Buttery Scones

There is basically two schools of thought on scones - you're either on the dense, buttery side, or you're on the light and fluffy side.

Or you can be me, who is on the side of a magical, mythical scone that is both light and buttery, and exists only in my dreams.

For today, indulge in the buttery scone. The kind that literally melts in your mouth and mingles with the indulgent chantilly cream. I will deal with the light and fluffy later.

Quick - somebody put the kettle on!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour (or the same of plain flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder added)

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g butter, grated (I used a wee bit more for extreme melting texture)

1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

Method:

1. Heat oven to SUPER HOT... we're talking 275C... that's the highest my oven goes, anyway. You want these babies to rise fast and cook through.

2. Put flour and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix.

3. Add butter and rub in with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs, or sand (picture follows, because I always used to be concerned I wasn't doing it right). You could also use a pastry cutter, but I've never had one.

4. Add sugar, toss to mix.

5. Add milk and mix slowly - I used to use two knives and cut in opposite directions as you really don't want to over-work the dough. Now I just gently use a fork until the dough just holds together.

6. Sprinkle some flour on your workspace and put the dough on top. Press out gently until the dough is about 1cm thick.

7. Dip your scone cutter (I use a glass) into the flour and cut out into rounds. Give the rounds a little squeeze and a spin to puff them up a bit to help them rise. (pictured below)

8. Lay them on an ungreased baking tray quite close together. this helps them rise up instead of out! Brush the tops with milk.

9. Bake in super hot oven 10-15 minutes until brown and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped.

10. Top with jam and so much cream you can barely see what is underneath. Oh... is that just me?