Royal Tea Scones
Today we made the scones that were a part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s daily tea service. We have it on the authority of Darren McGrady, former royal chef, that these scones were served religiously each day, alternating between fruit scones or plain. McGrady suspected that the Queen didn’t actually like scones. Because while she insisted on them as part of her tea, she never, ever ate them. Instead, at the end of her daily tea, the Queen would take a scone and crumble it onto the floor for the. corgis who seemed to quite like them. Serve warm with lots of butter or cool and split them in half and fill with strawberry preserves, clotted cream, or whipped cream.
Ingredients:
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-fine granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3/4 cup to 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 cup raisins (optional)
- 1 beaten egg yolk for glazing
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 177 C. Combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in the butter and stir until the flour mixture resembles dine bread crumbs. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and add the beaten egg and about 34 cup of milk. Add the raisins now if making a fruit scone. Bring the mixture together with a metal spoon, making sure you don’t overmix and toughen the dough. If the mixture seems dry and crumbly, add more of the remaining milk, but add it gradually. You ant lightly bound dough that is neither too wet nor too dry.
2. Lightly dust a cutting board with flour, and roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick. Then, using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out about 16 scones and place them on an ungreased baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Brush the tops of the scones with the beaten egg yolk.
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until scones are lightly colored. Serve hot or transfer scones to a cooling rack.