Could the Northamptonshire scone be a new favourite?

A group of college students has created what they believe to be a new, but typically local baked good. Yum...

It has been dubbed the "Northamptonshire scone", but what is it and why is it so intrinsically linked to the county?

The new "Northamptonshire scone" is... well, it's a scone but with subtle, local differences.

It was not created for your typical strawberry jam and clotted cream topping. This one comes with a very specific way of consuming it.

This scone is designed to be served alongside whipped honey and cinnamon butter.

Student chef Michael Farrow explains the recipe is made up of locally produced Whitworths flour, Saxby's cider, apples from Earls Barton and honey from Northampton.

Bakery students from Moulton College in Northampton won a competition between local colleges with their specially created Northamptonshire Scone.

Farrow, 36, admitted the new recipe had been a bit of "trial and error" but after going through about 10 recipes, it all came together.

Chloe Hammond, 20, also on the professional bakery course, said coming up with the recipe involved "throwing a few ideas around".

"We wanted to make it something really good and add our local produce in there," she said. "It turned out really well and what we have today is the best scone.

"Our ingredients, people think - that in a scone? - but when you taste it, it actually works and that goes really well.

"It's a classic that everybody loves, so we've done a twist on a classic."

Fellow student Erin Jerrers, 22, said the "brief was to be local" so students looked at the history of the scone and local produce before deciding on their recipe.

"It's a tea-time treat to pick you up," she said.

She added the sweetness of the apples when baked and the floral nature of the local honey combined with the carbonisation of the cider with the flour - making the mix "really light and fluffy" - was a winning combination.

Trainee chef Jeffers said the science behind the ingredients was important to ensure all the ingredients "work cohesively".

The taste, she said, was "not overly sweet and the butter has a lot of salt so the salt with the sweetness of the honey helps to create this not overpowering taste that allows the apple to come through - a contrasting flavour".

The scones are on sale in the cafe at Delapre Abbey for the next six months.

Visitor Carol Poole, 72, tried the Northamptonshie scone and said it "tastes very nice".

She said: "It's not as heavy as a normal scone and it's full of apple - very light, very delicious and it's lovely with this separate butter that's got honey in it."

Is it a scone (rhyming with gone) or a scone (rhyming with bone)?

This can be a divisive question and a survey by data analytics company YouGov concluded the UK was split almost 50/50 on how to pronounce our popular baked good.

And that is before we even get to the question of whether you should put the cream on before the jam or the jam before the cream.

Luckily for the people of Northampton, it is simply a case of whether they like the local ingredients or not.

Do you have a story suggestion for Northamptonshire? Contact us below.

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.