Citrus Scones

It has been gorgeous sunny weather in Portsmouth which means cream teas and picnics by the beach. I’m going home for Easter soon so I needed to bake something that used up all the ingredients I already have. Scones are really easy to make and don’t use a lot of crazy ingredients so they are perfect! My citrus scones use lemon zest but you can use orange if you prefer. Also I used light brown sugar because that’s all I had but you’re supposed to use caster sugar.

Ingredients

250g self-raising Flour

80g butter

1 tbsp baking powder

50g caster sugar

100ml milk

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 egg yolk, beaten

My scones are in the oven as I’m writing this and I’ve just realised they look weirdly white on top because I used a whole egg beaten and didn’t separate the yolk from the white. Baking is all about trial and error but try not to make the same mistake as me! Luckily I could peel off the weird eggy bit and eat those ones myself before anyone noticed…

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/Gas Mark 3.

Sift the flour into a large measuring bowl and combine the butter using your fingertips until the mixture has a crumb like consistency.

Stir in the baking powder and sugar using a wooden spoon.

Work in the milk and lemon zest until the mixture comes together then use your hands to combine completely.

Knead the dough a couple times then roll out onto a surface until around 2cm thick. I used a glass to cut my mixture into rounds. Brush the tops lightly with the egg yolk then pop into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

As you can see mine didn’t rise very much and I think that’s because I only put a really small spoon of baking powder in. This blog is basically an exhibition of the perils of not reading a recipe properly. However I do not care a tot because they still taste lovely!

I like mine with a little bit of butter but if you feel like going mad you can add clotted cream and lemon curd.

Bakers Note: If you’ve read any of my other recipes things I bake tend to burn in my oven BUT this time I put a baking tray on the bottom shelf to absorb some of the heat and my scones didn’t burn! Result!