aiyah! so simple…

the raisins! save the raisins!

The scone is a British snack of Scottish origin. This is the simplest but yummiest breakfast pastry you can make. It is a little crunchy on the outside, crumbly and soft on the inside. The rich butter taste is enough to kill you….

Preparation time: 15 mins
Baking time: 10 mins
Prepares: 20 scones

What you need:

800 ml (3 3/8 cups) of plain flour
70 ml (1/3 cup) of self-raising flour
7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) of salt
180 ml (3/4 cup) of butter
65 ml (1/3 cup) of sugar
350 ml (1 1/2 cups)of milk
11 ml (2 1/4 teaspoons)of baking powder
1 egg + 22 ml of milk (4 1/2 teaspoons), beaten together
half cup (1 handful) of raisins

1. Line your pan with aluminium foil and grease it with butter (or baking paper will do). Preheat oven to 225 degree c.
2. Mix flour and salt together in a bowl.
3. Add in sugar and baking powder, mix well.
4. Add butter, rub the butter into the flour with your hands, till there are no lumps of butter left. The combined mixture should look like breadcrumbs.
5. Add the milk a little at a time and stir till the mixture stick together like a dough (a wooden spoon should do the job.
6. Add in the raisins and mix till they are evenly distributed.
7. Normally people will use a cookie cutter, but i prefer the odd shape of a scone. so use you hands and powder it a little with flour, and remove a handful of dough.
8. Knead lightly to form a ball.
9. Place the ball on the baking tray
10. With a butter brush, brush your egg+milk mixture over the dough, this is to create the nice shine that appears on the scone after baking.
11. Bake the scones for about 10-15 mins till golden brown. Check to see if the inside of the scones are still wet.
12. Remove from oven to let it cool down a little.
13. Serve it warm with cream cheese and jam.

For variation:
Instead of raisins, you can replace it with chocolate buttons, dried cranberries, or whatever you like.