7 June, 2015
Scones
The name sounds so Italian. But don’t be mistaken. They are British! And whatever you would want to say about British cuisine, the famous beef in mint sauce, please take it back! This is a perfect example of a wonderful thing coming from this rainy island! Now imagine the English queen having them at tea-time. Oh, so fancy!
And (once again) they are fairly easy and quick to make, and I find it more convenient (and just as quick) to make a pan of scones, than going to the closest (good) bakery for fresh breakfast bread. But I guess it depends on where you live and how picky you are about what the local baker is offering…
Make sure you only bake what you can eat the same day, they are no good the next day.
Traditional scones are made with baking powder. I sometimes replace it with powder yeast, and let them rise a bit before baking. They don’t rise as much as on baking powder and I guess they are no longer scones if I do that, but I sometimes prefer the dense yeast cake than baking powder one. Especially for breakfast.
Ingredients
- 280g flour
- 60g cold butter
- 40g sugar
- 50g raisins
- 1 egg
- 160 liquid cream
- 12g of chemical yeast (baking powder)
- 1 large pinch of salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 220°C with a baking tray inside.
- In a big bowl mix the flour, yeast and salt. Cut the butter into pieces, place on the flour, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs
- Add the raisins and fold them in
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with sugar, until it gets creamy
- Add the cream, and whisk again.
- Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a rubber spatula.
- Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 2-3cm deep.
- Use a 5cm cutter to get round scones.
- Brush the tops with some cream, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.
- Bake for 14 minutes until risen and golden on the top.
- Serve with butter and jelly.
