Before You Know it, it Scone!

    My husband's family is from Devon, and so is one of my best friends. Luckily we don't run into many people from Cornwall, so I can safely say that it's cream first then jam. But the vote is still out on whether to pronounce it 'Scon' or 'Scone'. I like 'Scon' myself, because it makes the play on words (see title) work. Regardless of how you pronounce it or whether you put your cream or jam on first, Scones are a British tea-time staple, and it seems that with the popularity of Downton Abbey and the rebirth of the historical drama in the US (my homeland), tea time is becoming a new American favourite as well. in fact over the summer one of my younger sisters got married, and as a treat, took all of her bridesmaids (myself included) to a tea room in Dallas Texas, for afternoon tea. 

My little sister's sad attempt at a Cream Tea. At least she has a tea pot!

    Now I had tea parties as a girl (or hot chocolate parties, since I wasn't a tea drinker back in the 80's) but usually they involved dolls and dressing up and whatever cookies or cupcakes my mom happened to have in the pantry at the time. I was later introduced to the magnificence that is Earl Grey by my mother in my teenage years, then at University I discovered a loose-leaf tea shop in Pike Place Market, Seattle, where I became a bit of a regular. So when I moved to the UK and was introduced to the Great British Cream Tea, I got a little excited. And what was this odd cream-butter substance called clotted cream that my husband and father-in-law ate by the spoonful? My education had well and truly begun.
     It wasn't long before my mother-in-law shared her tried and true recipe for scones with me, so I could have warm ones straight from the oven, instead of the stale numbers from the shop. I can't say that these are the best scones I've ever had (you really do have to go to Devon for those), but they are a fairly decent substitute. My youngest sister recently posted a photo of her poor student attempt at a cream tea, it included French bread, and I decided that I would help her out and post my mum-in-law's scone recipe for her and anyone else who is struggling with cream tea fare. I've done my best with the conversions for all you American's out there who don't own a kitchen scale.

Scones

225g (8oz) (1 1/2 cups) self raising flour or plain flour with 3 tsp. baking powder sifted together
1/2 tsp salt (unless your self-raising flour has salt in it already - US self-raising tends to)
55g (2oz) (4 Tbsp.) butter
25g (1oz) (3 Tbsp.) caster sugar
150mL (5oz) (2/3 cup) milk
1 egg, beaten
1. Preheat the oven to 220 C (425 F). Lightly grease a baking sheet. Or use a non stick sheet or wax paper or one of those silicone mats.
2. Mix together the flour, salt and butter. Rub them together by hand untill they form a crumbly texture and the butter is evenly distributed.
3. Stir in the sugar and then add the milk slowly until a soft dough is formed. This may not take all the milk, or if your mix is dry add a little extra milk. You want it soft and moist, but not out of control sticky.
4. turn out onto a floured surface a knead gently until all the ingredients are mixed evenly. DO NOT OVERWORK, it makes the baked scones tough and horrible.
5. Pat out the dough into a 2-3 cm thick round. Use a floured round cutter (or a glass) to cut out circles.
6. place the rounds onto the baking sheet and brush the tops with the beaten egg (not the sides, or they won't rise properly).
7. bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden on top.

This is what they should look like. I nicked this picture off Wikipedia.

    Sadly I don't have any pictures of my scones, they all get eaten too fast. There may be one in a previous jam post. But they do come out looking about the same. There are also tons of other recipes for different types of scones out there, mine are plain sweet scones, but you can get sweet ones with fruit in them, or savoury ones with cheese or herbs. They're really versatile. If you seem to struggle with high altitude, try a different recipe or add in a quarter teaspoon of bicarb (baking soda). I've never tried to make them in Denver, So I really don't know how the altitude would effect them. Let me know how it goes!