Recipe details

Scones

Scones

Easy

Contains allergens

Cereales con glutenLecheHuevos

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Preparation time
42 min
Servings
8

Summary

Tall, tender British scones, ready in half an hour, split by hand and spread with clotted cream and strawberry jam. The heart of an afternoon cream tea.

Ingredients

8 servings
Add to Bring!
  • 350 g Wheat flour (plus extra for dusting)
  • 175 ml Milk (whole)
  • 1 u Egg (beaten, to glaze)
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
  • 3 tablespoons Caster Sugar
  • 85 g Unsalted Butter (well chilled, diced)
  • 200 g Clotted Cream (clotted cream, to serve)
  • 200 g Jam (strawberry, to serve)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C with the baking tray inside, so the scones get heat from below straight away.

    10 min

  2. Warm the milk for a few seconds, without letting it get hot, add the lemon juice and leave it to stand: it will curdle slightly, like home-made buttermilk.

    5 min

  3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Stir in the sugar.

    5 min

  4. Make a well in the centre, pour in most of the milk and mix with a table knife until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms; add the rest of the milk if there are dry patches.

    3 min

  5. Tip the dough onto a floured surface, fold it over itself two or three times to smooth it and pat it out with your hands to 3 cm thick. Cut out 5 or 6 cm rounds, pressing straight down without twisting the cutter. Gently gather the trimmings and cut more.

    5 min

  6. Brush only the tops with beaten egg, as any that drips down the sides stops them rising straight, and transfer them to the hot tray on baking paper.

    2 min

  7. Bake until risen and golden. Leave to cool slightly on a wire rack, covered with a tea towel if you like soft crusts.

    12 min

  8. Serve warm, split in half by hand, with the clotted cream and jam in whichever order you prefer.

Notes

Handle the dough as little as possible and with cool hands: the less you work it, the higher they rise and the more tender they are. Cut with a floured cutter and don't twist it, or they will rise lopsided. The cream tea order is hotly debated in England: in Devon the cream goes on first, then the jam; in Cornwall it's the other way round, jam on the warm scone and cream on top. Clotted cream is a very thick cream from those two counties; if you can't find it, use mascarpone loosened with a little cream, or very stiffly whipped cream. Scones freeze well and revive in a few minutes in the oven.

More information

Guide indicatorsDifficulty, quality and data reliability

Guide indicators

Estimated difficulty48/100
Recipe completeness60/100
Nutrition reliability
Medium

Calculated automatically from the ingredients, steps, time and community feedback. They are not a guarantee.

StorageKeeps 2 days in the fridge
Cuisine: BritishKeeps 2 days in the fridgeFreezer friendlyGood for batch cooking

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