Scones

Firstly, sorry about the quality of the photos here, I took them after it was dark and didn't really think about pale brown scones not being set their best against a pale brown chopping board - oops! Never mind, doesn't affect the taste at all!!

I absolutely love scones, but usually make them with raisins in, my preferred method of serving being a raisin scone warmed slightly in the microwave with butter sliced onto it, and then placed back in the microwave briefly to melt the butter - mmmm, delicious light, warm scone with little rivulets of butter running onto your fingers as you eat. Anyway, since I left home a couple of years ago I don't have a microwave, so have been denied this pleasure. But scones seem to have been popping up all over the place and left me craving my old favourite. Alas, I still don't have a microwave so I decided to try something slightly different. I know that I've recently seen vanilla scones on someone's blog (comment if it's you and I'll link!!!) and thought it sounded like a really good idea so I used my usual recipe and added a little vanilla.

I now tend to think in grams when I bake, but when I first started I definitely thought in lb and oz so this is how my scone recipe is embedded in my memory. I only made a half batch here though, because my freezer is (understatement of the year) slightly full at the moment, and scones need to be eaten fresh, or frozen on the day of making to be at their best. Warm from the oven is even better!

I usually use normal milk for scones (and it tended to be full fat as that was what we kept in at home) but this time, I had some buttermilk left from another recipe so I used that up and let it down with a little semi-skimmed milk.

Scones with vanilla

225g/8oz self raising flour

55g/2oz butter, cubed

25g/1oz caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

142ml/1/4 pint buttermilk (I had just under this, so added a little milk to make it up)

Method

- Preheat the oven to gas 7/210C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper

- Place (or sift if you're not as lazy as me) your flour in a large bowl. Rub in the cold cubed butter until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs without any lumps of butter.

- Stir in the caster sugar.

- Add the buttermilk and vanilla and mix, cutting through with a knife, to combine. Try not to over-mix.

- When just combined (with no spare bits of flour - if it seems very dry and won't pick up the last bits of flour, add a splash more milk, but not much) tip onto a floured surface and pat to about 2cm/1inch thickness. Don't make them too thin, otherwise they'll look mean. Scones don't rise as much as you might think.

- Stamp out rounds with a cookie/biscuit cutter. Mine is 6.5cm/2.5in in diameter.

- Re-roll the trimmings to get the last couple out. I got 6 large scones and a baby from the final trimmings.

- Place on the tray, dust with a little flour and bake for 16-18 minutes until golden brown on the top and bottom. (If your oven tends to run hot, check after 14 minutes or so).

- Remove and cool on a wire rack.

- Serve as you see fit - melted butter, jam, clotted cream - all are great options!

My preferred serving - plenty of butter and some jam, blackcurrant here.

I can't say that I could taste the vanilla, but they were light and flaky and really, really delicious. I'm just sorry that I've had such a long break from scone eating! Needless to say, none of these went to work with me, some things are mine and mine alone ...... mmmmmm, scones.