Ingredients

• 3/4 pound all-purpose flour
• 1 (heaped) tsp baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter or lard
• 2/3 cup milk
• 3 Tbs currants (option)

Directions

1. ETA: What’s in those scones? Currants. …Those look amazing. Would you mind sharing your recipe? I can never get mine to turn out properly…

2. No probs. It’s more a method than a recipe, though if I was going to use a written-down recipe it would probably be this one from Maura Laverty’s vintage Irish cookbook Full and Plenty.

3. So heat the oven to 200C / 400F first (about 10-15 degrees less if you have a fan oven), as speed is required for these — it’s always the secret of a light result in this kind of baking.

4. (lard produces by far the best results if you have access to it. Use Crisco or similar if you must, but the chemistry of it is never right to my taste, and always produces a squishy scone. Butter is always lovely. I have never got decent results from any kind of margarine, so I don’t use it or recommend it.) Whatever fat you use should always be chilled so that it stays in suspension in the flour until the heat of the oven “explodes” it.

5. (approximately: your flour may absorb more or less liquid according to conditions). Buttermilk works even better.

6. You then add extra ingredients as you like. I dumped in about three tablespoonsful of dried currants into this last batch, and added about a tablespoon of sugar to sweeten things up a little, which works well for fruit scones in general. (Bear in mind that I did the above scones by eye: I don’t bother with the measuring any more… since I work in the food processor, I can normally tell when I have the proportions of ingredients right).

7. So. The food processor is the best place to do these, but by hand is just fine. Either sift the dry ingredients together, or dump them into the Cuisinart-or-whatever and whizz them for a few moments to blend and aerate. Then either cut in the fat with a pastry blender, or add it to the mixture in the food processor and process until it gets to a texture like large-grain cornmeal / maizemeal. (If you’re adding fruit, add it after this stage. I like to pulse the machine once or twice to chop the fruit up a little.) Then stir in the milk, or add and pulse until the mixture gathers into a ball. If it doesn’t gather, add a couple/few more tablespoons of milk and try it again.

8. When it’s ready: Lots of flour on a work surface. Turn the dough out. Knead it for no more than thirty seconds or so, handling it as lightly as you can, just until everything is thoroughly combined — turn and fold once or twice as you do this — and then roll or pat the dough out to about 2/3 inch thick (if you prefer a crustier scone, 1/2 an inch is enough). Cut out with a sharp cutter, straight down. Don’t twist. When everything’s cut out, gather the scraps together, knead as gently as you can, pat out again and cut out as many scones as you can from this. Don’t bother with a third knead: in my experience the scones that come of a third run are tough. At this point some people like to brush the tops of their scones with cream, or melted butter, or an egg wash. Your call.

9. Place the scones on a baking sheet (nonstick if you like, I haven’t noticed that it particularly matters) and put them straight in the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 170C / 350F. Bake them twenty minutes or until they’re a nice toasty brown on top. Get them out of the oven and eat them as hot as you dare with a big mug of tea. :)

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