Your scone recipies and tips please!

[Indith]

Now I can cook pretty much anything, I am the queen of naughty chocolate mousse and I have even just about got to grips with icing (being brought up by a froggie mummy does not go well with icing buns!)

But

The perfect scone still eludes me, try as I might I cannot get that wonderful tall scone with a good crack through the middle to tear it in half.

So please give me your recipies tips and tricks because I want to mak good scones!

home made scones are never as tall as the shop ones because they add loads of rubbish and excess rising agents. They usually taste loads better though

Nigella scones are supposed to be tall (I havent actually tried this recipe) but I do agree with oxocube shop ones rise more:

LILY'S SCONES from N.L's 'How to be a domestic goddess'
500g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
4 and 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
50g cold unsalted butter
25 Trex in teaspooned lumps
300 ml milk
1 large egg beaten for egg wash

6 and 1/2cm crinkle edge cutter 1 baking tray lightly greased

Prehaet oven to 220/mark 7
Sift dry ingrediants into lage bowl.
Rub in fats till it goes like damp sand.
Add milk all at once, mix briefly then roll out onto floured surface and knead lightly to form dough.
Roll to 3 cm thick, dip vcutter in flour stamp out ten scones, reroll for last two.
Place on baking tray close together, brush with egg wash.
Cook for 10 min or until golden and risen.

for fruit scones add 75g raisins or sultanas

(I have shortened method slightly but all points are covered).

Old Kiwi recipie

for every cup of flour sift in:

2 tsp of baking powder
Half a teaspoon of salt (though usually I don't bother)

Rub in 25g of butter.

Add enough milk to make a sticky dough, cutting it in with a knife. It usually adds up to about half a cup of milk per cup of flour, though this can be more or less depending on the weather and any other ingredients you've added.

Squeeze the dough together and patt into a slab about 2cm high.

To get the tall scone look, cut the slab up with a sharp knife. If you roll into balls or cut with a blunt knife, they don't rise and crack as well.

Cook for ten to twelve minutes at 220 degrees C.

For sweet scones add 1 dsp of sugar and some currants/sultanas

for cheese scones, add a cup of grated cheddar before the milk.

Thanks people, I shall have a go once I get over the Christmas overeating!