Lemonade Scones

(pic: lemonpi)

Ingredients :

375 gr self-raising flour
1 cup (160 gr) stone-ground wholemeal self-raising flour
75 gr caster sugar
half tsp salt
100 gr dried currants or natural sultanas
250 ml cream
250 ml lemonade
plain flour or milk, for topping
good-quality strawberry jam, and double thick cream, to serve
How To Make :

1. Preheat your oven to 200 Celcius Degrees. Line a baking tray with two layers of baking paper and set it aside.

2. Put both of the flours, the sugar and salt into a large bowl and whisk them with a balloon whisk so they are really well mixed together. Tip in the currants and toss them about so they are well coated in the flour.

3. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the cream and lemonade. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon until it gets a bit too awkward and sticky to stir, then forget about the spoon and use your hands to bring the dough together. Although you have to make sure the dough is mixed, try to not overdo this as scones are better for a light touch.

4. Tip the dough out onto a chopping board and just bring it together. Pat it out into a rectangle 5 cm thick - no less if you want good, high scones. Dip a scone cutter or tumbler into some flour, then stamp out the scones, dipping the cutter into the flour between each one (this one helps stop the dough sticking to it)

5. Sift the scones fairly closely together on the prepared tray. You'll have some scraps of dough left, so gently knead them together, pat them out, and cut out more scones from this. (When they bake, the scones from these off-cuts will be a bit lopsided and rather quirky looking as they don't rise as evenly as others, but I think they look rather lovely, nonetheless.) When they're done, either dusts the tops lightly with flour or brush them with little milk.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until the scones are golden. Cool them briefly on a wire rack, then bundle them up in a basket lined with a clean cloth or tea towel and sit down and enjoy them.

*Make about 18
(Source : Mix and Bake by Belinda Jeffery)