Fruit Scones; a classic British tea time snack with sweet dried fruits, ideal with butter and jam!
Hello fellow humans.
Welcome to another instalment of this Back To Basics baking series.
To watch a video version of this recipe on my YouTube channel, click here!
We find ourselves in strange global circumstances, enclosed in our own little spaces for extended periods of time thanks to the vast spread of this nasty Coronavirus. Supermarkets are half-empty and a trip to our local pub or coffee shop is either off-limits or feels morally wrong. On this basis, I’m trying to help out you lovely folks in the only way I know how, with food.
I can’t deliver meals to your door, I can’t invite you over to my flat. What I can do is provide you with simple recipes, made with every day ingredients, that you can use to feed yourself or your family. This series also aims to provide you with tips and tricks that you can carry forward into your future cooking and baking experiments.
If you need to stock up on some stuff to help with those baking experiments, don’t forget to check out my storefront!
Aside from the baking itself, the simple act of creating something can be very therapeutic in stressful times. Taking time away from screens or anxiety-inducing news reports is good for the brain. Using your own hands to make something to eat, and to calm yourself or amuse small children as well, is a lovely use of time.
These Fruit Scones are a perfect example of such a thing you can create with your own hands. Simple, buttery, light scones. Studded with dried fruit for burst of sweetness (or chocolate chips, or cheese, if you prefer). Ready to be sliced open and slathered liberally with butter and jam. Lovely.
You won’t need any expensive equipment or machinery to make these scones. You also won’t need to dedicate much of your time to them either. In fact, you could take a little break from working at home to knock up a batch of these. A little mixing and cutting, just a few minutes in the oven, sliced open while still warm. I can guarantee these Fruit Scones will brighten your afternoon.
If you love scones, try out these Cherry Scones too!
These are a little bit different from your standard scone recipe (hence the title of this blog). They involve a little more butter and a little less milk. This does make them a bit less fluffy but makes them a lot more flavourful.
I also like to make a wider, flatter scone. This provides for optimum space to spread them with delicious things. However, if you prefer to cut these Fruit Scones narrower and taller, then please feel free to do so.
As I mentioned above, though this is a recipe for Fruit Scones, please do take liberties with this recipe. Leave the raisins out. Throw in some nuts, chocolate chips or seeds. Grate in some lemon zest or cheese. Sprinkle in some herbs or spices. Make them your own. Enjoy them.
To make these classic Fruit Scones (or your ideal variation of them), simply follow the recipe below!
Fruit Scones
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: if you don’t like fruit, feel free to swap it out for nuts or chocolate chips instead!
Ingredients
- 225g (1 ¾ cups) self-raising flour
- 75g (5 tbsp) cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 75g (small handful) raisins, sultanas, dates, apricots or mixed peel
- 1 egg white (keep the yolk for glazing!)
- 3 tbsp caster sugar or granulated sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp milk (plus extra for glazing)
Instructions
- First, preheat your oven – 220 C / 200 C fan / 425 F / gas mark 7 – and line a flat baking tray(s) with some greaseproof paper.
- In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until there are no little lumps remaining.
- Add the raisins, egg white, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk and use a table knife to stir the mixture into a rough dough.
- You may need to add more milk at this point to help bring the dough together. It should be firm but not too sticky or too dry to work with.
- Sprinkle a little flour onto a work surface and gently flatten the dough with your hands into a circle at least 2 inches thick. Try to work the dough AS LITTLE as possible, otherwise you may end up with flat, tough fruit scones!
- Use a round or fluted cutter (whichever size you like) to cut out 6-12 scones from the dough. Try not to twist the cutter (this can cause them to rise poorly) and re-rolling and flattening the dough where necessary.
- Once you have formed all of the dough into scones, place them on the prepared baking tray(s).
- Mix together the reserved egg yolk with a splash of milk, and brush lightly over the surface of each scone. This will help give them a nice colour once baked.
- Bake the tray(s) of scones for 13-15 minutes until risen, golden, and firm underneath.
- Allow the scones to cool slightly before slicing in half and spreading generously with whatever you like.
- Enjoy!
