This is home food, not restaurant food.

So before I get into the recipe itself, I have a few things to say.

Firstly, I’m not the biggest fan of overly complicated food at home. I love ‘cheffy’ foraged menus when I visit restaurants, but when I’m eating in the comfort of my own house, it’s generally pretty simple ‘comfort food’. Things you can knock up in next to no time, without a recipe, and minimal use of equipment. So yep, like many households with young kids, lunches around here generally consist of ‘something on toast’, although often with a wild food element for extra flavour… and at this time of year it’s generally Wild Garlic, Few-Flowered Leeks, or maybe some Ground Elder. Or if we’re feeling inspired we’ll throw together a Wild Greens Soup, and make a big enough batch to last a few days.

Secondly, baking generally isn’t my thing. Really. Too much faffing around with weighing scales, making sure everything’s done just so and perfectly as described, else your delicious milk loaf comes out like a Yorkshire pudding… although that reminds me that I haven’t had a decent Yorkshire pudding in a while… maybe next weekend!

Thirdly, since a whole lot of cookery is generally plagiarism of some sort anyway, I think it’s important to give credit where it’s due. My grandad once said to me that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But if you don’t give credit where it’s due, you’re ‘a bit of a d!@%’.” So although this is ‘my’ recipe, it takes huge inspiration from someone I know called Martin, who runs a fab foraging group on Facebook. If he’s happy for me to, I’ll add the link here later, but if you ask me on social media, I’ll point you in the right direction.

…Ps. I also tried a recipe by the National Trust, but it really didn’t work out for me… undoubtedly my fault though.

A handful of Wild Garlic & Wild Leek leaves. — First get your Wild Garlic… or in this case, Wild Garlic and Wild Leeks

Either way, so long as what you have in your hand is some form of wild allium, you’ll be fine. Heck, it’s basically a modified cheese scone recipe, so pretty much any wild herb or spice will work with this recipe, although you may need to adjust the amount you use dependent on the strength of flavour.

I mean, if you’re reading this, then theres a good chance you already had some Wild Garlic to hand and just stumbled across this page on a google search… after, for some reason, ignoring the previous 50+ pages of recipes!!

Or you may have come here from social media. Either way, thank you, and let me know what you think of the recipe. Every view, share, comment, or picture of what you’ve made means it was worthwhile.

Recipe

Makes 8-12 scones

Standard ingredients

250g Plain Flour. I used 50/50 white and wholemeal
25g Baking Powder (you could use spoons - I had the scales out)
A pinch of Salt (omit if using fermented Wild Garlic)
60g of Butter, straight from the fridge, cubed
Mustard, either a tsp English Mustard powder, or a tbsp of jarred
100g or so of grated Cheese - I used cheddar
1 beaten Egg, plus Milk (approximately 100ml)
Extras
50g of mixed Wild Garlic and Wild Leek, finely shredded*
2 Peperami (other, higher quality, meat-based snacks are available)
10-15g fermented Wild Garlic**
* for the most flavour, tear the leaves by hand rather than cutting with a metal blade - it really does make a difference. And the vampires will stay well away.
But if you have a thing for vampires - or sociable breath - use a knife. Or less garlic. Seriously, the recipe is just a guide, so long as you get the basic ratios right.
** (recipe to follow at a later date if people are interested)

Method

Set the oven to 200c - we have a fan oven, but scones need it hot to cook well, so if yours isn’t fan, maybe put it on at 220c.
Finely slice and dry fry the Peperami (my kids go crazy for them). Alternatively replace with about 50g Bacon, or omit entirely if you’re vegetarian. Leave to cool.
Put the first four standard ingredients in a bowl and mix together by hand until you have something that resembles breadcrumbs. You need cold fingers for this though, so if you have a tendency towards warm hands, mix together with a knife, in a cutting motion.
If you’re a proper chef, apparently you can wash your hands under a very cold tap for a minute first.
Or pay someone else, with cold hands, to do it.
But you definitely don’t want to overwork your dough.
Add in your Mustard, most of the Cheese, the Wild Garlic and Wild Leek leaves, your fermented Wild Garlic and Peperami (if using), and mix. Again, think gently.
Finally add your beaten egg and enough milk to bring it together to a soft dough. GENTLY!
Now a normal sensible person would grab a rolling pin and roll out to a thickness of about 2cm, then cut into rounds, or whatever shape they fancied, before putting on a preheated oven tray covered in greaseproof paper.
But I couldn’t find the rolling pin… it was probably lost whilst being used as a sword in the garden…
So I just grabbed small handfuls of the dough and dropped them on the tray. Rustic-style. It still worked fine.
I was reminded afterwards that a wine bottle makes a good makeshift rolling pin. Although I probably drank the wine after sword fighting in the garden…
Glaze with a tiny bit of milk, and sprinkle more cheese on top, before putting in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When they are golden brown, remove and place on a cooling rack.
BUT, don’t leave them to cool too long. They are best eaten warm with lashings of butter.

If you do make these, please let me know what you think - share them with me on social media, tagging @cotswoldforager

For me, the best bit about passing my knowledge and ideas to others is when I get to see it put into practice. So if you do try out your own version of any of the ideas you've seen in my posts, please share them with me on social media, tagging @cotswoldforager