Oh so British scones - perfect for a cream tea!

Scones are one of my weaknesses. A lot of sweet foods are my weakness but you literally cannot pass up a freshly-baked scone with lashings of clotted cream and strawberry jam. It doesn't get much better than that.

So my presentation skills aren't great but that hardly matters when they taste this good. If you want to try and proper British cream tea, follows these instructions.

Raisin scones - makes 6 decent-sized scones

Ingredients:
225g self-raising flour
50g unsalted butter, cubed
25g caster sugar
75g raisins
120ml milk
pinch of salt
1 small egg

1. Preheat the oven to 200c fan/gas mark 7
2. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and add the butter. Use your fingers to combine the ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. Add the raisins and sugar and mix thoroughly
4. Make a well in the middle of the bowl and add the milk. Using a rounded knife, mix the dough together
5. Once it's roughly come together in a bowl, turn out onto a floured surface
6. The trick with scones is that you don't want to overwork the dough. Fold it over a couple of times and pat out so the dough is about 1 inch thick.
7. Dust the cutter (up to you what size you want your scones, I like them quite big!) with flour and press down into the dough. Don't twist the cutter or you'll seal the sides and the scones won't rise or will come out lopsided
8. Bring the rest of the dough together and cut out more scones until there's none left
9. Beat the egg and brush the egg wash over the tops of the scones. Or alternatively dip the top of the scones into the egg wash
10. Place the scones onto a baking tray covered with baking paper
11. Put the scones into the oven and bake for 12 minutes or until they're nicely golden brown on top
12. Remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool

Et voila, there you have it. Lovely, ever so British scones. Cut in half and spread with strawberry jam or raspberry jam (my favourite is strawberry) and then spread a thick layer of clotted cream on top. There are debates in England whether is should be jam first then cream or cream first then jam. In my eyes, there is only one right way and that's jam first then cream but do whatever floats your boat.

Enjoy with a lovely cup of tea and sit back and think of England.