Perfect English Scones

Here's my family recipe for the perfect rustic english scone which go excellently with sweet or savory things like clotted cream and jam or parmesan and spinach...yum... This recipe makes 6 ish

Step 1: You Will Need.....

225g self raising flour (8oz)
55g Butter (2oz)
30g Caster sugar (1oz)
150ml Milk (1/4 pint)
1 egg (maybe...depends on later steps..)
1/2 teaspoon salt

First off, preheat the oven to 220 deg C 425 deg f.
Speed is of the essence so you can't be hanging around waiting for the oven to heat up or you'll get flat, hard scones.

Then, sift all the flour and salt into a large bowl.

Step 2: Add Butter and Get to Work...

Cut up the butter into smallish chunks (2-3cm cubes) and rub into the flour with your fingertips until its loose and breadcrumby. Don't do this in a blender or food processor as the texture will become to fine and the scones will go flat and hard again.

Step 3: Milk It Up...

stir in the sugar if you want sweet scones or not if you don't.

Make a big well in the centre of the flour and pour in the milk.

Mix together quickly with a table knife, NOT your hands, until you have a big gooey lump

Once the milk hits the flour a reaction begins which needs to also be happening in the oven, so speed and a light touch are required.

Step 4: Rollin Rollin Rollin.....

grab the dough out of the bowl and slap it on a floured surface.
Kneed it into a square(ish) about 2.5cm (an inch) thick and the stamp out circles with a cookie cutter.
If you twist the cookie cutter while cutting you'll end up with wonky scones like mine, but I think that makes them look more rustic and cool.
Lay the circles out on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper, giving each one 2cm of room to grow...

Step 5: To Glaze or Not to Glaze??

To finish the scones before the oven we now have 3 options....

1)Brush with a beaten egg to produce a glossy glaze.
2)Dust with flour for a soft finish
3)Brush with milk for a light gloss AND soft crust

as soon as they're glazed, slam them in the oven near the top for 20 to 25 minutes. Don't get curious and open the oven door, you'll just spoil them, let them do their thang.....

Step 6: All Done!

After they're done (tops are brown), let them cool a bit on a wire rack covered with a teatowel. This lets the centres go from doughy to crumbly, although it is kinda hard waiting.

For the sweet ones, serve with clotted/whipped cream and jam. yum.

Other ideas....

For savory, add parmesan and a strong cheese instead of half the butter.
For current scones, add 30g (1oz) currents to the flour.

Enjoy!

Comments

[SK38]

Hi. Salted or unsalted butter?

[GorillazMiko]

Nice, they look good.
They also look very similar to biscuits.

[dancook]

Soon as I get my next hour or two off then It'll be biscuit madness! You really need someone else to take the photos as taking pictures with sticky hands isn't good...... maybe a baking proof camera case???

[technosapien]

Put the camera in a ziplock bag! Keeps it clean, and the plastic shouldn't cause too much distortion if you keep it taut over the lens.

[mmcdermott2]

Just cut a hole for the lens to stick through! :)

[wasteofspacester]

No- biscuits look very similar to scones, given scones were around first. After all, where did a lot of the first 'american settler' cuisine (for want of a better expression) come from? Anyway, since we're talking about scones, a biscuit is what you call a cookie, and the entre is what you have before the main course. (Yes, I have lived on both sides of the culinary fence!)

[Shifrin]

8)

[joanna51]

I love making scones as they're great as a last minute treat and better eaten immediately anyway. Your recipe is really good. Thanks for sharing.

[Jayefuu]

Thanks for the recipe! I made these last night. Added half a tsp of mustard powder and a few handfuls of cheddar cheese. Yum!

[red-king]

 awesome! i like scones....

[mahaahmad]

Thanks alot for a nice and best recipe coz  I tried it before but this one it is veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy nice and I made it for my freinds and they thought I had bought it.

[Lina83]

mmmmmmmm......we might try these scones tmw!!

[amanzi1]

Just a note. There are about 4 and a half oz in a cup when measuring flour. So 8oz is just about 2 cups of flour and not one as most converters say. Those are fine for dense ingredients such as milk and butter.

[Charles IV]

I tried to combine this recipe with trebuchet03's monkey bread recipe because I didn't have any other dough and I thought this would work. The only problem was this dough was to sticky and so I just made the scones instead but I put in to much flour to combat the stickiness but I ran out. In 20 to 25 minutes I'll see if it worked. God I'm dysfunctional.

[Charles IV]

Well they turned out good so I guess I didn't screw it up that bad. Good recipe by the way.

[feeshy]

Mmmm... I normally go for butter and jam, but then that's probably because I'm too lazy to buy cream. For best results, serve with a lovely cup of tea.

[engman75]

Mmmm looks so good! I could eat them all up!

[kirkgilmore]

hi, ive just finished making these. waiting on them to cool :) little thing just, if you are using a fan assisted oven you may want to drop the heat to 190/200 degree c or the scones will begin to burn a little bit. mine are nice and golden but any longer and they would have began to burn. thanks for the recipe, hope the family like them :)

[x.shadow.x.puppet.x]

I made these in heart shapes. And they roxxorz my soxorz. There was too much milk the first time I tried, and on the second go the dough was sticky, but I made them anyway. I didn't put any sugar in, and I had them with margarine after a nice antipesto

Would make again. +10 yummy.

[Skittle]

Interesting. I'd have beaten the egg into the milk before adding, then have used the left-over for glazing. The tip that speed from adding liquid to cooking is important has been duly noted :-) Thanks. (I'd spell it 'currant' not 'current' when discussing dried fruit)