Raisin Scones

I had my first taste of scones over 10 years back. To be honest, can't say that I was a fan of it. That scone (and the ones I had after that) was too dry and hard for my liking. So I thought that it's just one of those things that I didn't really care for! However, this changed about a month or so back, when I got to try a lovely scone that was really soft/fluffy. It was really nice! Decided to try and see if I could make one myself that's soft/fluffy as well (pity the place that I had the lovely scone was too far out to get my scones on a regular basis). Did some research, and put together bits and pieces of information from several scone recipes. The result?? Success!! Soft/fluffy scones that stayed good the next day! Yay! Scones anytime (almost) I want them!! *beam*

Raisin Scones

Ingredients:

• 2C self raising flour
• 1T baking powder
• 1C buttermilk
• 2T castor sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 80g cold butter, diced
• 100g sultanas
• a handful of plain flour

Served with

• Whipped/clotted cream
• Jam
• Icing sugar (optional)
  

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 200C.
2. Sift the self raising flour well. Add in the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix well.
3. Add in butter to the flour mixture. Rub flour mixture and butter till the texture becomes "breadcrumb"-ly. Add in the sultanas and mix evenly.
   
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the milk. Mix well. The dough will be very gooey/sticky at this point. Do NOT add more flour as it's meant to stay gooey/sticky!
   
5. Place the dough on a slightly floured surface. Pat it into shape (note: do NOT knead) and use a floured roller to flatten the dough. Most recipes I read call for 2-3cm height/depth. I left my dough about 4cm high as I didn't want to compress the dough too much (less i lose that soft/fluffy centre!)
6. If you have a scone cutter, use that to cut the dough into scones (do NOT twist the cutter). If you don't have a cutter like me, just oil a knife and cut the dough into pieces. I got 6 pieces out of my dough.
7. Place the dough on a piece of baking sheet close together and bake for about 20mins. To check, there'll be a hollow sound when you tap on the top of the scone when it is done.
8. Sift some icing sugar on top of the scone. Serve with the whipped/clotted cream and jam! Yummy while hot!! :)

Hint: You can lightly flour the top of the scone dough before baking if you want to avoid/reduce browning the top of the scones. I didn't bother with this since i figured the icing sugar will suffice. It's pretty as can be and adds more sweetness to the scones. Delicious! Enjoy! :)

P.S. You can also omit the raisins and make this into a plain scone. You can also alter the ingredients and make savoury scones with this. I'll post a savoury scone recipe sometime soon. Have fun with this recipe! :)