Foodie Bob

For a while now I’ve been looking for the perfect scone recipe. For me, a scone should be light, well risen (but not toweringly tall), slightly crumbly inside, nicely browned and above all taste delicious!
It shouldn’t be to “cakey” inside and it doesn’t have to be perfectly formed with dead straight sides. Scones should be rustic and slightly misshapen, they should look like they were made by hand, not in a factory.

Cherry Scones

In my quest for the perfect scone, I asked my friends on Twitter, Facebook and CIX for their recipes, tips and tricks. I searched the internet and looked through all my baking books, comparing all the different recipes. I combined everything together and baked several batches, trying different techniques and oven temperatures. I’m not saying the recipe below is perfect, but they are the best scones I’ve made so far!

I’ve found that the key to good scones is more to do with how you make them rather than the ingredients.

The recipe below will make about 5 good sized scones. I found a lot of recipes said they would make 8 or even 10 scones but when I came to roll them out I never got anywhere near those quantities unless I made them really thin. If you want to make more, simply double the quantities.

Ingredients for the Scones (Makes about 5):

• 225g Self raising flour
• 50g Butter (softened)
• 30g Castor sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• Milk (preferably full fat)
• 75g Glace Cherries

To Make the scones:

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and the baking powder.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the bowl


Flour and Butter

3. Using the tips of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. While you are rubbing in, lift your hands up to introduce as much air as possible


Butter and flour rubbed in

4. Cut the glace cherries in half using scissors and put them into a sieve.
5. Rinse the cherries under warm water and then turn them out onto some kitchen roll and pat dry.


Pat dry the Glace Cherries

6. Break the egg into a measuring jug and then add the milk to make 150ml of liquid. Beat this mixture with a fork
7. Get a glass, and put aside 2tbsp of the egg/milk mixture for use later.
8. Next, add the sugar to the mixture making sure there are no big lumps of sugar.
9. Pour the egg/milk mixture into the mixing bowl
10. Using a knife, gently mix the ingredients together a little bit
11. Add the cherries and continue to gently mix with the knife
12. After a short while, everything should start to combine and start leaving the sides of the bowl clean. As soon as everything has come together into a ball STOP mixing. You do not want to over mix the mixture


Cherry Scones mixture

13. Lightly flour the worktop (or wherever you are going to roll out the scones). You should also lightly flour your hands as the mixture is fairly sticky!
14. Take the mixture from the bowl, lightly press it into a ball using your hands and place it on the floured surface.
15. Press the top down with your hands to flatten it slightly and then shape the sides lightly to make a round shape.


Cherry scone mixture on the worktop

16. Lightly flour the top and the, using a rolling pin, start to roll out the mixture. The key is to press lightly and evenly. Roll once, away from you and then back. Spin the dough 90 degrees, roll once again
17. Keep LIGHTLY rolling until the dough is about 2.5cm high.


Cherry scone dough rolled out

18. Lift the dough slightly off the worktop and place back down, this relaxes the dough into it’s natural shape.

The dough is now ready for cutting out. This is probably the most important part of the recipe.

19. Get a baking tray and place a piece of baking parchment on top.
20. Take a 6.5cm wide cutter, and dip it into some flour (this stops it sticking to the dough)
21. Hold the cutter on top of the dough and then quickly press down hard. DO NOT TWIST! Pull the cutter up and place the scone onto the baking tray.
22. Repeat this for each scone, remembering to dip the cutter in flour in-between each scone.
23. Once you have cut out as many scones as you can, gently combine the left over dough, roll it out and cut out again. For the last bits of dough I usually just roll it into a ball in my hands a squash it down a bit.


Cherry Scones Cut Out

24. Heat oven to 220C or 200C for a fan oven
25. While the oven is heating up, leave the scones on the side to rest for about 10 minutes. This allows the dough to relax.
26. Once the oven is hot, use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the scones with the egg/milk mixture you put to one side


Cherry Scones Egg Wash

27. Bake the scones in the oven for about 12 minutes until they are a nice golden brown
28. Once removed from the oven, put the scones on a cooling rack to cool.


Cherry Scones Out Of The Oven

In a case of perfect timing, while I was making these scones I read on Twitter that this month’s Tea Time Treat challenge by LavenderandLovage and What Kate Baked was scones! So after you have made these scones, why not pop along and have a look at some more lovely scone recipes.



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