Today I introduce a new section of our site. A home for awesome (=A1), heavenly, mostly healthy. and easy to cook recipes. Several of our authors plan on contributing their favourites.

Food is a big part of all our lives. At various points during our journeys with blood cancer some of us require special diets, or we just want to improve the quality of our food. Fatigue can make cooking real food seem daunting. We will try and share simple recipes which can be made with minimal effort. We will also try and label the recipes as to which specific types of diet they fit into. Please confirm whether the ingredients are suitable for you personally before proceeding.

Today I want to introduce you to the English scone, but with a slight variation. I recently started using Spelt flour (both wholemeal and white) because although it is related to wheat and does contain some gluten, a lot of people who are gluten intolerant can eat this ancient form of wheat. It is not suitable for a true coeliac or someone who is actually allergic to gluten. But often the modern wheats we use for flour cause gut symptoms as well as being high in simple carbohydrates which can lead to excessive weight gain. I am on a low FODMAP diet due to SIBO and I have heard of others with blood cancer needing to go onto a similar diet.

I had quite a while of not eating any bread at all before discovering that sour dough spelt bread was absolutely fine to eat for a low FODMAP diet. I found gluten free bread was uniformly nasty (I lay a challenge on anyone to share a recipe that works!)

I will share my sour dough bread recipe on another day. But part of the process of “feeding” your sour dough culture requires you to discard part of the culture at times. So instead of discarding it why not make something with it? I give you the sour dough scone.

If you are not making sour dough you can simply omit the sour dough starter and add more milk or water to ensure your scones bind together.

Scones can be sour dough, plain, fruit, or cheese flavoured and you can pick any two of these. Simply omit the ingredients you don’t want. I wouldn’t recommend adding cheese AND fruit, however!

Ingredients – makes around 6-8 sones (pictures show double quantities)

• 120g (½ a cup, 4 ounces) of sour dough starter (optional)

• 200g (1 cup, 7 ounces) grated cheese (optional)

• 200g (1 cup, 7 ounces) of dried currants, raisins, sultanas, or mixed citrus peel (optional)

• 400g (3 cups, 14 ounces) of spelt flour -wholemeal or plain. Other types of flour will work fine too.

• 140g (⅝ of a cup, 5 ounces) of butter or margarine.

• 40g (2.5 table spoons, 1.5 ounces) milk or water

• Pinch of salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 200C / 392F / Gas Mark 6
• Put baking paper onto baking trays or butter with a dusting of flour
• Fold in the butter, flour and salt
• Mix in sour dough starter and enough milk or water to get a dough feeling.
• Fold in half the cheese if using, or all the fruit.
• Roll out dough and cut into scone shapes (use a cup or cutters).
• Place on backing tray.
• Glaze with milk or eggs and sprinkle on rest of cheese if using
  
• If you want the scones to taste more strongly of sour dough leave to one side for a few hours.
• Bake for 25-30 mins.

Best served warm, cut in half, with butter, clotted cream (available from Amazon.com), and jam.

Let us know how you get on!

Special diets

Lactose free milk is low FODMAP, but can be replaced with water in this recipe making this vegetarian or potentially vegan depending on what kind of butter or margarine you use. This is not suitable for true coeliacs or those with an allergy to gluten. But many who are not able to tolerate wheat can tolerate Spelt flour and it is suitable for a low FODMAP diet, especially if allowed to ferment with the Sour dough. Note that only mixed peel is suitable for a low FODMAP diet, but plain sones are my favourite anyway.