Scones

I love scones. No, seriously, I love them. Warm from the oven with a bit of raspberry jam and some whipped cream - my idea of heaven. I've searched long and hard for the perfect recipe, and I *think* I might just have found it.

50g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting 

40g cold, unsalted butter 

25g golden unrefined caster sugar 

1 large egg with enough buttermilk to make 150ml of liquid

a little egg and milk for brushing to glaze, if using 

Its a Nigel Slater recipe, from the Sainsbury's website. Kudos. 

I read once that you should heat the baking tray before putting the scones on it, so as to give them the best start. I think that this might work. Just, when I've done this, I do get taller scones than when I don't. So, turn the oven on now and put the baking sheet in. You'll need to get it very hot - 220 degrees.

Sift the flour and rub in the butter. Add the sugar and a smattering of raisons if you like these. Mix with the liquids and turn onto a floured suface and knead enough to bring it all together (about 30 seconds). Flatten to about 2.5cm high and cut into rounds. Put them on the warmed baking try and bake for about 15 mins. 

Every recipe I read for scones claims that I should yield about 12 scones from it. I’ve found this to be a load of poppycocks. I got 5 scones from this.

Three of the five scones

Something handy I discovered is my efforts to make cleaning up after myself as painless as possible, is to do the kneading on a sheet of baking/greaseproof paper. I make the most of the paper by recycling this for the baking - put the greaseproof paper on the hot baking sheet and lay the scones on this for baking. Tidying = minimal and you won't spend ages scraping dough from the counter top.