Raspberry Scones
Serves: 10 to 12 scones
Light and fluffy raspberry scones which are incredibly easy and quick to make, served with a rich and decadent homemade clotted cream.
Ingredients
For the Raspberry Scones
- 500 g (3 ⅓ cup) plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
- 6 g (1 teaspoon) fine salt
- 25 g (2 tablespoons) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
- 10 g (2 teaspoons) baking powder
- 50 g (½ stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes, see Kitchen Notes
- 25 g (1 ½ tablespoons) lard or vegetable shortening, or simply use more butter
- 250-300 ml (1 cup plus 3 tablespoons) milk
For the Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
For the Homemade Clotted Cream
- 1 litre (4 cups) double cream, (heavy cream) preferably unpasteurised
Instructions
For the Raspberry Scones
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/430°F (without fan).
- Place a metal tray in the middle shelf of the oven to warm up while you are making the scones.
- Place the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into the bowl of a KitchenAid or stand mixer.
- Add the butter and lard (or vegetable shortening), and briefly mix with the flat paddle attachment until the mixture resembles damp sand. Alternatively, you can do this by hand by simply rubbing the fats into the flour with your fingertips.
- Slowly add the milk and quickly mix everything together. You may not need all of the milk – just add enough milk until the mixture just comes together into a rough dough. Try not to overwork the dough as this may lead to tough scones later.
- Place the dough onto a floured work surface and pat it into a rectangle or circle shape about 3 cm (1 inch) high.
- Cut your scones with a round cutter. You could also use a teacup or small glass to shape your scones. Dip the cutter into some flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it.
- You can make the scones as little or as big as you like, adjusting the baking time accordingly. I use a 6 cm (2.5 inch) crinkle-edged cookie cutter to make fairly small scones.
- Lightly re-shape the dough as necessary, but try to handle the dough as little as possible.
- Arrange the scones closely together on a baking tray.
- Make an egg wash by lightly beating together the egg and milk.
- Brush the scones with some egg-wash.
- Press some frozen raspberries into each scone.
- Place the tray of scones onto the pre-heated metal tray in the oven.
- Bake the scones in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on size), or until they are lovely and golden.
- You may need to test a scone to make sure that it is fully cooked through in the centre. A digital thermometer inserted in the centre of a scone should read about 85°C (185°F).
- These scones are best served hot or warm, but they are also lovely served at room temperature.
- To stop the scones from developing a hard crust as they cool, cover the warm scones with a clean tea towel. The steam trapped under the tea towel will help to keep the scones soft.
For the Homemade Clotted Cream
- Preheat the oven to 100°C/212°F (without fan).
- Pour the cream into a shallow stainless steel saucepan with oven-proof handles.
- Place the saucepan into the oven, and leave it there for 8 to 12 hours, or overnight. During this time, a thick and golden crust will form on top of the cream. This is the "clotted cream".
- Remove the saucepan from the oven and leave it to cool at room termperature for 10 to 12 hours.
- Scoop off the golden crust (or the "clotted cream"), and place it into a sterilised glass jar. Refrigerate for at least a few hours before serving.
Kitchen Notes
- TIPS FOR MAKING HOMEMADE CLOTTED CREAM
* Unpasteurised cream works best when making clotted cream because it "clots" better. However, you can also get good results with pasteurised cream, but you may need to leave it in the oven for longer.
* What would not work in this recipe is ultra-pasteurised cream (UHT cream).
* The clotted cream will keep in the fridge for 3-5 days.
* The cream which is left below the golden crust can still be used for cooking or baking. - USING FROZEN BUTTER
You can use frozen butter in this recipe and simply grate it into the dry ingredients. - STORAGE TIPS
The scones are best eaten right away, or at least on the day of baking. But I find that if you individually wrap them in clingfilm, they still taste quite fresh one or two days later. - FREEZER TIPS
The scones can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer. Simply prepare the scones as per the instructions above until you have shaped the scones. If making raspberry scones, press some frozen raspberries into each scone. I like to freeze 2 or 4 scones together in a small zip-lock freezer bag for easy handling. To bake, simply proceed with the remaining instructions above using the frozen scones (there is no need to defrost them first), but they will require an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven (depending on size). - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer's handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.