From My Kitchen

Is it scone as in bone, or scone as in gone? Jam then cream or cream then jam? How such a simple food can cause so much debate I do not know, but what I do know is that it’s a scone until it’s gone (I’m here all week folks!). My Mum used to make scones on a Sunday early evening for tea when we were little, and I still treat them as comfort food at the end of a busy weekend. This makes about 14 scones. They freeze excellently and then can be whacked in the microwave briefly and then voila! A lovely warm scone can be yours anytime.

Ingredients

450g self raising flour

80g unsalted butter, room temp

Large pinch of salt

3 tbsp caster sugar

300ml milk

Method

1. Heat oven to 220C, and grease 2 baking trays.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, and add in the butter. Use a dinner knife to start chopping up the butter into chunks.
3. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour, quickly lifting the flour up and pushing your thumbs along your fingers (like a slow motion finger click) repeatedly until the flour resembles fine crumbs. Give the bowl a shimmy every now and then and any large bits of butter should work their way to the top so that you can find them.
4. Stir in the salt & sugar.
5. Make a well in the centre and pour in almost all of the milk, then use a fork to stir and combine. You don’t want to overwork it, but the dough should come together into one lump and not be sticky. Or you might find that it’s way too dry and need to add in the rest of the milk.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently use your hands to form a large disc about 2.5cm thick.
7. Dip a 6cm diameter cutter into a little flour, and cut out the scones – press down only, don’t twist the cutter or you’ll have really funky shaped scones. Repeat repeat repeat, reforming the dough gently as needed.
8. Arrange the scones on the baking trays, sprinkle with a little extra flour and bake for 13 minutes in the hot oven.
9. When ready they should be golden and sound hollow when tapped on the underside. Remove to a wire rack to cool or until you can wait no longer to dive in.

Notes

1. Substitute the sugar for 150g grated cheese of your choice.
2. It’s a scone as in bone. Or at least it is in my family!