Classic English Scones

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •5cm round cutter
• •Two baking trays
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Pastry brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven

   Set the oven to 220C/200C fan and put a baking tray inside to heat up. A hot tray gives the scones a bit of help from underneath, which is the kind of small thing that makes the difference between a scone and a good scone. Line a second tray with baking parchment, ready for later.

   The oven needs to be properly hot before the scones go in. Cold oven, sad scone. Don't rush it.
2. 2

   Sour the milk

   Pour the milk into a jug, add the vanilla and a squeeze of lemon juice, and leave it to sit while you get on with the flour. The lemon thickens the milk slightly and gives the scones a soft, tender crumb. It's a small trick I picked up years ago and never abandoned.

3. 3

   Rub in the butter

   Tip the flour, baking powder and salt into a wide bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingertips, lifting the mixture as you go to keep things light. You're after the texture of coarse breadcrumbs, with a few larger flecks of butter still showing. Don't overdo it. Warm hands turn butter to paste and paste makes heavy scones.

   If your kitchen is warm, run your wrists under the cold tap before you start. A small thing, but butter notices.
4. 4

   Bring the dough together

   Stir the sugar through the flour, then make a well in the middle and pour in most of the milk, holding back a tablespoon or so in case you don't need it all. Use a table knife to bring the dough together with quick, light strokes. It should come together in a soft, slightly shaggy mass. If it feels dry, add the rest of the milk. If it feels sticky, that's fine. Sticky is better than dry.

5. 5

   Shape the scones

   Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it the gentlest possible knead, just two or three folds to bring it into a round. Pat it out to about 3cm thick. Don't roll it. A rolling pin compresses the dough and you want all that lift you can get. Cut out rounds with a 5cm cutter, pressing straight down without twisting. Twisting seals the edges and stops the rise. Press the scraps gently together and cut more until the dough is used up.

   Dip the cutter in flour between each scone. It stops the dough sticking and gives you a cleaner edge.
6. 6

   Bake until golden

   Lift the scones onto the lined tray and brush the tops with a little milk. Slide the tray onto the hot tray already in the oven and bake for twelve to fifteen minutes. They're ready when they've risen tall, the tops are deep golden, and the bottoms sound hollow when you tap them. Trust your nose. When the kitchen smells like a bakery, you're nearly there.

7. 7

   Cool briefly and serve

   Lift the scones onto a wire rack and let them cool for just a few minutes. You want them warm, not hot. Split them with your hands rather than a knife, the rough tear catches the cream and jam better than a clean cut. Pile on the clotted cream. Spoon over the jam. Or the other way round, depending on which side of the country you grew up on. Eat them while they're still warm.

Chef Tips

• •Cold butter, cold milk, warm oven. Those are the three things that matter. Everything else is detail. A scone is a quick bake and the contrast between cold fat and hot oven is what gives you the rise.
• •Don't twist the cutter. Press straight down and lift straight up. Twisting pinches the edges shut and the scones rise lopsided, if they rise at all. A small thing that makes a visible difference.
• •Clotted cream is not optional. If you can't find it, use the thickest double cream you can get and whip it lightly. But proper Cornish or Devon clotted cream is one of the great pleasures of British cooking, and a scone without it is just a small bread roll with ambitions.
• •Eat them on the day they're made. Scones don't keep. They go from soft and tender to dry and disappointing within hours. If you want to make them ahead, freeze the cut rounds raw on a tray, then bake from frozen with a couple of extra minutes added.

Advance Preparation

• •The dry ingredients can be rubbed together with the butter the night before and kept in the fridge in a covered bowl. Add the milk and mix when you're ready to bake.
• •Cut scones can be frozen raw on a tray, then transferred to a bag once solid. Bake straight from frozen, adding two or three minutes to the cooking time. This is the best way to have warm scones at short notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 80g)