Scones

Recipe: scones made with or without cream.

Ingredients

• 500 g white flour

• 3 tbsp. white sugar

• 1 tbsp. baking powder

• 1 tbsp. melted butter or
  50 g double (whipping) cream or
  100 g single (half-and-half) cream

• 100–200 g milk (see instructions 3 and 6)

• ½ tsp. vanilla

• 1 tsp. lemon juice

• 1 egg

Instructions

1. Start preheating a metal baking sheet to 190°C (375°F); otherwise, the scones will stick to the pan.

2. Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder, and put into a food-processor with a sharp cutting blade.

3. In a glass or mug, make 195 g high-fat milk by adding 180 g milk to 1 tbsp. melted butter, or by adding less milk to at least 50 g double cream or at least 100 g single cream.

4. Add vanilla and lemon juice (no need to measure precisely) to the milk, and microwave about 30 sec., until slightly warm and starting to curdle. Lightly beat the egg into it.

5. Turn the food-processor on and gently pour the milk part into the flour part until it’s just blended into tiny lumps of pastry without much dry flour.

6. Pat out the pastry, about 4 cm (1.5 in) thick, and cut out scones.¹ Dip the bottoms of the scones in flour and shake off what doesn’t stick; then either dip the tops in milk before setting them on the hot tray, or brush them with milk after setting them on the hot tray. Bake 15–20 min. until starting to turn gold.

1. Round scones work best. I made my own cutter by punching a hole in the bottom of an empty plastic baking-powder container with straight sides and a sharpish rim. (The hole reduces pressure inside the container so it’s easier to push down and doesn’t deform the scones.)