Homemade lavender and sultana scones and strawberry jam

One of the most traditional English pleasures- cream tea- is something that you can find across the country. As mentioned in our A weekend trip to Oxford post, whilst the origin of the cream tea are disputed, the key elements are clear- scones, clotted cream and jam. We made some scones recently, alongside some home-made strawberry jam, and enjoyed a cream tea at home. The method to follow is quite straight forward, and there are no complicated ingredients but hopefully things you already have in your pantry. We had some dried lavender (Bart’s– from Waitrose– much recommended) and sultanas so we slightly tweaked the traditional recipe- somewhat inspired by our recent trip to Hitchin Lavender. In theory, you could do the same with other ingredients- such as by adding cinnamon, orange zest, chocolate and even cheese (although not sure how well that would go with clotted cream and jam!) Read on for more…

Easy homemade scones- with sultanas and a lavender twist.

This is a rather straight forward and easy recipe- even if you have not done much baking before. Feel free to tweak the recipe and add other ingredients- such as ground cinnamon, zest, chocolate etc! Best served warm we think, with clotted cream and some homemade jam!

Ingredients for the scones: (makes four)

• 180g self-raising flour plus a bit extra for the work surface
• 85ml milk (we used whole milk) plus a bit extra to glaze scones
• 40g unsalted butter, cut into cubes and at room temperature
• 30g sultanas
• 20ml caster sugar
• 5ml vanilla extract
• 3tsp lemon juice
• 1tsp lavender
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (392 degrees F). Whilst you mix the ingredients and make the scones it should reach the right temperature.
2. Mix the flour, salt and the baking powder in a large bowl.
3. Mix in the cubes of butter- they should be soft and at room temperature and therefore easier to mix in. Use your fingers here to mix the butter with the flour. Once incorporated, mix in the caster sugar.
4. Heat up the milk in a saucepan briefly-do not let it boil but just heat it up until warm. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla extract- and stir.
5. In the large bowl (with the flour etc)- make a well in the middle and pour in the milk and vanilla extract. Mix well, and once the milk has been mixed in, add the lemon juice (adding lemon juice to the warm milk directly will make it curdle!)
6. Make sure your kitchen counter is clean, then add some flour to the counter. Tip the dough out of the large bowl and then knead briefly- do not work the dough too much. Flatten the dough so it is a few centimetres thick.
7. We used a coffee cup with a diameter of 7cm to cut the dough into rounds- but if you have a cookie cutter use this instead. You might need to knead the dough and flatten again if there is some left after the first round.
8. Brush the cut-out scones with some milk, then place on a baking tray into the oven for around 15 minutes-until the scones have risen a little and are tops are golden brown.
9. Enjoy! We split ours in two and had one side with cream on top of the jam and the other side the other way around- both taste great!

Homemade strawberry jam

This recipe uses only fresh ingredients- no pectin- and is more natural and akin to the method used by our grandparents in making jam. The method is closer to a French jam- such as Bonne Maman rather than the American counterparts- the majority of which seem to use pectin.

Ingredients for the jam (makes around 250g):

• 400g fresh strawberries
• 400g caster sugar
• 3tsp lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Wash the strawberries and remove the green leaves. Then halve the strawberries- or if they are very big then quarter.
2. Heat up a saucepan on the hob. Once hot, tip in the strawberries. Use a masher to slightly flatten the strawberries, but do not over do this as they still need to have chunks and texture. Add the caster sugar, followed by the lemon juice, stir to make sure the sugar dissolves completely.
3. Then, turn up the heat until the mixture starts boiling- at around 100 degrees C (212 degrees F). Keep stirring occasionally. White froth will start to form on the surface- remove this with a slotted spoon.
4. After some time, the jam should start setting. To check whether the jam has set, pour a little of the mixture onto a saucer,tilt the saucer and see if it is still runny. Take off the heat once no longer runny and let the jam cool down.
5. Transfer into a jar to store- preferably into a sterilised jar if you are hoping to keep the jam for more than a few days. Enjoy!