I discovered scones when living in the UK but actually really started preparing and eating them when back in Belgium. I started to bake scones for breakfast on the weekend when running out of bread; it takes about 10 minutes to pull together, just the time needed for your oven to warm up. We now serve them daily in the café, either with butter and jam or scrambled eggs.
Key to good scones is to do the less. Avoiding kneading the mix too much which will keep the butter cold and less gluten will develop, meaning your scones will stay loose and crumbly.
Ingredients
500g white flour
2 generous tbsp wholemeal flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
16g baking powder
110g cold butter
300ml cold milk
1 egg, beaten
Preheat the oven at 180°. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the butter cut into small pieces, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs.
Add the milk to the bowl and combine with a fork. When it’s all coming togheter, use a dough scraper to roughly form a bowl.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Press into a round that is roughly 3cm thick. Using a well-floured cookie cutter, cut the dough into 5cm circles. Be sure to press the cookie cutter straight down and up. Re-roll any offcuts to use up the dough. You should get around 16 scones.
Place the rounds onto a lined baking sheet. Brush them gently with the egg wash and bake for 16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to let them cool down a little. Eat warm or cold the day of baking.