To celebrate a special birthday in my family last week I did a spot of baking to create a lovely homemade afternoon tea. As it was mum’s birthday, I decided to make her favourite treat cheese scones and some yummy fruit scones to enjoy with jam and cream. The recipe that I’ve used was for 8 scones, but I found that each batch of dough only made 7 scones – but that could be because I like my scones to be nice and thick! I guess the size of the cutter you’re using will make a difference too, and I had a 3-inch cookie cutter to press out my scones. Here’s the two recipes I followed for the two types of scone:
Ingredients for cheese scones: 175g self raising flour, half a teaspoon of mustard powder, 25g margarine, 75g grated mature cheese, 1 medium egg, 2 tablespoons of milk, pinch of salt and pepper. Mix the four and seasonings before rubbing in the margarine and stirring in the cheese. Mix into a dough using the egg and milk (reserve a little for glazing the top) then roll out on a floured surface and cut out rounds with a cookie cutter. Place onto a greased baking tray and brush with the egg and milk mixture and sprinkle on a little more cheese. Bake at 220º for 15 minutes until golden brown.
Ingredients for fruit scones: 225g self raising flour, 50g margarine, 25g caster sugar, 50g currants and glacé cherries, 1 egg beaten with milk to make 150ml liquid, pinch of salt. Mix flour and salt before rubbing in margarine. Stir in the sugar and fruit then mix into a soft dough with the egg and milk mixture, reserving a little for glazing the top. Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut out the scones. Brush the remaining egg mixture onto the scones and bake on a greased baking tray at 220ºC for 10/15 minutes until golden.
We enjoyed our afternoon tea in the caravan (I’ve mentioned in a blog post last week how this is the best place to eat when I have a few guests visiting at once) and I served it up on my new melamine ‘Festival’ plates from The Caravan Trail which were suitably celebratory with their pretty bunting pattern. Mum enjoyed her birthday afternoon tea and we were all full-to-the-brim with tea and scones in no time at all!
