“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony of afternoon tea. “
Recently, when showing 2 French girls around Howth, we stumbled upon a very cute little coffee shop, and when I saw that they had scones with cream and jam on offer, I knew we had to indulge! They were enamored, stating that there was nothing so civilised in France (the other man’s grass is always greener…)
Although there is an absolute abundance of pastries and sweets in Paris, sometimes all you crave is the comfort of a crumbly white scone with heaps of jam. Though somewhat irregularly shaped given the lack of weighing scales and a seriously unreliable oven, these went down a treat in the Irish College today..
900g plain white flour
170g butter
3 eggs
a good pinch of salt
55g caster sugar
3 good teaspoons baking powder
450ml (ish) milk
Glaze
egg wash (1 egg and a drop of milk)
granulated sugar for sprinkling on top of the scones
First preheat the oven to 250C (you need it hot!)
Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a large wide bowl. Cut the butter into cubes, toss in the flour and rub in the butter. You can also do this is a food processor.
Whisk the eggs with the milk, and then add it to the dry ingredients slowly. Only add as much as you need to bring it to a soft dough.
Turn out the blob of dough onto a floured surface. Knead the mixture lightly, just enough to shape into a round. Roll out to about 1 inch thick and cut out scones using a cup or a cutter. Pop them on a floured baking sheet – no need to grease.
Brush the tops with egg wash and dip each one in granulated sugar (this is key – it makes an ordinary scone an absolute treat!)
Bake in a hot oven for around 12 minutes until golden brown on top.
Cool on a wire rack (if you can hang on that long) Serve split in half with raspberry jam and a blob of whipped cream.
