Scones were the first thing The Scientist put on the cricket tea wishlist, so I think perhaps they don't feature too frequently. I've made scones before - usually for The Scientist's parents until at last his mum gently let on that she doesn't like scones - but this time I wanted to find a definitive recipe. Something that would become 'my scone' recipe - the one that people make special requests for. This was all inspired by a beautifully fluffy and soft scone we shared in a tea room in Banbury about two years ago. I asked for the recipe but they said they were bought in, and we've never been back to Banbury since to pursue it. I looked at a lot of recipes and they were all broadly similar - some used milk, some buttermilk, some yogurt, but nothing that made me think that these would be The Ones. The most different recipe was Nigella's in How to be a Domestic Goddess, which used plain flour, and a LOT of cream of tartar. She said that this added soft fluffiness, and so in the end that was what swayed me.
Making the scones was completely uneventful (except that I forgot to add the sultanas The Scientist had requested), but the baked scones were absolutely as promised. Dreamily light and soft they delivered everything I had hoped for, and carried their jam topping beautifully. The cricket club captain's one year old daughter was quite a fan, and they got a lot of compliments from the players too (including The Scientist of course). Truly I will never use another scone recipe again. These are The Ones. I might even try them on The Scientist's mum :)
'Lily's scones' from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess
Makes 12 (I made one and a half quantities)
500g flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
4 ½ tsp cream of tartar
125g unsalted butter, diced
300ml milk
Preheat oven to 220°. Sift the dry ingredients together and rub in the butter thoroughly. Add the milk and stir very briefly. Knead lightly together on a floured surface. [It's important not to overwork scone dough] Roll out to approx 3cm thickness and then cut into 12 scones. [I used a cutter a bit smaller than the size Nigella gives - mine was about 5cm across compared to her 6 1/2 and got 18 out of the 1 and a half quantity dough] Bake for 10mins until wonderfully soft but slightly golden. I left ours to cool before cutting them and spreading with jam to transport to the cricket club. I imagine they would be wonderful warm (I have to admit that I tried a couple of tiny bits that 'fell off' while they were still warm so I don't know why I'm pretending I don't know)
3 comments:
My jaw dropped at that scientist's mother not liking scones - I thought every one liked them (esp in UK) and my family all loves them - shows how narrow my scone experience is!
I have resisted any recipe with cream of tartar because I feel it is is another jar that will get neglected in the pantry - so am interested in Nigella's comment about it - I make scones without it and they are good - I would particularly recommend you try the lemonade/scone/flour scone recipe if you want to try other scone recipes - they are truly scrumptious
I used your recipe for my first ever attempt at scones and they turned out really well except they were a tiny bit salty as I used a salted soy butter substitute. They certainly were light and fluffy. Thanks for another fabulous recipe.
Hi, planning to make this tomorrow for someone's birthday. I bookmarked your website, then discovered that on another 2 websites, the amount of butter+shortening is only 75 grams
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