Light and Fluffy Buttermilk Scones

 

A typically English cake from a typically English girl!

Hi everyone! Nicky here, calling in from Kitchen Sanctuary. I’m so excited to be sharing my first post with as you as one of Lucy’s creative contributors. Lucy has the most amazing blog, beautiful house (I’m very envious, sitting here in my little 3-bedroom semi-detached in Cheshire) and of course, she also has the most amazing heart.

I was delighted when she contacted me to ask me to become a contributor. I nearly bit her arm off accepting the opportunity!

I thought I’d start off with some good old traditional English Scones.

 

Before we get into the recipe though, I’m interested to know how you pronounce scones. 

Scones as in ‘ones’ or scones as in ‘cones’.  It’s an endless debate in our house, as I use the first pronunciation and my husband Chris, pronounces it the second way. Neither of us will ever back down, and our poor kids have even started using it as a tool to get brownie points (‘mummy I love your sc-ones, please may I have one?’ Or ‘Daddy, it’s definitely s-cones isn’t it.  Shall we watch Lego movie now?’).

Of course, that’s nothing to the age-old argument between Devon and Cornwall (the two southern UK counties that are most famous for selling the ‘cream tea’ as they call it). The population of Devon firmly believes that the clotted cream should be spread on first, followed by the jam (jelly). Whilst those from Cornwall go for jam first and then cream. You can see from the pictures whose side I’m on.

All of these arguments over a little cake (which you could actually argue is a sweet bread, rather than a cake…).

 

 

Ingredients:

Makes 9-10 large scones

3 + ¾ cups (450g) self-raising flour (if you can’t find self-raising flour, then replace with all-purpose flour plus 2 level tablespoons of baking powder and an extra ¼ tsp salt), plus extra for dusting

¼ tsp salt

7 tbsp cold butter, diced

½ cup minus 1 tbsp (85g) golden caster sugar

¾ cup (150g) raisins

1 large egg

1 cup + 3 tbsp (285ml) buttermilk

 

1 tsp vanilla extract

splash of milk

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400f/200c and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Place the flour, salt and butter into a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and raisins and give it a quick mix.
2. Break the egg into a small bowl, give it a quick whisk with a fork and then pour it into the flour mixture – reserving 1 tbsp of it for glazing the scones later.
3. Add in the ¾ of the buttermilk and the vanilla extract and use a round ended knife to work the mixture together. Add the rest of the buttermilk and work in gently until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. Don’t overwork, or you’ll get tough scones.
4. Tip out the dough onto a floured surface and flatten it out with your hands so that it’s about 1” (2.5cm) thick. Use a round cutter (mine was 3” (8cm) in diameter) dipped in flour (to prevent it sticking) and cut out your scones. Make sure you just press the cutter down rather than twist it – otherwise you’ll get scones that rise a bit wonky. Gather the leftover dough, gently rework and cut out the rest of the scones until all the dough is used.
5. Place onto the prepared baking tray. Mix the reserved tbsp of egg with the splash of milk and brush the tops only (brushing the sides will impair the rising of the scones) with this mix and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven, leave to cool and serve sliced in half with clotted cream and jam/jelly.

 

I hope you enjoy the recipe, and have a great start to the week!

You can find Nicky here: FB, PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, BLOG