I remember when we lived in our first house, a neighbour was alarmed to find a snail track going all the way up to her bedroom window. Back in them thar days of yesteryear, double glazing hadn't happened and we all had old fashioned, badly fitting, near-original sash windows that rattled in the wind and would all to easily let a snail in through the gaps.
We had a window cleaner who came when he pleased (rather like the one we have now), but as each house only had two windows at the front, and there was no way through to the back for the other two windows, he was very cheap. As far as I can remember, we used to leave a 10p coin on the bedroom windowsill and he used to collect it when he cleaned the windows. Forty years later, our window cleaner charges £10, which is fair as he has 9 windows including the french windows and two bays.
In "Anne of Green Gables" and the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, they constantly eat "biscuits and gravy". What kind of biscuits, I wondered, (thinking of digestives, ginger-nuts, shortbread) and how could they ever be any good with gravy?
A week or so ago I had more yogurt than I could sensibly eat, so googled for "biscuit recipes using yogurt". I didn't have any eggs, so cake wasn't an option. That's when I discovered that they think scones are biscuits on the other side of the Atlantic.
The recipe I followed came out more like plain muffins in texture than anything else. They tasted fine while they were warm - good with cheese or honey, but became rather stodgy as they cooled.
Today, I found myself in the "too-much-yogurt-but-no-eggs" situation again. This time I went for drop scones, experimenting with the "measure it all out with the yogurt cup method.
I would say that it was a success, judging by the fact there are none left for a photoshoot.
Tip out a carton of yoghurt (in this case, Yeo Valley Greek yogurt) into a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of sugar (I used brown) and two cartons of self-raising flour (that comes to about 4 ounces). Then add two cartons of milk, and mix together. I would hold back on some of the milk, just in case you don't need it all, ad be ready to add a little extra milk if necessary, to get the consistency of very-thick-only-just-pouring-custard.
Heat a thick non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, and grease lightly. Drop tablespoons of mixture in the pan, wait until you see bubbles rising through the batter, and turn. They should be "golden brown" - that means anything between pale blonde and oops-that's-a-bit-dark when I'm making them.
Use a fish slice to extract them from the pan and cool on a rack. I say "cool", but we always eat them wen they are warm. This amount should make around 10 drop scones. Five each. Perfect.
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