Hello there. Sorry for being a bit sporadic with the posts of late. I will get a handle on this eventually I promise!

I realised that I kicked off my little afternoon tea series without the bare essential – the scone. Now, my dad happens to be a champion scone maker and he’s given me the honour of letting me share his recipe with you.

So without further ado here goes, enjoy!

You will need

1lb/450g Self raising flour

4 oz/110g Granulated sugar

4 oz/110g Margarine (I use Stork)

4 oz/110g Raisins/other dried fruit (I split mine into some plain some fruit, so only used half this)

1 egg

Semi-skimmed milk (approz 9fl oz/250ml)

A pinch or two of salt

A 2 inch round cutter (for small scones)

Makes 24 little scones, 12 big if using a bigger cutter.

Step one

Crack the egg into a measuring jug and top up to 10 fluid oz or 250ml with the milk.

Use a fork to combine the egg and milk.

Step two

Mix together the sugar, flour and salt in a decent sized mixing bowl.

Step three

Add the margarine to the dry mixture and rub between your fingers until you have the breadcrumb-like texture in the bottom photo. If you insist on using butter this might take you a little longer, but be patient, you’ll get there.

If you want to do half plain, half fruit then you need to split half the mix into another bowl at this stage.

Step four

Add the fruit (remember to only add half the amount if you’ve split the mix).

Gradually add the wet ingredients, stirring with your hands. Don’t go gung-ho and add the lot, as there’s meant to be some left over! Again, if you’ve split into two halves you need to distribute this evenly across both batches.

Keep adding liquid until the mixture is a bit gluey/sticky but still holds together and isn’t wet.

Step five

Dust a work surface with flour and turn your dough onto it. Pat it down with your hand until it’s a little shorter than your cutter. No rolling pins please.

I would also recommend you take this opportunity to wash your hands and grease a couple of baking trays.

Step six

Dust your cutter with flour and cut as many scones as you can from the dough. I will save you the maths lesson but try to get them as close together as possible as it’s best to not keep working the dough if possible.

Put your scones onto the baking trays; make sure to leave some space as they do grow a bit.

Step seven

Bring together all the scraps and repeat until you have no dough left. Well, you will have a little blob, but that’s for you to eat straight from the oven, so it doesn’t really count.

Step eight

Using the leftover egg and milk mixture, brush the tops of your scones. This will make them go golden in the oven. You can use your (clean) fingers if you don’t have a pastry brush.

Step nine

Pop in the oven (ideally preheated) at gas mark 6/200C/400F for 15-20 minutes. If your oven, like ours, is getting on a bit you might want to turn the trays around halfway through for an even bake.

Step ten

Pop them on the table with the rest of your afternoon tea treats.