Many of you have asked, so here it is: my no-fail basic scone recipe, so easy my cat can make it. No tedious rubbing of butter, no tennis-elbow-inducing mixing. Nope, I just bang the lot in my food processor and in just 10 minutes I’m done and they’re on a tray ready for the oven. Baking takes a mere 10 minutes too! These are light and crumbly, not doughy at all. A schmear of butter, a dollop of strawberry jam and a generous splotch of whipped cream and you have a pretty-much-instant teatime treat. Anyone for a cuppa?
All you need is…
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tbs castor sugar
small pinch of salt
third cup cold salted butter (80g), cut into small cubes
¼ cup milk
1 egg, whisked
egg wash (1 egg and 3tbs milk, whisked together)
Add the flour, castor sugar, salt and butter to your food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and pulse until incorporated. Add the milk and mix until the dough comes together. The mixture will initially look far too dry and crumb-like. Do not be tempted to add extra liquid, it all comes together in the end. Promise! (You can do all this by hand if you don’t have a food processor. Just rub the butter in with the tips of your fingers.)
Turn dough onto a floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin. Press out scones with a cookie cutter. If you are making large scones (5cm cookie cutter) make your dough 3cm thick. For dainty bite-sized ones (3cm cookie cutter), go no thicker than 2cm.
Place scones on a baking tray sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray, brush tops with egg wash and bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. Serve warm.
makes
8 large
prep
10 min
bake
10 min
tips, tricks and trivia
More options for this recipe
- Add a handful of cheddar cheese or parmesan to the dough. Sprinkle tops with paprika or cayenne after you’ve egg-washed them.
- Add a handful of glacé cherries to the dough.
- Add a handful of mixed currants and sultanas to the dough.
enjoy with
If rooibos is not our national drink, it darn well should be. I love it and Carmien’s range of flavoured rooibos is a great favourite. Sticking with the berry theme, I serve these scones with strawberry or mixed berry jam and pair it with Carmien’s rooibos flavoured with blackcurrant.
It’s available at Pick ‘n Pay, Checkers, Dis-Chem and, in the Eastern and Western Cape, also at Spar.
Tried scones before – it failed miserably every time…. BUT Merlot has inspired me to try again. Thank you for your lovely (and tasty) recipes
Hope these work for you Steph! Enjoy.