Classic scones

My mum in England makes wonderful cakes, bread and puddings. The easiest of her recipes is that for scones, which require a mere 6 ingredients and can be made from start to finish in about 20 minutes. The original recipe gives weights instead of volumes, but I have attempted to translate.

Ingredients:
1 lb (nearly 4 cups) self-raising flour*
5 oz (approx 2/3 cup) butter
2 oz (approx 1/4 cup) white sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt
approx 1/4 pint of milk
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

* One can substitute self-raising flour with white flour plus lots of baking powder (approx 4 tsps).

- Heat oven to approx 400F.

- Rub together flour, sugar and butter until it makes a breadcrumby mix (similar to the first stage of making pastry).

- Whisk together the egg and milk. Gradually add most of this mixture into the flour-sugar-butter mix, stirring it with a knife until a doughy texture forms.

- Barely knead the dough. Then add the raisins, if desired.

- On a lightly floured surface, gently roll out the dough until it is approx 3/4 inch thick. Then cut out scones using a round, sharp cookie cutter (use a small glass with straight sides if you don't have a round cookie cutter). When all scones have been cut out, place them on an oiled baking sheet and bake in the hot oven for approx 12-15 mins.

- Serve hot or cold (I think they are better hot) with jam and butter.

This is an old-fashionned recipe, and the results improve with practice since one develops an instrinct for how the texture should be. I tinker with the quantities of flour, butter and milk until it feels right. You can easily alter the recipe to add different fruit (dried apricots, cranberries or cherries, perhaps), to add a little spice (maybe cinnamon, nutneg and cloves for Christmas scones), or omit the fruit altogether.

The result will also depend on what kind of cutter you use, since the scones will look neater and rise better if your cutter is sharp, ie. a metal cookie cutter is better than a glass. However, don't let this perfectionism put you off - the delight of scones is that they're quick and easy to make.