3: Scones with Clotted Cream and Raspberry Jam

I first tried making scones on Monday 3rd at Mum’s request: a nice idea about making poor ill Dad nice fresh warm scones to have with raspberry jam and Devon clotted cream. They went horribly wrong and I had no idea why, unsure what steps I’d fucked up in the recipe, which was from Delia’s book. When Mum got in, bringing Tim Rowson the driving instructor (who teaches her and who taught Lintu and is apparently going to teach me) she took a look at them. I did two things wrong: I rolled the scone dough out too thin so the patties weren’t big enough to rise properly; and I put them in the oven on 220 like the recipe said, but our oven is fucked up and cooks everything 20 degrees higher than the setting. I made the second batch of scones Tuesday 4th from this recipe, which I found on the BBC website - I rolled the dough less so it was much thicker when I cut the scones out, and I preheated the oven on 180 degrees to make the scones. They turned out perfectly and nicely golden brown with the egg wash brushed gently across the top. I had the first one, cutting it in half to see it was properly cooked through, and Dad had the second one. Tid had her pick when she managed to come down from upstairs, feeling just as ill as before.

Ingredients
225g selfraising flour
Pinch of salt
55g butter
25g caster sugar
150ml milk
1 free-range egg, beaten for the egg wash

Heat the oven to 220 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar and then the milk, slowly, with a knife to get a soft dough. It is quite a wet batter by the end of putting the milk in, not soggy but damp and sticky. Turn onto a floured work surface and knead very lightly, rolling gently into a ball, patting, stretching; then pat or roll out to about 2cm thick or slightly thicker. Use a 5cm cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet. Lightly press together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use up all the dough. Brush the tops of the thick scone patties with the beaten egg. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until well-risen and golden on top. Cool on a wire rack and serve with clotted cream and jam.