These scones are a must-have for a proper Great British Afternoon Tea.
Scones are one of the recipes it really is essential to master. When you fancy a sweet treat in a hurry, these are perfect. They can be weighed, mixed and baked within half an hour! And as they are best eaten warm you don’t even have to wait for them to cool!
They are also very economical to make, using just flour, butter, sugar and milk.
They are totally amazing when eaten warm just spread with lovely creamy butter. But add some strawberry jam with a spoonful of whipped double cream (or even clotted cream!) and you have a foodie legend – a cream tea!
There are really only a few basics you need to get right when making scones. The oven must be pre-heated – they do need to go into a hot oven. The consistency of the dough is also important, you need to aim for a soft but not too sticky dough, it shouldn’t be sticking to your fingers or the rolling pin! But most important of all is not to handle the dough too much – a light touch will give you lovely light scones.
Once you have mastered this simple recipe you can start to add other flavours – sultanas are a classic, chocolate chips, cherries…the list is endless!
Ingredients
350g (12oz) Self raising Flour
1½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
50g (2oz) Butter or Block Margarine
2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
230ml (8floz) Milk (approx)
Method
Pre-heat the oven to Gas 7 (190° fan / 210ºc)
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and rub in the butter before stirring in the caster sugar.
Add enough milk to make a soft but not too sticky dough, mix gently until the dry ingredients have all been incorporated.
Tip the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead very gently just to bring the dough together – it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. The more you knead the dough the less light your scones will be so do be very quick and light with your hands!
Roll the dough to about 5cm (2″) thick and cut into rounds – you can make them as large or small as you like but about 6½cm (2½”) is a good size.
Place the scones onto a lightly greased baking sheet and brush the tops with a little milk.
Bake in the hot oven with the shelf just above the centre for 12-15 minutes until cooked through and nicely browned.
Cool on a wire rack then serve just warm from the oven – delicious!
