting than something your mum used to make. "Sultana drop scones" says I. "Cinnamon and sultana" says a voice that I cannot place but as the cat cannot speak yet, I think must belong to the two eyes peering at me from a gap in the duvet. Well it is a classic english tea time combination - sugar, Cinnamon and butter, evoking memories of childrens teas with nanny and a moth-eaten but well loved teddybear in the nursery. Not my memories of course - I was brought up on Arctic Roll, Jammy Dodgers and Angel delight, and no nanny either, and my teddy got thrown out when my sister lost her's ( I still have the mental scars ) - this was the sixties not the thirties, but here goes anyway. Drop scones are just thick pancakes really so I start with one egg and half a pint of milk. Add self raising flour a spoonfull at a time and whisk until you get a thick batter that slides lazily off your whisk. Let it rest for a bit. I like a contrast between the scone part and the flavouring so I keep the sultanas seperate and add them during cooking. In a small bowl melt some butter, stir in the sultanas and a good bit of ground Cinnamon. A little bit of butter in a nonstick frying pan, hot but not smoking, drop in a tablespoonfull of batter for each scone and wait. Drop a few sultanas on, and then once the bubbles come to the surface turn them. Once they puff up they are ready but go carefully because the sultanas will burn. Serve warm with butter and sprinkled with crunchy sugar - next time I will add sugar to the batter, the taste was a bit flat and powdery without it, hence the sprinkling - but thats cookery for you.

All done by the way to the sounds of Jack Johnson, Portishead, and Led Zeppelin.