SCONES WITH VANILLA AND ORANGE ZEST
One of the abiding memories I have of the Garden Parties that I attended at Buckingham Palace, is of the mountains of cream scones and cucumber sandwiches. Forever more, scones will be synonymous with Garden Parties for me. This is my favourite recipe for scones and my advice is to eat them fresh from the oven and never to stint on the cream and jam!
Ingredients YOU WILL NEED:
A 4cm( 1½ inch) pastry cutter and 2 flat baking trays 450g / 1lb plain flour( 3¾ cup) 60g / 2oz golden caster sugar( ¼ cup) 2.5ml / ½ tsp salt 15ml / 3 tsp baking powder 100g / 3½oz butter( 7 Tbsp) 175ml / ¾ cup buttermilk 50ml / ¼ cup milk 1 free-range egg 5ml / 1 tsp vanilla extract Zest of 1 orange
Method
Makes approximately 15 scones
1. Preheat the oven to 220 º C / 425 º F. 2. Sieve the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients using your finger tips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Blend together the buttermilk, milk, egg and vanilla extract.
5. Make a hollow in the centre of the‘ crumbs’, finely grate the orange zest into it and pour in most of the liquid. Add in the remainder later if the dough seems dry. Traditionally, a small round-bladed knife or palette knife is used to mix the dough. You want to achieve a lightlybound dough that is neither sticky nor dry and crumbly.
6. Lift the ball of dough onto a floured surface and knead it just 3 or 4 times to get rid of any cracks, working quickly. If the dough is over-worked it will result in‘ tough’ scones.
7. Pat the dough out to a thickness of 2cm( ¾ inch). Cut out the scones, dipping the pastry cutter into flour each time, so that it makes a clean cut and does not drag the dough when cutting through it. Place scones onto the baking trays.
8. Gather the trimmings, lightly bring them together and pat the dough out again to cut out more scones.
9. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until well risen and golden.
10. For fruit scones, add in 60g( ⅓ cup) sultanas or raisins at Step 5. For savoury scones, replace the vanilla, orange zest and sugar with 60g( ½ cup) of grated mature cheddar cheese and 15ml( 1 tablespoon) finely chopped chives, added in at Step 5; top with a little extra cheese and a light dusting of paprika
56 Society