Well, in my family, we’ve always called them scones as in “John” and I was surprised to hear someone pronouncing them as in “cone” for the first time.  A quick search on wikipedia assures me that the “cone” pronunciation is recognised but it seems that the Scots – who invented these little beauties in the first place – pronounce it as in “John.”

But what’s in a phonetically ambiguous name, anyway?  Even if scones were called “garst-boogers” they’d still taste awesome.

The regular readers among you may be aware of my somewhat calamitous baking past.  I know now, especially after nearly two years of having this food blog, that a major MAJOR ingredient in cooking is confidence.  Baking  still makes me nervous, as mistakes made while cooking can usually *usually* be saved.

Baking is not so forgiving.  So when I set about baking something for the first time, I need to know that the recipe I’m using is  a reliable one that I can trust, one that will hold my hand while I take intrepid steps into dough-land.

Which is why I was so delighted when Nessa Robins answered my call for help on Twitter in finding a good scone recipe.

Nessa runs a wonderful blog called Nessa’s Family Kitchen, where she shares the recipes that she makes every day with her young family of four (four!) boys.  She also runs Killachonna Cookery School, specialising in teaching little ones how to make their way around the kitchen.

I knew she was the right recipe-hand-holder for me as I am a total BABY when it comes to baking!  I tried her scone recipe and they turned out 100% perfect, which for me is a very big deal indeed.

I added a little bit of parmesan to her recipe, but it was only about 25g and, although it wasn’t enough to get the flavour across, it was enough to give them an ever so slightly savoury hue.  Which meant that they could work with a bit of cheese and chutney as equally well as some clotted cream and jam. NYOM.

What you need for Nessa’s Family Kitchen scones (makes 10 – 12)

450g self-raising flour

Pinch of Salt (which I forgot but I guess my added parmesan compensated for that)

25g caster sugar

85g cold butter

1 large egg

225ml milk

For the glaze (which I forgot.  See what I mean about a flustered baker?! I’m terrible!)

A bit of egg whisked with a little milk (I think milk works just as well on its own in case you don’t want to use another egg)

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C/ Gas Mark 6.

Start off by sieving your flour and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl.  Cut your butter into smallish cubes.

If like me, you have hot hands that don’t make for baking, you can use a food processor to combine your flour and butter.  If you have a more delicate paw than myself, then you can rub the butter into the flour until it’s all combined and you have a sort of crumb texture.

I find the food processor really, really useful here, because it takes like 1/8th of the time and you don’t have to worry about your butter melting which could lead to major drama and kitchen meltdown!  And that’s not what we want.

Beat your egg into your milk.

Now (if using food processor) return your flour and butter mixture to your big mixing bowl.  Make a sort of well with a wooden spoon and pour your milk and egg mixture into this space, mixing everything around with a wooden spoon until a rather wet and sticky dough is created.  Don’t panic!  It’s supposed to be a bit wet.  It’s all going to be fine.

On a floured surface, plop out your dough and knead it, but not too much, as Nessa says that will toughen the scones.  You can sprinkle a little bit of flour over the dough if you think it needs to be less sticky, but it should be perfect once it’s had a nice massage.

Now you want to roll it out.  I always use cling film when rolling any dough.  I put it over the dough and then flatten the dough with a rolling pin – the cling film stops the dough from sticking to the pin.  It’s very clever.

Roll out your pastry and using a little perforated cutter, cut out as many scones as you can.  Now roll up the excess dough and cut out some more.  Repeat until you ain’t got no dough left.

At this point, you can glaze your scones with your milky egg mixture.

Pop your scones on a buttered baking sheet, not over-crowding them, and bake in your oven for 10 to 12 minutes.  My cutter was quite small so I ended up with around 15 little scones, which I baked in two batches.

Take your scones out and let them cool slightly on a rack, but they’re pretty much ready to go and be enjoyed.

Best served warm!

UPDATE

Later in the week, I used this BRILLIANT Delicious Magazine recipe for Spring onion, bacon and cheese scones which we scoffed with cheese and chutney.  Amazeballs!

TUNE

I pretty much cannot stop listening to the Jamie XX remix of Adele’s Rolling In The Deep, the original version of which appears on Adele’s latest album 21, produced by Rick Rubin.  The original version is cool but this remix is amaaaaazing.  Love it.

Rolling In The Deep – Adele (Jamie XX remix) – on The Hype Machine

Categories: Baking, Breakfast