Nigella Lawson – Lily’s Scones
A classic, failsafe recipe from Nigella Lawson, promising perfectly risen scones with what Nigella calls a dreamy lightness.
Introduction
These are the best scones I’ve ever eaten, which is quite how it should be since they emanate from one of those old-fashioned cooks who starts a batch the minute the door- bell rings at teatime. Yes, I know they look as if they’ve got cellulite – it’s the cream of tartar, which is also why, despite their apparent solidity, they have that dreamy lightness.
Ingredients
| 500g | plain flour |
| 1 tsp | salt |
| 2 tsp | bicarbonate of soda |
| 4 ½ tsp | cream of tartar |
| 50g | cold unsalted butter, diced |
| 25g | Trex, in teaspooned lumps (or use another 25g butter) |
| 300ml | milk |
| 1 | large egg, beaten, for egg-wash |
Essential kit
You will need: a 6 ½ cm crinkle-edged round cutter and 1 baking tray, lightly greased.
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.
Sift the flour, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar into a large bowl. Rub in the fats till it goes like damp sand. Add the milk all at once, mix briefly – briefly being the operative word – and then turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly to form a dough.
Roll out to about 3cm thickness. Dip the cutter into some flour, then stamp out at least 10 scones. You get 12 in all from this, but may need to reroll for the last 2. Place on the baking tray very close together – the idea is that they bulge and stick together on cooking – then brush the tops with the egg-wash. Put in the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until risen and golden.
Always eat freshly baked, preferably still warm from the oven, with clotted cream and jam or, my favourite, Thunder and Lightning, which is (as in the picture) clotted cream and black treacle.
Variation: Add 75g of raisins or sultanas for fruit scones, or, something I’m keen on, use the same amount of dried sour cherries, with or without the finely grated zest of ½ an orange. To make cheese scones, add 75g of mature Cheddar, grated.
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