ENGLISH SCONES

This is definitely a trip down the memory lane for me. These were the stuffs my childhood dreams were made of! All of you who have read Enid Blyton books and literally drooled over the food that were mentioned,will understand what I am talking about. This was during the pre-internet era. There was no online shopping either. So when I read about it, all I could so was to imagine the taste of her stale Rock Buns, Fresh Lemonade made with left over homemade jam from the larder and all those sardine sandwiches that were packed in their picnic baskets along with the bottles of chilled ginger beer!

Of all the places, Kannur was not the right place to find even a tin of sardines! Whenever Appan would travel, he would come back with goodies for us. So once, when we was travelling to Bangalore, I asked him if he could bring back some bottles of ginger beer and sardine sandwiches for me. He promptly took the help of Rosily chechy, my cousin in Bangalore to hunt for the items I had mentioned. In those days, Nilgiris was the gourmet store in Bangalore. If Nilgiris didn't have it, no one else would. Sadly for me, Nilgiris didn't carry ginger beer nor the sardine sandwiches.

Mamma, my paternal Grandmother did once tell me that she used to drink Ginger Beer in Malaysia and I was so intrigued to hear more about it. She told me it was a tasty drink! So many years passed by and one day while flipping through Mamma's cookbooks, I chanced upon a 'Dropped Scone' recipe. I immediately made it but sadly,it didn't taste all that exciting. Atleast not as exciting as the Enid Blyton's scones.

It was only after I moved to the US that I ever had my very first sip of Ginger Beer/Ginger Ale. I couldn't contain my excitement when I first spotted it after ALL these years!! It still is one of my favourite beverages till date.  I baked my first set of scones about 8.5 years ago and it's been one of mine as well as my family's personal favourite thing to eat! Scones make a regular appearance at our dining table and it's never failed to please anyone who has had a chance to eat it.

ENGLISH SCONES
Makes about 18-20 scones

Ingredients:
450 grams self raising flour*
2 level teaspoon baking powder
50grams sugar
100 grams butter,softened
2 eggs
a little milk

handful sultanas, if you'd like

Method:
Preheat your oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder & sugar. Into that, add the butter and rub it into the flour using your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Crack the eggs into a measuring jar and pour enough milk to each the 300 ml mark. Which them together.
Pour almost all of the milk-egg mixture into the flour mixture (holding back some, about 2-3 tablespoons worth )and stir using a spoon to form a soft,slightly sticky dough.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead and work in the sultanas. Roll out the dough to a 3/4 inch thickness and cut out as many rounds as you can using a 2 inch fluted cutter. Place them slightly spaced on the prepared tin, brush the tops with the reserved egg - milk mixture and bake for 12-15 minutes.

You can reuse the scraps, just bring them together gently and proceed.

Serve them warm with clotted cream and raspberry / strawberry jam and a pot of tea!

* For every 1 cup of self raising flour I use 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon salt. This recipe requires a lot of leavening agents.

The other day after Ian was dropped off at his Choir practice, we went to a grocery store to kill time. Yes, grocery store is where we kill time! :-) So as I was glancing at the shelves, I came across this lovely little jar of Clotted Cream and I literally jumped up and down like a little girl. I really don't need a lot of things to make me happy, a bottle of clotted cream is plenty!

All 4 of us are hungry around Tea Time so I usually make something special everyday. Since I had Clotted Cream on hand and since we all LOVE scones, I decided to make the ones Mary Berry had made during her 'Country House Secrets' episode. I am a sucker for food, crockery, English countryside along with the beautiful historic homes they have there.

So here's how I ate them. I took a scone, split it in half by gently pulling it apart at it's waist, slathered some clotted cream first on one half and spread some raspberry jam over it, sandwiched the two halves together and took a bite of it with my eyes closed. It was a treat in every possible way! They are delectable! Clotted cream is a thickened cream with a very faint tang. It's lovely and has a custard like consistency. Freshly whipped cream can be the next best alternative. All of us LOVED it and I saw Jobin go back to it many times in the evening!
All of you Enid Blyton lovers, go and make some for yourselves and relive your childhood memories through a plateful of delicious scones!