Buttery scones

I owe my Mother-in-Law a lot for introducing the Be-Ro book of baking.  This book has helped me a lot and now I use it as a guide for new ideas or even adapting existing recipes to suit me.  One of them is your basic scone - there are so many variations I cannot even start listing them.

Whatever you do, never make scones when your mind is on other things.  I was so pre-occupied with writing for my website I ended up using plain flour instead of self raising and the result was a batch of fancy door knobs!  Here is my version of scone/rock buns which I call buttery scones as they just melt in your mouth.

Makes 6 large scones or 4 large and one huge one for hubby!

Ingredients

280 g/9 oz (2 cups) self raising flour

1 large tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

90 g/3 oz butter cubed (I prefer to use margarine as it makes the scone very soft)

250 ml/8 fl oz (1 cup) semi skimmed milk

90 g/3 oz sultanas (or as much as you like)

Method

	Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (fan 160) and put baking parchment on a baking sheet or tray
	Sift the flour in a wide bowl and add sugar and salt.  Stir to mix.
	Take the butter or margarine and rub into the flour till the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
	Throw in the sultanas and mix well.  Add the milk and mix with a knife to get a wet dough together.
	If the mixture is too wet, just add some more flour and once it has dough like consistency, put on a floured surface and gather the dough into a circle which is about 1.5 inch thick
	At this point you can use individual round cutters or the multi cutter to cut in batches.
	Place the scones on the baking tray.  You can put an egg or milk wash or just sprinkle plain flour on top and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
	To test if the scone is ready, turn it over and tap gently.  If you hear a hollow sound the scone is cooked.
	Serve it warm with jam and butter.

When you make scones as much as I do, after a while you forget about the measures and just make by throwing things together.  It is more fun making scones this way as they get rated on a weekly basis by my husband.  One thing is for sure whatever the verdict there is never any left to throw away!