Mrs Simkins Heat Wave Scones!

Miss Windsor and I love a cream tea and are in complete accord when it comes to three pressing matters of scone etiquette.

First of all, do you say scone to rhyme with ‘gone’ or ‘phone’?

‘Gone’. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Secondly, do you pull your scone apart gently at its ‘waist’ or cut it? Miss Windsor and I prefer to pull ours apart and happily; this is the correct scone etiquette!

Thirdly, should you spread your jam on first followed by a spoonful of cream or the other way round?

Miss Windsor and I prefer our jam on first but more importantly, so does the Queen. It appears scones in the royal household are always topped with jam first and then cream. 
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Miss Windsor and I prefer our jam on first but more importantly, so does the Queen. It appears scones in the royal household are always topped with jam first and then cream.

Until recently, I didn’t even know there was a Cream Tea Society until Miss Windsor mentioned it, but I’m very happy there is and that they are responsible for the annual National Cream Tea Day: on June 29th this year. 

​I’ve been bending Miss Windsor’s ear slightly this week about the perils of scone making in a heatwave: hot sultry conditions can cause the scone mix to become overly sloppy and scones generally turn out flatter than usual. I’ve adapted my usual recipe and come up with a practically (almost) heat-wave-proof version for summer cream teas.

Toodles!

​Mrs Simkins X

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Mrs Simkins Heat Wave Scones!

Servings 6 but easy to increase proportionally!

Ingredients

• 225g self-raising flour (newly bought and completely fresh)
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder (again, this must be fresh although not necessarily newly bought)
• 40g salted butter, softened
• 25g golden caster sugar
• 1 large fresh egg, beaten, and made up to 150ml with full-cream milk (if this is slightly sour so much the better)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 220C (fan ovens) or equivalent

2. Either, in a roomy bowl, rub butter into combined flour and baking powder and stir in sugar, or whiz flour and butter together in food processor to fine crumb stage and whiz sugar in briefly at end.

3. Transfer to a roomy bowl if using a processor.

4. Make a central well and gradually incorporate the egg and milk with a broad bladed dinner knife until you have a smooth but slightly sticky dough.

5. Keep back a tablespoon of liquid for finishing.

6. With lightly floured hands, transfer the dough to a lightly floured board.

7. Shape into a ball and pat down gently with hands to around 1½ cm thick.

8. Cut out with a single brisk down and straight up again movement. DO NOT TWIST as the scones won’t rise as high.

9. Push remaining dough lightly together and cut out again.

10. Transfer each scone directly to the prepared tray. Keep them fairly close together on the tray.

11. Bake for 9-10 minutes in total until risen and golden. Bake for 5 minutes at 220C then reduce to 200C for remaining 4-5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel to keep them from drying out.

12. For best results eat same day. These are also good with butter straight from the oven.

Recipe Notes

Shippam’s Paste Jars
Incidentally, I always think no proper nostalgic, old-fashioned cream tea in the garden is complete without a Shippham’s fish paste jar of random garden flowers. Happily, I have a vintage one: dug out of the garden of our last home: how lucky is that? I found two of the small ones too!