SULTANA SCONES

Stars of the quintessential English afternoon tea, scones are actually as Scottish as Haggis and Porridge. When they jumped the border dried fruit was added and the pronunciation changed from 'scone' as in 'gone' to 'scone' as in 'moan' in an attempt to make them sound posh.

Not a lot of peole know that you can prove scones like you would bread. Once cut, stick them on a tray lined with baking parchment, cover lightly with cling-film and put them in a warm place. Times vary depending on how warm the place is, and they won't rise as much as bread dough but they will begin to rise, probably by about a third, which will guarantee a lighter scone.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb plain flour
2 oz baking powder
5 oz butter
5 oz caster sugar
12 fl oz milk
5 oz sultanas
pinch of salt
An oven pre-heated to 180 °C.

Method:

1. Put the flour, baking powder and butter in a bowl and rub between your fingertips until the mixture resembles beadcrumbs. Make sure there are no big lumps of butter left then stir in the sugar, milk and sultanas and gently bring the mix together into a soft dough. Do not overwork or the scones will become a bit 'bready'. Wrap in clingfilm and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest, because if you don't the scones will pull themselves into all kinds of strange shapes when you cut them.

2. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface. But don't roll them too thin, I reckon they should be at just under an inch thick, then cut them out with a 2" plain cutter and follow the proving instructions above.

3. Lightly brush the tops with milk and put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes and that's it. Straight from the oven scones aren't the best thing in the world, you need to let them cool a bit first. Ideally they should be just warm and topped with fresh strawberry jam and clotted cream.