English Scones
For 8-10, depending on the size
Ingredients:
- 230 g of plain flour
- 2 flat teaspoons of baking powder
- 50 g of cold diced butter
- 50 g of caster sugar
- 75 ml of whole milk
- 75 ml of double cream
- 1 egg
- 25-30 g of raisins, soaked to plump
- 1 beaten egg for brushing
Preheat the oven to 200 C fan/ 220 C static oven.
Sift the flour and the baking powder into a bowl.
Add the cubed butter and rub in the flour with the tips of your fingers to turn it into the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Be patient with this step, it helps with mixing other ingredients later on.
Add the sugar and give it a stir.
Gently whisk the egg and mix it in the flour.
Stir the milk and the cream in a glass. Make a well in the centre of the dough and pour in about three quarters of the liquid. Don’t pour everything at once, some flours don’t absorb as much liquid as not all the flours are the same. You can add more liquid later if needed. With a spatula or your finger turn the ingredients around until they come to a sticky dough.
Drain the raisins, squeeze them in your hands and stir into the dough.
If the dough is too solid, add more of the milk-cream liquid.
If it’s too watery, add more flour. Bare in mind that the dough for scones should be on the sticky side.
Dust a little bit of flour on a work surface and tip out the dough onto it. Dust the dough and your hands with some flour and fold the dough over several times (6-8 times).
Gently pat the dough and roll it from the middle up into a small flat circle, 4 cm thick.
Dust a pastry cutter, preferably 5 cm in diameter (I used 6 cm here), with flour and stamp out neat disks. Fold the dough trimmings again into a circle and cut out more disks.
Arrange the scones on a a tray lined with a baking parchment, leaving some space around each one.
Brush the tops with the egg wash and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, until well risen and golden in colour.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
The scones are best eaten freshly baked, smothered with clotted cream and topped with jam. (They can be frozen on the day of baking if there are any spare).
