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