How do you eat yours????

How do you eat yours?

Scones. Fruit or Plain? Butter or Clotted Cream? Warm or cold?

It is an age old debate.

Okay, so maybe not that old. Or important in the greater scheme of things. But a hot topic none the less!

I eat my scones, (fruit preferably with no sugar topping) cold, with no condiments. If I do decide to have it with something, it would have to be butter (salted) with jam (strawberry or raspberry) Simple.

Now scones are something, like the meaning of life, that I have struggled with over the past couple of years. All the recipes I tried would result in small, flat rock hard scones with no flavour and no joy.

So I decided that I would revert to the home of amazing scones. The Avoca Cafe cookbook. The Avoca Cafe’s are a lovely place to mis-spend an afternoon, or a morning. Or even a whole day if you have the chance. Their baked goods are delicious, but their scones are something to behold.

Now I am not for a second suggesting that my attempt at their recipe hits the very high bar they have set, but they are pretty good if I do say so myself.

You Will need to preheat your oven to 180C and grease a baking tray.

450g self raising flour, a pinch of baking powder, a generous pinch of salt, 50g sugar, 110g unsalted butter at room temperature, 1 egg lightly beaten, 50ml double cream, 200ml milk (you may need a touch more)

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water to glaze.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and add the sugar and stir completely. Add the butter and rub the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the cream, egg and enough milk to moisten the mixture and combine until it has a soft doughy texture. You may need a little more milk but do not make the mix too wet.

Bring the dough together into a ball and turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to 2.5cm/1 inch thick.Cut out using a round cutter (as big or as small as you like) and transfer to the baking tray. Leave about a 2 inch space between the scones.

Using the glaze, brush all the scones before placing in the oven for 15-20 minutes. I found that 16 minutes was enough to get them golden brown.

Allow to cook for a couple minutes beefore placing on a wire rack to cool. You can eat these still warm from the oven if you like. You can also store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days. To reheat, simply place in a warm oven for 3-5 minutes. I am afraid I can’t advise on microwave timings as I do not have one in the house!

You can also freeze the scones for up to 3 months in a completely airtight freezer bag. If you are freezing a couple of them in the same bag, be sure that you reseal it properly before placing back in the freezer, otherwise your goods will end up with freezer burn.

You can also use this basic recipe to make fruit scones. Simply add a handful (approx 100g of raisins, cranberries, currants whatever you wish) when you have rubbed in the butter and before you add the cream, milk and egg.

Butter and Jam. mmmmm

So whatever way you eat yours, use this simple recipe to find out.

I am off to discover whether thick cream and fresh strawberries would really be a taste combination I could recommend on a scone.

Enjoy.

xx