Dean Bailey learns the secrets of the scone with a chef who offers more than 500 varieties – yes, 500!
Every chef has a favourite dish. From the dinner they grew up making at home with their mum to a guilty pleasure they whip up after a long day in the kitchen.
For Paul Purvis, who owns Maddison’s in Consett, Co Durham, it’s scones, and he has more than 500 recipes for them. “If you can think of it I’ve probably put it into a scone,” he says as he preparing one of his mixes at lightning speed, no scales required.
“I’m here at 5.45am every day and scones are always the first thing I make. I don’t arrive with a plan; it all depends what catches my eye in the morning and what people have been asking for the day before. Coming up with new scones has become an obsession.”
And this obsession has led him to create some bizarre varieties. Roast dinner scone, anyone? “That was a nightmare to get right,” he says. “There were so many things I wanted to get in there. I think I got it right in the end though.”
His recipe book is packed with ideas, and he changes the scones on offer daily. His favourite is the smoked cheese and bacon, while his partner Heather goes for the wholemeal Wensleydale and cranberry, and their daughter Ella, nine, likes the cheese and Marmite ones. On the menu today is Paul’s largest scone – the all-day breakfast, packed with bacon, Geordie Banger breakfast sausages, mushrooms, black pudding, beans and an egg in the middle.
“It’s our biggest scone and certainly one for those with a big appetite,” says Paul. “It took a while to perfect, but served warm with plenty of butter and brown sauce it’s fantastic.”
Maddison’s, which has become an essential foodie destination on Front Street, Consett offers up to 12 varieties of Paul’s scones every day, plus a lunch menu which would rival any on trendy Grey Street in Newcastle.
“We find a lot of people seek us out because we take gluten-free options seriously too,” says Paul. “A major part of the menu is available gluten-free because I don’t think people with dietary requirements should be given rubbish and be charged up to twice the price for it. It’s taken a while to perfect but we have to take it seriously,” he says.
Having opened Maddison’s in summer 2006, Paul and Heather have expanded with Maddison’s on the Go at Consett Academy and Leisure Centre, offering healthy smoothies, shakes and snacks.
Heather says: “I’m always thinking of the future and what we could do – it may involve hitting the road with something, but Consett is where our hearts are.”
Recipe: Gluten-free strawberry and champagne scone
Recipe: All-day breakfast scone
