Big Buttermilk Scones

Jubilee Week! Yaaaaay! Everyone out wearing red, white and blue and the same union jack dress from Primark.
 It's like our 4th of July except, you know, we're not celebrating freedom from monachy, we're....er....doing the opposite and celebrating the monarchy.

Hmmm.

Moving on swiftly! I decided to get into the mood of things and bake scones because they are delicious when served with butter and jam [traditionally, it's clotted cream, not butter, but that's not happening in my household].

I got the original recipe from the Good Food website - it's only minorly modified because I had some buttermilk left over from making Red Velvet Cupcakes for my colleagues and decided to use it here.

The result were really soft, light scones that kind of melted away in your mouth. They were incredibly moreish and sharing them was one of the most selfless things I've ever done in my life. Deeee-lightful!


The best thing is that it's so simple and easy to do you can leave the room for less than half an hour, and then return with hot scones. 

It's an instant recipe for popularity!

Big Buttermilk Scones
[adapted from a Good Food recipe]
Makes 6 pretty big scones    Preparation time: 10 minutes   Baking time: 10 - 15 minutes

Ingredients:
350g self-raising flour [I ran out half way and had to use plain so my scones didn't rise as much] + extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
60g butter, cut into cubes
3 tablespoons sugar
180ml buttermilk
1 egg, beaten, to glaze


Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl.

Add the cubed butter...

And then gently rub it into the flour mix with your fingers [or in a food processor]...

...Until the mix resembles rough breadcrumbs.

Add in the sugar and stir it in.

Then stir in the buttermilk, and vanilla extract.

Generously flour a clean, cleared surface

And dump the dough thing you created onto the surface. Now, remember, you are not kneading the dough [who wants bread-like scones? Ewwwwww!]. Nope, you're just trying to make the surface a little bit smoother and shape it so you can cut scone shapes out of it. So from this...

To something better than this =D

Now, if you use a 5cm pastry cutter, you will end up with about 8 scones. If you use a mug that is about 5 inches, you will only end up with 6 scones. Reading instructions is important.

Before you start stamping out your scone shapes, shuffle the mouth of whatever cutter you're using in the flour to prevent sticking.

Then start stamping out the shapes.

If there's any dough left over, just gently remould it and start stamping again. 

Place them on the baking sheet. It doesn't matter how close they are together, since they don't spread outwards. They just go upward a lot little bit.

And glaze them with the beaten egg mixture. This isn't essential - it just gives it a nice, golden brown finish.

Pop them in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes [the bigger the scones, the longer they'll take to bake]. You may need to leave the room. The tension will be unbearable as the scent starts to permeate through your baking and you'll be tempted to open the oven door numerous times.

But eventually they will be done.

Scones are traditionally served stuffed with clotted cream and jam. I prefer them with a slick of butter and jam.

I would totally have a picture but I was too busy eating them that I forgot....

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