Cheese and cider scones

Preheat the oven to 180°C and put a large bowl in the freezer

For the rarebit sauce, melt the butter in a pan on a low heat. Add the flour and stir through. Cook out to a blonde roux, stirring constantly

Slowly whisk in the cider, then the milk and bring to a gentle boil

Remove the pan from the heat and add in the remaining ingredients, then whisk until smooth. Store in piping bags until needed

Next, make the scones. Blitz together the flour, butter, cheese, baking powder, yeast and salt to a sandy texture in a food processor. Do this in batches if needed to avoid the mix warming up too much

Once blended, transfer to a chilled bowl

Add the buttermilk and milk and mix just until it comes together into a dough. Avoid overworking the dough: you want the mixture to look rough; if it starts to become smooth then you’ve overworked it

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured bench and roll out with a floured rolling pin until it’s 1 inch thick

Punch out scones with a 5.5 cm round cutter (or whichever shape you prefer)

Brush the tops with egg wash and then bake for 15 minutes, turning the tray half way through cooking. Remove from the oven and leave the oven on

Cut the scones in half and pipe or spoon over some of the rarebit sauce. Bake for a couple minutes, just until the sauce has some colour. Remove from the oven and serve with chopped chives