Recipe: English scones

Speaking of baking scones, this is my English scone recipe.  It does work, I'm baking it on Wednesday for Christmas dinner at a friend's house.

Makes about 15 scones and one runty little test scone

• 1 pound of flour (I used half wheat flour and half wheat pastry flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar (not necessary if you use white flour)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 generous teaspoon of nutmeg, or 2 teaspoons
• 6 oz baking raisins, or chopped dried cherries, or chopped dates
• 4 oz butter
• 4 oz sugar
• up to 300 ml of milk

Sift flour into a bowl, add salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and cream of tartar and mix.  Rub butter into flour until mix looks like bread crumbs.  Add sugar and mix again.

Stir in the raisins/cherries/dates, make sure they are evenly distributed.  Mix in milk slowly with a fork until you have a springy, slightly sticky, dough. You won't need all of the milk.

On a floured surface, roll out to 1/2 inch thick, cut into 2in rounds and put on a greased baking tray. Brush tops with the leftover milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450F for 20 minutes, they should be golden brown on top.  Eat with butter and strawberry jam or honey at around 3pm, with a mug of hot tea with milk.