The perfect scone recipe - to celebrate National Cream Tea Day
To celebrate National Cream Tea Day, I have asked one of London top chefs to share their best scone recipe and their tips to make the perfect scone.
Ben Purton
Meet Chef Ben Purton, who is no stranger to afternoon tea after working at some of London’s best hotels including, The Royal Horseguards Hotel, Selfridges Department Store, Hyatt Regency London - The Churchill, Goldman Sachs and The Royal Lancaster London.
Since 2016 he has been a UK Judge for World Young Chef of the Year via the Chaine des Rotisseurs visiting Manchester, Frankfurt, Taiwan and Canada. He was involved in MasterChef series 3 & 7 when the chefs were sent out to his restaurant for their trade tests. He has also met the Queen as he was luckily enough to be asked to represent the hospitality industry at one of her garden parties.
So safe to say - he knows a thing or two when it comes to Cream Tea!
Ingredients:
500g self-raising flour plus a little extra for dusting
150g cold unsalted butter
2 level teaspoons baking powder
2 heaped teaspoons golden caster sugar
Pinch of sea salt 2 large free-range eggs
4 tablespoons whole milk plus a little extra for brushing
150g sultanas if wanting fruit scones
Clotted cream and a good quality jam to serve – not even going there on which one first
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 200°C Fan / 400°F / gas 6, grab yourself 2 baking sheets, a rolling pin and some 6cm cutters
Place butter, flour, baking powder, sugar and sea salt into a mixing bowl and use your thumbs and forefingers to break up the butter and rub it into the flour so it looks like rough breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the middle of the mix, add the eggs and milk, and stir it up with a spatula. If making fruit scones, add the fruit to the mixture now.
Add a tiny splash more milk if needed, until you have a soft, dry dough. Do not overmix / work the dough and you just want it to come together and then, sprinkle over some flour, cover the bowl with clingfilm and place it into the fridge for 15/20 minutes. Perfect time for a cuppa.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until its about 2 to 3cm thick. With the 6cm round cutter, cut out circles from the dough and place them upside down on a baking sheet. Re-roll any offcuts to use up the dough and don’t worry if the last one is over / under size as long as it’s the same thickness.
Brush the top of each scone with the extra milk and bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until risen and golden. Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool. Split in half (see tip) and serve with clotted cream and jam.
Now here is the juicy part! Ben shares with us some of his top tips to make the perfect scone. You want to remember these because these are gold:
I’ve mentioned it in the method but again – don’t overwork the dough and you’ll have a light, fluffy texture that everyone will love.
For a slightly more visual finish to the top – replace the milk with beaten egg yolk and it will go a deep golden colour.
Play with your fruit – dried cranberries work really well but put in what you like to eat and when making a batch, you can split the mix before adding the fruit so you have both plain and fruit.
The perfect scone should twist in half (be gentle), hold its shape on the edges but be super soft and fluffy in the middle. Try just with butter too as this will tell you more about the actual scone flavour before you add lashings of clotted cream and jam.
Don’t need all 16 scones?? Make up to part 4 and freeze them and they will keep for 2-3 months and cook from frozen – just add about 3 minutes to the baking time.
Near Christmas – replace the 150g of sultanas with 150g of chopped up Christmas pudding. Replace the milk with buttermilk for a creamier texture and a very slight acidic taste.
Thank you so much to Ben for sharing! Please do tag any of your new scone creations on social media by tagging the account afternoontealondon on Instagram and Facebook. Happy National Cream Tea Day!