Scones

Whilst on holiday in Anglesey we visited The Anglesey Jam Factory, a traditional Welsh farmhouse producing and selling a wide range of preserves, marmalades and chutneys, as well as stocking Anglesey honey. We were particularly drawn to the jams as they sounded delicious and a bit different from the normal flavours. There was Blackcurrant preserve with Black Mountain Liqueur, Apricot preserve with Amaretto and Rhubarb preserve with crushed ginger and Cointreau; to name just a few. We finally settled on a jar of Morello cherry preserve with kirsch to purchase and take home with us. If your ever in the area it is well worth a visit.

My boyfriend is the jam fan in our house. He loves it spread on toast for breakfast but for me toast is for spreading marmite on or just simply butter. This jam sounded too delicious for me to miss out on, so I decided to bake some scones to spread it on. I wanted to keep the flavour of the scones simple so that the flavours of the jam would really be able to shine so I didn't put any dried fruits in these ones. I originally found a Nigel Slater recipe in a back issue of Sainsbury's magazine but it required buttermilk or milk & natural yogurt neither of which were currently in my fridge. In the end I found a recipe in Farmer's Market cookbook by Ysanne Spevack. I modified the recipe as it had no sugar in it and I was a little concerned they maybe too plain so I added 25g caster sugar (the quantity Nigel Slater used for the same weight of flour). The resulting scones had a good texture and worked really well with the jam. The jam was the real star of the show it was really delicious. I can see me making another batch of scones just so I can have more of this jam!
Scones
Makes about 10 scones

225g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
50g butter, diced
1 egg, beaten
75ml milk

• Preheat the oven to 200C/425F/Gas7.
• Sift the flour and baking powder together, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Make a well in the centre and pour in the egg and milk.
• Mix with a fork or butter knife to form a soft dough.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly until smooth.
• Roll out the dough to about 2cm thickness and cut out as many scones as you can.
• Roll all the trimmings together and roll to 2cm thickness and cut out a couple more scones. Repeat until all the dough is used.
• Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale and risen.
• Serve slightly warm.

Enjoy!