Scone Recipe

An old-fashioned comfort food and a decadent afternoon tea treat, it's hard to go past a scone straight from the oven served with lashings of butter and golden syrup or strawberry jam and a large dollop of cream.

For accuracy, we use digital scales to weigh ingredients, including liquids. Volume measurements are given in Australian Standard cups (250ml) and spoons (20ml tablespoon, 5ml teaspoon). We use salted butter in our recipes unless otherwise stated.

Preparation time: about 15 minutes (excluding baking time)

Makes 9-10 scones

220g (210ml) full cream milk, cold
28g (1 1/2 tablespoons) caster sugar
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
1/8 teaspoon fine table salt
65g cold butter, roughly chopped
About 1 tablespoon extra flour for shaping and cutting scones
Jam and whipped cream, to serve

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius (200 degrees Celsius fan-forced). The oven rack should be in the lower middle or middle shelf position.

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Combine the milk and sugar in a small bowl and stir together until the sugar has dissolved.

Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and add the butter.

Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the butter is evenly distributed. If you would prefer not to use your fingers, pulse the flour, salt and butter together in a food processor then tip the mixture into a large bowl.

Add the milk mixture to the flour and use a butter knife to mix until the dough just comes together. The dough will be soft and sticky but resist the temptation to add more flour. A sticky dough produces great scones.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead dough briefly, just to bring it together. Use your fingers to flatten the dough out to a 3.5cm thick round. Dip a 5cm diameter round scone cutter into some flour (this will help stop the dough from sticking to the cutter). Cut the dough into as many scones as possible, re-dipping the cutter into flour after each cut. Gather the offcuts and, without over-handling, form another 3.5cm thick round and continue cutting until all the dough is used. If you don't have a scone cutter, form the dough into a square shape that's 3.5cm thick. Dip a large, sharp knife in flour and make two horizontal and two vertical cuts to divide the dough into nine equal squares.

Place scones on the prepared tray so they are just touching each other.

Bake for about 13-15 minutes, until the scones are light golden on top. They should sound hollow when you tap them.

Immediately remove the scones from the tray and wrap in a clean kitchen towel. This will trap some of the steam and soften the crust of the scones. Let sit for about five minutes before serving.

Serve scones with toppings such as strawberry jam and whipped cream (pictured) or butter and golden syrup. Scones are best eaten on the day they are made. Suitable to freeze.
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