Sometimes a simple scone, with clotted cream and strawberry jam, served with a glass of fizz can be the romantic gesture that can make Valentine’s Day, if you’re not a baker buy locally baked ones instead!
Ingredients
350g/12oz Self-raising flour, plus more for dusting
¼ tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking powder
85g/3oz Butter, cut into cubes
3 tbsp Caster sugar
175ml/6fl oz Milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Lemon juice, a squeeze
Free-range egg, to glaze
Jam and clotted cream, to serve
Method
1 Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7.
2 Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the butter, then rub in with tips of your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar.
3 Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs, or use a saucepan, until ‘blood’ warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then set aside for a moment to allow the acid from the lemon to slightly ‘sour’ the milk. Put a baking sheet in the oven.
4 Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife, don’t be concerned that it is pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s smooth. Pat into a round, about 4cm/1.5” deep.
5 Take a 6cm/2” cutter (smooth-edged cutters cut more cleanly, giving a better rise.) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, but don’t twist it around, as this can also prevent a good rise, then repeat until you have four scones. Re-combine the bits of dough back into a ball and cut out another four. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.
6 Bake for 10 minutes, until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and clotted cream.
7 If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/fan140C/gas 3) for a few minutes to refresh.
