Traditional Scones Recipe – Perfect For Cream Tea

These scones are a must-have for a proper Great British Afternoon Tea.

But does any other bake cause as much controversy as a simple scone?

Even the British can’t decide – is it pronounced sone as in cone or scone as in gone? It seems everyone has a different opinion…I’m in the scone as in cone camp myself!

And then there is the biggest debate of all – jam before or after the cream? this is traditionally a regional dispute with Cornwall favouring putting the jam on first then the cream and Devon use the cream like butter and spread it on the scone first followed by the jam. Whichever way you do it, they certainly taste delicious.

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 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!

home made scones recipe cooling on wire rack

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Ingredients

350g / 12oz/ 2 ¾ cups Self raising Flour
1½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
50g / 2oz / 3½ tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar / superfine sugar
230ml / 8floz / 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon Milk (approx)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 190° fan / 210ºc / gas 7 / 375°F
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 with pastry cutters – you can make them as large or small as you like but about 6cm / 2¼” is a good size.
Place the scones onto a baking sheet lines with baking paper or a silicone baking mat 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 with jam and whipped or clotted cream – delicious!

Give our savoury scones a try too