Sultana Scones

Update - March, 2019
I was making scones for a high tea on the weekend, and checked my own recipe to see how to make them.  I was horrified by what I published.  If you have previously attempted to make scones based on the recipe I published, I apologise.  I'm sure they would have turned out like horrible soapy nuggets.  I have corrected the recipe and I hope you can forgive me for leading you astray!

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My Grandmother was a prize winning scone maker.  I've been told this from a very early age, and for some strange reason I have felt that this should have ordained me as a prize winning scone maker too. Unfortunately, every time I go to make scones I always have to ring my mother and be reminded of the darned recipe. "What's in scones again?" I ask her. Well you know what? I've decided I don't care what was in Nana's scones or Mum's scones for that matter. Despite my impeccable scone pedigree I've got to stand on my own two feet where scones are concerned.
Therefore, hereby recorded for posterity, is my version of scones!

Ingredients
3 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125g butter
1 1/2 cups of milk (and maybe one extra splash)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place the self raising flour, bicarb soda and cornflour in the bowl of your Kitchenaid.  Grate the butter into the flour, using a microplane if you have one.  The butter has to be really cold to do this.  Carefully turn the butter through the flour to create fine breadcrumbs.  This replaces the old fashioned rubbing in of the butter, which I'm sure would have made my Nana's arthritic hands very tired.

You can add sultanas at this point if you want them.  Dates are a great alternative.  You could add some orange zest to make things extra special.

2. Add the milk to the mixture and stir to combine all ingredients until a nice wet dough forms.  I used the paddle attachment on my Kitchenaid, again, to make it easy on my hands.  But there is a point where you have to put your hands in the bowl to combine all the dry ingredients hanging around the side.  Try not to over work the dough as this will make your scones tough.

3. Sprinkle a handful of extra flour onto your bench top and turn the dough out onto it. Flour both your hands and pat the dough out until its about 2cm thick. Kneed the dough a little, using more of a patting motion to get it into shape.

5. Cut 5cm rounds out of the dough with a cookie cutter. Arrange on a baking paper covered baking tray covered. Position scones up against each other so that their sides touch - this helps them to rise evenly.  You should get at least 16 scones out of this batch size.

6. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk to help them brown.  You could also use melted butter for this.

7. Bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes or until tops have browned to a light golden colour. You'll be able to smell when the scones are cooked!

8. Serve immediately with jam and whipped cream and a nice cup of tea. Try not to scoff the entire batch in one sitting.

Comments

Anonymous said…
These scones are absolutely delicious!

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