Sumptuous Sweet Scones (Fruit or Plain)

Fresh hot breakfast tea with fruit scones, butter, clotted cream and strawberry conserve.

A Truly British Classic...

I can't say I have met anyone who doesn't love a good scone, whether savoury or sweet, plain or fruited. So I have always found it extremely odd that something that so many people are united behind, also creates so much debate and division. Whether we are arguing who invented the scone, how to pronounce 'scone', or whether you put the cream on before the jam, we proud Brits love to argue about these little golden bundles of pleasure.

Nobody really knows exactly when scones started being made, and nobody really knows which country created them first either. What we can settle on, however, is that they originated here in the UK. They are probably nearly as old as time itself but have gone through an evolution in that time. 

The first time the word 'scone' was used was early 16th century although back then they certainly were not using baking soda and baking them in a lovely oven with an egg wash or milk glaze on top. They were usually flatter and unleavened, cooked on a griddle and were rather large. They would then be cut into wedges kind of like a cake.

Thankfully, sugar became readily available over time and baking soda was a wondrous discovery when in the mid 19th century, baking soda was created commercially for the first time when it had previously been used as a preservative for the 50 years prior.

Now they are lovely, light and butter-enriched and every family has their recipe which is always the 'best'. So here it is, my 'best' scone recipe. You can also find my drool-inducing cheese scone recipe here.

• Makes around 15 scones

• Prep - 10 mins

• Cooking - 15 mins

Let's Get The Ingredients...

• 700g Self-Raising Flour (Plus extra for dusting)
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder (Powder not soda)
• 250g Salted Butter (cut into small fingers or cubes and at room temp)
• 115g Caster Sugar
• 365ml Milk or Buttermilk (you can make fresh buttermilk as a byproduct from my butter guide)
• 175g Sultanas (optional)

Now To Cook...

Preheat your oven to 220°C (200°C fan)

Put the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together. Toss in the room temp butter and, using your hands (really important), rub the dry flour and bicarb mix into the butter. You need to keep doing this until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs or soil.

Put in the caster sugar and sultanas (for fruit scones) run through the mix with your hands to get the sugar and fruit all the way through without rubbing it into the crumb too much.

Now make a well in the middle of this mix and add 350ml (leaving 15ml aside for later) of the milk/buttermilk into this well you have made. Start to mix it together using the handle of a spoon or a butter knife until you are left with a lumpy glue-like mess. Remember, you aren't making a dough just yet you really just want the milk to be soaked into the flour so that you can turn it out onto a surface.

Take some of that extra flour you have for dusting and flour a large surface. Turn the sticky mess out of the bowl and use your hands to scrape it all out onto the surface. Cover the top of the mess with some more flour now and start to squash the mix so its flatter, maybe 3-cm deep.

Now, although you will now have hands covered in gloop and honestly be wondering how on earth this is going to work out, you need to have some faith. Take that squashed mess and fold in half, squashing it down until its about 3cm deep. Keep repeating this step until it looks like its pretty much combined. 

It is super important that you don't combine and work the dough too much else you ruin the texture of the finished product. Having visible streaks of butter and some odd lumps in the dough is absolutely perfect!

Use your sharpest, straightest cookie cutter to then cut out as many as you can and place them on a lined and floured oven tray making sure to leave plenty of space between them to grow. Don't forget you can refold the trimmed bits and squash back down to cut more out. Depending on your cutter size, you should get between 10 and 15 scones. 

Now brush the tops with that extra leftover 15ml of milk and pop in the oven for around 15 minutes. keep a close eye on them without opening the oven door. they should be lovely and golden on top and puffed up vertically with that signature horizontal tear across their middles.

If you are unsure if they are fully cooked when you take them out, pick one up and tap the bottom of it with your finger. If it is cooked, it should sound like a deep soft hollow sound. If it sounds like a heavy thud, then pop it back in for a few more minutes, keeping a close eye on them.

Serve them however you want, but we all know you need a lavish helping of clotted cream and jam with them