traditional teatime
"stay for tea and i'll just make some scones"
and hey presto a little while later -
smelling, looking and tasting just delicious,
sometimes plain butter scones served with homemade jam and lashings of cream,
other times fruit scones served with butter -
and needless to add to complete teatime, out came the wonderfully familiar tins storing a 'cut-and-come again' fruit cake, maybe a Victoria sponge and shortbread biscuits too "I made them just in case you came by" - I'm lucky enough to have inherited her cake tins and precious cookbook and now I'm baking too, using her timeless recipes ...
nanna's butter scones
300g plain flour
25g baking powder
100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
200ml milk
1 egg
100g vanilla sugar
* for fruit scones, add 50g sultanas
preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6
sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl
add butter and rub it into flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
* add sultanas now if you're making fruit scones *
warm milk in saucepan over a gentle heat -then remove from stove, whisk egg and sugar into the warmed milk and pour the liquid into the flour, mixing it all together
leave dough to stand for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface
and knead it together to form a smooth ball.
roll out the dough into a rectangular about 1.5cm thick, cut out 12 scones, using a 6cm cutter and place them upside down onto a floured baking tray, lightly dust the scones with some more flour,
then leave them to stand for a further 10 minutes before cooking
to give the baking powder begin to act like yeast does to bread
cook the scones in the preheated oven until golden brown for about 12 minutes
serve them just with butter, jam and maybe some cream
just delicious, thank you Nanna x