Scones – a teatime treat and very easy to rustle up in minutes.
This recipe calls for clotted cream; if you can’t get clotted cream, then you could use whipped cream (but they won’t be as good) and any jam (‘jelly’ for you Americans) will work.
[Edit: I am very grateful to Carole in Washington DC for pointing out to me that I have misunderstood the American difference between jelly and jam. I had made the assumption that ‘jelly’ was the American word for ‘jam’ – probably from years of watching movies that refer to ‘pb&j sandwiches’. I have discovered that in the US jelly is jam without the ‘bits’; which is not so far from the UK definition. My misunderstanding might have come from the UK/US difference between jelly and jell-o.]
Ingredients
- 230g self-raising flour
- 45g butter
- A pinch of baking powder
- 30g sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 140ml milk
and, to serve - Clotted cream
- Strawberry jam
Weigh out the flour and butter into a mixing bowl.
Add the pinch of baking powder and, using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour. Shake the bowl occasionally to bring any lumps to the surface. Once rubbed in, stir in the sugar and salt.
Slowly pour in the milk mixing it in using a knife. Once all the milk is in, bring the dough together with your hands. Treat the dough gently.
Turn it out onto a floured surface and roll it to about 2cm thickness. I use my hand to gently push the dough down. I prefer this to using a rolling pin. Cut out scones, keeping the offcuts which should be brought back into a ball and pressed out again. Keep going until all has been used. This amount should make between 10 and 12 scones (depending on the size of your cutter and the thickness of your dough).
Place these on a greased baking sheet and dust the tops with flour. Bake at 200C for 15 minutes. They may need a little longer, they are ready when starting to go golden.
Allow to cool a little before serving with a cup of loose-leaf Assam tea.
Note: these are Cornish scones and, as such, must have the cream on top of the jam. I also like a thin scraping of butter under the jam; the little bit of salt brings out the flavour of the strawberries. Yum.