Taken from Mary Berry’s Cookery Course, published by DK, £17.99 (paperback edition).
RELATED: Meet Mary Berry on our foodie river cruise through Portugal and Spain this summer!
Ingredients
- 75g butter, chilled and cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
- 350g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1½tsp baking powder
- 30g caster sugar
- 75g sultanas
- about 150ml milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten
Method
Heat the oven to 220C, 200C fan, gas 7. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
Put the flour and baking powder into a large chilled mixing bowl. Add the cubes of butter, keeping all the ingredients as cold as possible. Rub in lightly and quickly with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, sultanas, milk and egg.
Pour 100ml of the milk and all but 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg into the flour mixture. Mix together with a round-bladed knife to a soft, but not too sticky dough, adding a bit more milk if needed to mop up any dry bits of mixture in the bottom of the bowl.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, lightly knead just a few times only until gathered together, then gently roll and pat out to form a rectangle about 2cm deep.
Cut out as many rounds as possible from the first rolling with a 6cm cutter (a plain cutter is easier to use than a fluted one) and lay them on the baking sheet, spaced slightly apart. Gather the trimmings, then roll and cut out again. Repeat until you have 10 scones.
Brush the tops of the scones with the reserved egg. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until risen and golden. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
