In New Zealand, Australia and the UK scones are a part of our food culture. I think the common word for them in America is biscuits. We call cookies biscuits so it all takes a bit of getting use to.

The good thing about them is they don’t have lots of butter or sugar however they do have white flour so they are an occasional food for when you really just need something else. There is a bit of an art to making them — you have to handle them lightly and have the mixture slightly wet rather than on the dry side.

We sometimes make a batch of scones with buttermilk as this makes the scones light, however you can use non fat milk instead. Lots of recipes use self rising flour and that is fine but we refer to use all purpose flour with baking powder.

We have never been fans of 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 1 cup of flour that many recipes call for when making scones, as the after taste is quite unpleasant and ours seem to rise well so we don’t see the need.

 You will need:

• 4 cups unbleached white flour (all purpose flour)
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 Tbsp sugar
• 75 gm (3 oz) very cold or frozen butter
• 1 ½ cup buttermilk or non fat milk (approximately)
• 1 small egg (optional)
• sultanas (optional)

 Method:

Preheat your over to hot, 220°C or 425°F.

In a large bowl sift all the dry ingredients.

Grate the butter into the bowl, we like to have our butter frozen but just make sure it is cold.

With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it is like breadcrumbs. This can be done in the food processer if you prefer. You don’t have to be fussy about it.

Make a well in the centre of the bowl.

Mix the egg into the milk, whisking lightly to combine.

Pour the milk mixture into the center of the bowl and with a knife start working the liquid into the flour from the middle of the bowl out. You have to use a bit of poetic licence with the liquid here. You will get the feel of it after a while if you are not use to making scones.

Work quickly finishing off with your hands until all flour is mix to form softish dough.

Turn out onto a floured board.

With floured hands, knead dough very lightly into a rectangle about 4 cm (1 & 1/2 inches) thick.

Cut into squares or rounds, the recipe makes about 12.

Brush tops with a little milk.

Bake on a baking tray lined with nonstick baking (parchement) paper for about 12 minutes depending on your oven and how close you have positioned the scones on the tray. Smaller ovens cook scones more quickly so take this into account. We usually bake ours on the fan function in which case we drop the temp a bit.

Serve warm with jam and cream if you can afford the calories. Scones freeze well for a month so keep them in the freezer and take them out one at a time when you need them. They only take 1 minute to defromst in the microwave.