Scones

I always have scones at the best times. 

We had scones at Hilsdon's birthday and on the day we signed our house contract. I always have them on holiday in Cornwall and when we go to National Trust houses (History nerd for the win).

And because I'm so gluten free and awkward, when I fancied scones this week I had to make some myself. 

CUE BAKING.

I used a Delia recipe, similar one can be found here except she doesnt say buttermilk or egg in her book. So here we go...

What you need:

225g of self raising flour

75g of butter

1 and a half tablespoons of caster sugar

1 pinch of salt

150ml of milk

And what to do...

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl. Rub in the butter.

3. Add the caster sugar and the salt. Stir it in

4. Add the milk a bit at a time and stir it with a knife. (I'd never stirred with a knife before. Was a new and interesting experience.) You may not need to add all the milk, at least I didnt, because the mixture might be sticky enough without it. Use some logic, you can't cook without it. 

5. Liberally dust a board and a rolling pin with flour and roll out your pastry. REALLY THICKLY. Delia says never less than 2cm thick. BELIEVE HER because I misjudged it and ended up with mini half scones. Which are super cute, but not hefty enough for my taste in scones. 

6. Cut your scones out with a pastry cutter or a thick biscuit cutter or, if you're really stuck, use the rim of a small glass. 

7. Place the soon-to-be-scones on a greased baking sheet on a tray, dust with a little flour and place them in the oven for about ten to fifteen minutes until they're lightly golden brown.

8. ENJOY. With sunshine, tea, jam and clotted cream. 

(I follow the Cornish method of making up scones - jam first, then cream because you SPREAD jam and you PUT cream. Whereas silly old Bryony does it wrong. Or the Devon way. Which involves cream first then jam. Because apparently, cream is like the butter. I prefer my way because you can get away with more cream. But ultimately, it's your call...)

And yes, from the melty clotted cream on my scones, you can see that the weather has been SUPER lovely down south. A bit too hot for me (our car thermometer hit 36 degrees celcius earlier this week) but it makes a change...

Sunny Sunday with the Madre, as you do.

I made this tonight, after a lovely sunny London day, involving random medieval art, cats in flatpack furniture and the Cutty Sark.

The Cutty Sark. (Plus bunny shaped cloud.)

And then we came home and I maaaaade Glamorgan Sausages with Red Onion and Chilli Relish. Courtesy of the Hairy Bikers. AND IT WAS AWESOMMEEE.

That recipe shows you how to make the stuff on the left. I'd write it out again but I didn't actually change anything because this was a new one to me... Okay, I maay have mucked about a bit with most of the quantities but I'm pretty sure the original recipe is miles better. 

All that was served with rocket leaves aaand roast potatoes. A la my Madre.

They look so crunchyyyy.

The trick is to peel em, boil em til they're ready to eat then you roast em. Put them in a deep oven tray, drizzle them with plenty of olive oil and then cook them at 200 degrees celsius for about an hour. Every now and then, take the tray out, give them a shuffle around and a bit more olive oil and they'll be as crunchy as anything. Simple really...