I will admit I am not the first to be breaking out flags for royal events, but I do love a scone, so I was happy to give Buckingham Palace's recipe a go.
My thinking was that, it has the royal seal of approval so it has to be good, right? And the English scone recipe in question can be found on the Royal Collection website, but immediately I noticed an issue I wasn't sure I was going to like.
Their ingredients list calls for 250g of plain flour, three teaspoons of baking power, 45g of caster sugar, 50g of unsalted butter (chilled and cut into cubes), one egg, 70ml of buttermilk and a pinch of salt. But 'where are the raisins?', I thought to myself.
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I know not everyone likes a raisin in their scone, but I am all for it, I feel they are like little sweet jewels. But, I was happy to defer to the experts on British etiquette this once.
The method is fairly easy, after preheating the oven you mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the butter, incorporating it with your hands before adding in the egg and buttermilk to make a ball of dough. All pretty straightforward and easy enough even for a beginner.
I was conscious of overworking the dough, but I did have to add a little more buttermilk to the mix to capture all the dry ingredients before placing it on a well-floured counter to roll out. On reflection, I think my dough could have taken a little more buttermilk, but it was easy to roll and I used a ramekin to cut out scone shapes and placed them on a well greased oven tray.
After a quick egg wash on the top of the six scones, they went straight into the oven for 10 minutes on 220°C (Gas mark 7), or until golden brown, so mine took a little longer than 10 minutes. They smelt lovely baking away, but then what sweet treat doesn't?
They didn't rise as much as they did in the picture on the website, which I was disappointed about, but I am going to blame my cutting tool and the fact that the husband opened the oven door about four minutes in - I am sure I have heard Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry tell people off for this on The Great British Bake Off.
But even a flat, warm scone is better than none. So as soon as they came out I couldn't wait and cut them open. They were light and fluffy on the inside, not as heavy as the scones you get in supermarkets, which was dangerous because it meant you could easily eat more than one.
I added jam and then cream to mine - I know, it is not the Devon way but I don't care, I find adding the jam after the cream smooshes it. And this is the royal way as it has been reported many times that the Cornish way (jam first then cream) is how the late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed hers and it's how King Charles III eats them.
The low amount of sugar in the recipe meant once you add the jam it wasn't overly sweet, another issue I find with store bought. So the light texture and sweet jam meant it was perfect together and I thought it was a very well balanced recipe. But if I was to do it again I would add raisins and I would also add a touch of sugar to the top of the scone after the egg wash just for a bit of added texture and sweetness.
These are super quick and easy to make if you wanted to go all out for the Coronation or just have some baking fun with the kids. Definitely worth a go.
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