Spring is in the air and Easter coming up what could be better than serving a traditional cream tea with light and fluffy homemade scones warm from the oven?
Made with just a few ingredients and baked in under 15 minutes, they are so easy to make you’ll never buy shop bought again. Split and smothered in clotted cream and jam (or jam first with cream on top) these beauties taste delicious.
Ingredients
- 225g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 40g butter, chilled and diced
- 25g caster sugar
- 150ml buttermilk (see Tips)
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water (or you can use just milk to glaze)
- Clotted cream and jam of your choice, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/Gas Mark 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and add the salt. Stir in the cubed butter, then using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the sugar, then make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk. Stir with a round- bladed knife to form a soft dough (if the dough seems too dry add a little more buttermilk, if it seems too sticky add a sprinkle of flour). Gather the dough together with your hands, turn onto a floured surface and lightly shape it into a ball. Flatten the ball out evenly with your fingertips to a 3cm thickness.
- Using a 6cm plain cookie cutter, dipped in flour, stamp out 5-6 scones. Gather the trimmings, very lightly reshape to the same thickness and stamp out more scones, repeating to make 8 or 9 in total. Place all the scones on the baking sheet. Lightly glaze the top of each scone with the egg and water mixture (or just milk).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until well risen and golden brown on top. Transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or cold, split horizontally and topped with clotted cream and jam of your choice.
Top tips for perfect scones…
When stirring the liquid into the flour mix, use a round-bladed knife with a cutting action to quickly form the dough.
Try not to overmix or be heavy handed with the dough – the texture after adding the liquid will be a little rough, but that’s just fine – it shouldn’t be smooth like pastry dough.
Shape the dough lightly into a ball with floured hands, then just gently pat the dough down to about a 3cm thickness. Don’t be tempted to flatten the dough too much or you will end up with flat and heavy textured scones.
Press the cutter down firmly with the palm of your hand to give a clean cut each time and make sure to only glaze the tops of the scones to ensure a good, even rise.
You can double the quantities to make 16-18 scones in one go, but as they are so quick to make, you’ll get better results if you just weigh out and whip up a second batch to bake whilst the first is in the oven.
Most large supermarkets sell buttermilk but, if it’s unavailable, use the same amount of milk but add a squeeze of lemon juice – the acidity will give a boost to the raising agent in the dry mix.
Scones are best eaten on the day of baking but can also be frozen. Freeze when cold in freezer bags or containers. Defrost at room temperature for 1-2 hours then warm in a moderate oven for a few minutes, if liked.
To make savoury cheese scones, omit the sugar and sift 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder in with the flour. Add 50g finely grated mature Cheddar after rubbing in the butter. Sprinkle a little more grated cheese over the glazed scones before baking.
For fruit scones, stir in 50g sultanas, raisins or chopped dried cranberries into the rubbed in mixture.
