Oven Scones

Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.

Ingredients

8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter (salted)
1/4 pint of Milk (plus extra to glaze)
50g Dried fruit - sultanas, raisins, currants etc (if doing fruit scones)

How To Make

1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.

2. Stir through the milk, using a knife, to give a fairly soft dough. Gently roll out the dough, on a lightly floured surface, to about 2cm thick. Then cut out into rounds using a 6cm cutter. 

3. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with some milk. Bake at 200'c for about 10 minutes until well risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool. 

4. Serve warm, split and filled with jam and clotted cream.