I’m so pleased about this recipe. It gives me Sunday morning, wake up to the smell of Zaatar pastries being baked feels, but so much faster and so much easier.

Zaatar is a Palestinian staple. It’s essentially a blend of dried oregano, sumac, salt and toasted sesame seeds, usually eaten for breakfast with bread and olive oil. It’s tart, incredibly savoury, but also bright with slightest aftertaste of sweetness which comes from sumac.

Once you’ve tried zaatar it’s pretty hard not to sprinkle it on everything, from salads to your morning eggs.

These scones are so fluffy, and the zaatar adds just the right edge. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth sometimes so a savoury version of a classic felt just right. The optional whipped spread also adds another dimension, it’s so tangy that it complements the not too salty scones perfectly.

Makes: 8/ Prep Time: 10mins/ Bake Time: 15mins

Ingredients

Scones

200g Plain Flour
4tsp/15g Baking Powder
½tsp Salt
1tsp Sugar
2tbsp Zaatar (heaped)
65g cold Butter (or non dairy alternative)
150ml Milk (you may need all of it - I used oat milk)

Feta Spread

100g Feta cheese
4tbsp Olive Oil
¼tsp Black Pepper

Crumble the feta into a bowl, add the olive oil and pepper, and smooth with the back of a fork until it becomes cohesive mixture (it’ll still be slight crumbly, but spreadable)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan/ 220°C/Gas Mark 7 & line a baking tray with baking paper
In a mixing bowl, add the first 4 ingredients, and thoroughly whisk through for about a minute
Add in the zaatar & butter, and crumble the mixture together with your hands, until there are no more large chunks of butter, but resembles a very flaky, rough crumble (not too fine, it doesn't have to be perfect, this only takes about 30 seconds)
Add in half the milk, mix it in, then add in the rest a quarter at a time and mix until just combined, you may mot need all the milk
Flour a surface and pour the slightly sticky mixture onto it, add a little flour to the top of the dough
Gently form the dough into a rectangle about 2.5cm thick
Using a knife, cut the dough into 8 pieces, and place on the baking tray
Use a little extra melted butter/olive oil to brush the tops of the scones
Bake for 15 mins, until golden

Serve