The Perfect Scone - the recipe

OK, I didn’t prepare ALL the different recipes I’d found and wanted to make from books, magazines and the internet, cause frankly, I was quite sick of it. But this last couple of days I have made:

Scones without, with a few, and scones with a lot of raisins.
Scones with milk and scones with buttermilk. (3 different recipes with all a different amount…)
Recipes with a lot of butter/sugar/flour and recipes with not much butter/sugar/flour.

I’ve made recipes which resulted in a soggy bunch, scones that were too dry and fell right away apart, pale ones, burned ones and a couple which tasted rather good actually, but nothing like a scone.
I’ve made light and heavy ones and I’ve experimented with the brushing; milk, buttermilk or egg yolk. (which doesn’t make the slightest difference by the way…)

After 3, I must say, very busy bake-days, I finally came up with a recipe that kind of looked like the ones I wanted - They weren’t close to being perfect yet, but he, NOW it could go somewhere(!)
So I made them again, now with more raisins, a bit more flour (I wanted them to be dry…) and a lot less butter (the previous ones were far to buttery; they had a heavy, greasy smell and aftertaste, I wanted them to be a bit more neutral)

Well, 10 minutes in the oven + 3 minutes under the broiler later…HURRAH !- I HAD MADE THE PERFECT SCONE!

They were light, dry and scrumptiously crumbly. The inside just fluffy and moist enough, with a golden brown coating and a delicious crispy, buttery crust.
Scones with just enough raisins, a wonderful aroma, gorgeous colour and trust me, the best flavour ever.
Best to eat freshly baked of course, still slightly warm, with some (homemade) jam and a nice cup of tea…

The recipe for the best scones ever:
(makes 6 big ones)

- 225 g self-raising flour
- a pinch of salt
- 40 g granulated sugar
- 50 g cold butter, cut up in little pieces
- 75 g raisins (or other dried fruit)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat the oven to 220˚C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, sift the self-raising flour with the pinch of salt, and add in the sugar.

3. Add the butter and crumble this, using your fingertips, through the flour until you have a fine texture, looking a little like rough breadcrumbs.

4. Mix in the raisins and stir in the egg and the milk. The dough will now be very quickly ready. Knead it a couple of times, but don’t overwork it. The dough should now feel soft and can easily be formed into a ball.

5. Divide the dough into 6 round little balls, flat the top and shape them so they’ll be about 2 cm high and have a diameter of 7 cm.


6. Brush them with a little milk/egg yolk (doesn’t matter which) and bake them for 10 minutes.

7. They don’t have their beautiful colour yet, so turn on the broiler for 3 minutes.

8. Now they are perfect. The bottom and outside are golden brown and the inside fluffy and delicious. They can be stored at room temperature for a few days or you can freeze them, but best to eat immediately.

I hope you’ll try them, and agree with me…let me know! :)