strawberry and cream scones

It's Wimbledon season which can mean only one thing... it's time for strawberries and cream! Clichéd food blogger sitting right here.

There's little I love more in the summer than watching Roger Federer run about on a tennis court whilst I eat strawberries and cream from the comfort of my sofa. The only problem is when he does a shirt change as I run the risk of spilling food down my front due to the excitement. Anyway, I digress.

If I can stop myself from eating all the strawberries and cream as they are, I like to put them in scones. Add a dusting of icing sugar on top and the scones transform into something rather luxurious.

There's not much else I can really say about strawberry and cream scones, it's just a really good thing which everybody should make in the summer. I have a tendency to spread a lot of strawberry jam on my scone. What can I say, I like a bit of scone with my jam.

Scone-making used to be a skill which eluded me. I usually left them for my Mum to make as mine never turned out quite right. It's that balance of giving the mixture a light fold without over handling it. However, last year I became determined to master scone-making and after some practise, mostly making cheese scones to eat along with homemade soup, I think I've just about cracked it. :)

For my scones I used my Granny's recipe, which is this recipe but minus the dates. Mmmm date scones. Perhaps I need to bake another batch...

Strawberry and cream scones... again!

It's only been a few weeks since I last featured scones but when strawberries are in season this is one of my favourite ways to enjoy them.

Unlike last time, I actually made these scones! I had mentioned that for some reason I find it difficult to make good scones so Gem offered her favourite scone recipe for me to try out.

I am pleased to report that they were a success! They were so lovely and fluffy fresh from the oven. Thank you Gem! I'll definitely use this recipe again.

You may also notice that I've been on a labelling frenzy this week. My blog was terrible to navigate in terms of looking for recipes with particular flavours or ingredients in mind. Hopefully this will be much more organised.

It is also interesting to see what I bake most. True to my blog title, cake is what I bake most and I appear to be a big fan of buttercream! I was also genuinely surprised by how often I bake with chocolate as I honestly didn't think I used it that often. Unsurprisingly, lemon was the next most popular.

Scones

Recipe from Gem, with permission to blog.

450g self-raising flour

100g butter, slightly soft

50g caster sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

About 250ml milk

Preheat the oven to 220C and grease a baking tray. In a large bowl rub together the flour, butter, sugar and baking powder using your fingers until the butter is all mixed in. Add milk gradually and stir together using a knife to cut through and bring together to avoid overworking it. Plonk onto a floured surface and cut out your scones. Don't twist the cutter! Brush with a beaten egg yolk and bake for about 12 minutes depending on the size of your scones. 

Strawberry and cream scones

Wimbledon has started, get the strawberries and cream out! How are you eating yours? I put mine in some scones.

I have a confession though, I didn't bake these. My Mum is chief scone maker in this household. Mine never turn out as lovely so I just leave her to it and enjoy eating them.

I really enjoy eating them. Perhaps too much. They're quite dinky so it's very easy to eat multiples!

Anyone else excited about Wimbledon? Who are you supporting? I'm a bit of a Federer fan myself :)

Date scones

Mum said she would make some date scones today and I held her to it. I've had plain, chocolate chip and sultana scones before, but never dates so I was pretty excited about it.

I ate mine plain, fresh out the oven (definitely the best way) but we put some jam in Dad's scone to go with his coffee. Unfortunately we nearly burned the first tray of scones because we got distracted by the tv.

I also baked a batch of sticky toffee cupcakes for Bonfire Night. They were so good, almost too good because they all disappeared before I could take a photograph! The recipe was from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book and I'll definitely be making them again.

Other than the sticky toffee cupcakes, I really enjoyed the sparklers on Bonfire Night. My camera took some pretty funky photos on a slow shutter speed. The first one is a heart shape I made and the second one is with my cousin.

Date scones
Recipe from Mum's baking book, so probably from Granny.

3/4lb (340g) self-raising flour
3oz (85g) butter or marg.
3oz (85g) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
a little milk
handful of chopped dates.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and line two oblong trays with baking parchment. Rub together the flour and butter until it has a breadcrumb texture. Add the other dry ingredients and then the egg, mixing together with a knife. Add a little milk until the mixture is fairly stiff and then add anything extra such as a handful of chopped dates or sultanas. Press the mixture out with your hands to roughly half an inch in thickness (just over a 1cm) on a floured surface and cut out your scones. My cutter was just over 2 inches in diameter (5 or 6cm) and made just over 20 scones. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until risen and lightly golden on top.

Sunday scones

I intended to get up this morning and bake some scones to take over to my Aunty's as a belated birthday treat. I slept in but when I went downstairs I discovered Mum had baked some for me! Mum doesn't bake very often, but when she does it's always damn good.

 I arrived just in time to fill the scones with cream and strawberries.

Not so successful scones

I noticed we had pears in the fruit bowl this week so I saw it as a perfect opportunity to try out this scone recipe from my Avoca book. It's not a very sugary scone (don't know if that's a good or a bad thing?) and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't taste the pear.

What confused me about the recipe was that it said they would take 15-20 minutes in the oven at gas mark 3. I always thought scones needed a high oven temperature, but I followed the recipe. After 30 minutes they were only just starting to turn golden, so I whacked it up to gas mark 6 to cook the second tray.

Later update: The scones have gone solid, I don't know why. I was very aware of not over working the dough and if I had put any more milk in the mixture it wouldn't have rolled out properly. I think I'll stick to my usual scone recipe in the future.