I have 3 baking archenemies –macarons, bread, and scones. I don’t know why but I haven’t had much luck with these three. After countless trials of cracked macarons, flat scones, and yeasty breads, I gave up and had tried to steer clear of these three categories of baked goods until today.

Maybe because it was so rainy and the weather was so sleepy, I had a little “blogger’s block” this morning and could not think of anything good to blog about. As the day rolled by, I started to feel more and more guilty and felt the need to share something delicious with you all. So at 7 pm, I decided to bake. I don’t know if it was fate or pure chance, but I noticed an old cookbook that used to be my favorite many many years ago called “How to be a Domestic Goddess” by the beautiful Nigella Lawson. I grabbed it from the top-shelf of my bookcase, dusted the thick layer of dust off of it, and decided to do a little baking gamble. I told myself that I would bake the first recipe that I found in the book, and lo and behold, it was scones!

After I got over the initial hesitation, I decided to stop being such a sissy and started reading through the recipe. “It sounds simple enough,” I thought to myself. So I decided to give it another try. And the recipe didn’t lie, it was very simple. I breezed through the steps with ease. But of course, it couldn’t be that clear and simple, it’s me and my archenemy -the scones, after all.  After I added a whole lot of milk into the dough at once, like the recipe calls for; the food processor just decided to stop working..just like that! I immediately thought “here we go again!” I would have given up right then but I didn’t want to waste all the ingredients, so I started fixing the food processor. After a good 5 minutes or so, (which felt like years in baking time by the way,) the silly food processor just decided to work again. So I took a deep breath and got on with it, although I knew that the five minutes lost had probably made my dough a little denser than I wanted it to be.

After anxiously waiting for these little round balls of buttery delights to rise and takes it golden brown color, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the results. For once, I baked scones that looked like scones! And tasted better than most generic scones out there! They were actually very buttery and delicious, especially when eaten warm with clotted cream. Although the texture was a little denser and less crumbly that my idea of “the perfect scone,” it was good enough to turn my archenemy to my soon-to-be go-to tea time dessert.

So here’s the recipe for you all!

Lily’s Scone– Taken from “How to be a Domestic Goddess” by Nigella Lawson

You will also need:

2 1/2-inch crinkle-edged round cutter

1 baking pan, lightly greased

1. Preheat the oven to 425˚ F./ 220 ˚ C.
2. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar into a large bowl.

   

   

   Add the salt, baking soda, and cream of tar tar

3. Rub in the fats till the mixture goes like damp sand. (I use the food processor)

   

4. Add the milk all at once, mix briefly – briefly being the operative word – and then turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly to form a dough. (This was when my food processor decided to die on me.)

   

5. Roll out to about 1 to 1 1/4 inch/ 3 cm. thickness.

   

   

   

6. Dip the cutter into some flour, then stamp out at least 10 scones. (I used a smaller cutter and rerolled a couple of times here)

   

7. Place on the baking sheet then brush the tops with the egg wash.

   

   

8. Put in the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until risen and golden.

   

Makes 12.

Notes:

Always eat freshly baked, preferably still warm from the oven, with clotted cream and jam, or, my favorite, Thunder and Lightening, which is clotted cream and molasses.

Add 3 ounces raisins or golden raisins for fruit scones, or, something I’m keen on, use the same amount of dried sour cherries, with or without the finely grated zest of 1/2 an orange. To make cheese scones, add 3 ounces of sharp Cheddar, grated.

Bon Appétit!

Edit: Translated version –

สโคนส์ของลิลลี่ – สูครจาก ไนเจลล่าลอว์สันค่ะ

• เปิดเตาอบไว้ที่ 425°F/ 220 °C
• ร่อนแป้ง เบคกิ้งโซดา เกลือ และ ครีมออฟทาร์ทาร์เข้าด้วยกันในถ้วยใบใหญ่
• ใส่ส่วนไขมันและผสมให้เข้ากัน จนเนื้อส่วนผสมเหมือนทรายเปียกๆ
• ใส่นมทั้งหมดในคั้งเดียว และผสมแค่พอให้เข้ากัน
• เตรียมโรยแอป้งลงบนพื้นผิวที่จะใช้นวด และเริ่มนวดส่วนผสมเมื่อกี้จนเป็นก้อน
• คลึงให้แผ่ออกจนมีความหนา 3 cm
• โรยแป้งลงบนแม่พิมพ์ ก่อนนำมาตัดเป็นวงกลมๆ ควรได้ 10 วงค่ะ
• นำวางลงถาดที่ทาไขมันไว้ แล้วทาหน้าด้วยส่วนผสมของไข่
• อบ 10 นาที หรือตน ฟู และ มีสีเหลืองทอง
• ควรทานอุ่นๆคู่กับ clotted cream และแยม ค่ะ