Sunday 13 January 2013

Scones with jam and cream

Note: To make this a completely salicylate friendly treat replace the strawberry jam and strawberries with some  Hank's pear and vanilla jam.

Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbs caster sugar (not necessary)
80g butter, cubed, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
Extra plain flour

Method:
Turn the oven on to 220 degrees celcius.  Sift the flour and baking powder twice.  Place the softened butter, flour mixture into a mixing bowl and use finger tips to blend together until it resembles bread crumbs.  This is a good time to get help but the way warm little hands like to get in there and enjoy this tactile experience will mean your scones aren't as fluffy as they might otherwise be.
Make a well in the center and pour the milk and sugar (if using it) in all at once.  Use a butter knife in a scraping and cutting motion to drawn the flour mixture in from the sides and slice through the center of the mixture making sure you only mix until the mixture has just come together.
Tip it out onto a clean and lightly floured work surface and bring together with your palms, do not knead the mixture.  Just bring it together and use your palms to gentle pat it down to be a two cm thick rectangle.
Use a circular cookie cutter or thin rimmed glass that has been dusted with flour to cut as many scones as you can out of this lot.  Bring together left over bits very gently, the more you handle it the denser they are, and cut out the rest.
Put in the lined trays close together and use a pastry brush or finger tips to paint the tops with milk, if you paint down the sides they won't rise properly.  Cook for about 10 minutes.
(Makes about a dozen to eighteen scones. )
Serve with jam, cream and strawberries.

Chantilly cream
200 ml thickened cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbs castor sugar

Place all in a bowl together and whisk until the cream is thick and fluffy.