I have always wanted to have a go at making scones, I knew they were tricky to make as you have to be quick when mixing the dough otherwise they become heavy and dry.  I had a look at some recipes online and ended up doing a variation of two:

One was a Mary Berry recipe:

http://blog.lauraashley.com/make-and-do/mary-berry-fruity-scone-recipe/

The other was from the Good Food Mag:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4622/classic-scones-with-jam-and-clotted-cream

My Recipe:

Ingredients:

Self Raising Flour 350g (plus extra for dusting/rolling)

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Caster Sugar 60g

Raisins or Sultanas 125g

Butter cold and cubed 75g

Milk 150 fl oz

Vanilla Extract 1tsp

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

2 Eggs (whisked)

I always measure ALL my ingredients out before I start it makes baking so much easier.

Method:

Heat the oven to 220 degrees.

Line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a jug, pour and measure the milk add in the lemon juice and vanilla essence set aside.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, try to do this from a height it will make the dough lighter.  Add the butter and with fingertips only  rub together until it makes a fine breadcrumb like appearance.

Try do this as quick as possible as you need the mix to stay cold.

Stir in the sugar and the fruit. Then make a well in the centre and pour in the milk mixture and most of the egg mix reserving about 2 spoonfuls for later.

With a rounded knife quickly mix this to form a dough, I found if I turned the bowl whilst mixing it came together quicker. This is the hard bit as to over mix it at this point will result in solid scones.

Once the dough has come together empty onto a floured surface and  knead lightly a couple of times (it helped to have my hands floured too).

You can use  floured rolling-pin but I found patting it down with my hands worked best; you don’t want to make it too thin about 2 inches. Then with a floured  2 1/2 ” cutter (mine was fluted as it was all I had but best to use plain) cut as many scones as possible from the mixture, re-moulding the dough each time to re-cut. Should make about 10.

Place onto the prepared baking tray.

Brush the tops of the scones with the reserved egg.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden….

Place on a wire rack to cool, or like me eat one fresh from the oven 🙂

I spread onto mine some homemade Damson Jam.

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