Ingredients

Method

• 400 g cake flour
• 2 T baking powder
• 1 t fine salt
• ½ cup sunflower oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 T full-cream milk, (or 1 free-range egg, lightly whisked), for glazing
• Strawberry jam, for serving

Method

Ingredients

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Combine the oil and water and cut into the dry mixture. Be careful not to overwork or overknead the dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, press down gently, then roll out to a 2 cm thickness. Take care to work lightly.

Using a cookie cutter with a sharp edge, cut out the scones. Press hard, but don’t twist the cutter, as this can result in lopsided scones. A 6 cm diameter cutter should give you eight scones.

Gently shape the scones with your hands and place on a floured baking tray. Lightly glaze the tops of the scones with the milk or egg (too much will prevent the scones from rising), but don’t allow the glaze to run down the sides of the scones as this will result in one side being higher than the other.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Serve warm with chunky strawberry jam.

Cook's note: I remember my gran using a knife to cut her scone dough into squares rather than rounds. These are great eaten while still warm, with plenty of farm-fresh butter and home-made jam.

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