When I was still in primary school, so a whole lifetime ago, I started collecting recipes. They were from other people’s recipes books, from magazines, from the packaging that ingredients came in…literally everywhere. There was no order or choosing only what I would actually bake someday – it was just anything and everything. Over the years I narrowed it down to a few favourites that I adjusted quantities and ingredients, cooking times, etc. to make it mine. So this is by no means an original copyrighted Kogi recipe. I don’t know the reference for the original, because back in the day it never struck me to record the source. Safe to say though, this will be different to the original, although the basic principles will be the same.
When we were growing up real butter was an absolutely decadent treat, so we didn’t have it too often, therefore much of the baking we did was with margarine, so as much as I love the taste of a good spread of butter over anything homemade, what I actually bake with at most times is margarine (not the spreadable tub type, but the block made specifically for baking)…old habits and all that! Once your scone is out the oven though, a thick spread of real butter just completes the story. Of course you can do cream and jam too, but I don’t know about you, I never have cream readily available in my fridge….cream is a special treat.
This recipe works also works well with thick soured milk (you know the type that used to come in boxes…you can see how I am trying very hard not to list brand names) – it’s what my gran always used, but I use plain yoghurt and because I like a bit of decadence, my go-to is the double cream variety….mmmmmmm…..double cream yoghurt with slices of strawberries and just a drizzle of honey is an awesome treat…..now I am getting easily distracted, so let me get back to the recipe.
What’s great about this recipe is that you don’t have to bring anything to room temperature, there is very little prep time and it’s something you whip up when guests arrive and you realise you have nothing to offer them with tea/coffee. You need less than 5 mins to mix up all your ingredients, put it in the oven, and whilst you put the kettle on and organise tea/coffee, etc. the scones are ready. Remember to switch on the oven before you start!
INGREDIENTS – if you were expecting a simple straightforward recipe that’s easy to print – I am sorry. I do tend to give too much detail. If you want to skim over my waffling, simply look at all the text in bold. I also think recipes that you include in your own recipe book should be handwritten and adjusted to suit you, so it’s more personal….that’s my reason and I am sticking with it!
1 and 2/3 cups flour (that’s one and two thirds) – Now this measurement I haven’t even bothered to change, because I have a measuring cup for 1/3 and as they say…if it aint broke…
3 teaspoons baking powder – the rule according to my gran who baked with no recipes was 2tsps for every cup of flour – so this is more or less about it
1 Tablespoon sugar – just the regular type – seems a little less I know, but there is so much sugar in your raisins and scones should not really be as sweet as cookies. If you omit the raisins, you can add an additional 1 Tablespoon.
A good pinch of salt and if you have to be very precise then the smallest measuring spoon, which in my case is a ¼ teaspoon
So that’s your dry ingredients and as recipes will tell you sift your dry ingredients into your baking bowl. I must admit, I’m always in a hurry so I never really bother and it still comes out great. You should do it though.
To the above dry ingredients, add about 50g butter, its meant to be 2 tablespoons, but butter needs to be really cold and have you tried scooping out cold hard butter into a tablespoon? I googled to see what the precise measurement was and its actually about 56g but seriously my block of butter (shhhhh….margarine) has markings for every 100g, so I just use half of that. Now here is a trick I learnt from watching Ina Garten from the Barefoot Contessa and if Ina says it is then so it must be (because Ina is after all a culinary goddess) – your butter must be cold and when you crumble it into your dry flour mix don’t overwork it so it all melts away and you have a bread crumb type texture – rather the butter should still be in little bits that you can see…more or less the size of baby peas…she also went on to say… little explosions in the oven, keep the scone moist….., to be honest, I like that you don’t have to overwork it, because I always seem to be making scones on the spur of the moment, so the quicker and easier it is, the better for me.
Once you’ve added the butter, add 1/3 cup raisins…now raisins I always have at home to add to my breakfast cereal. This time Roger bought a raisin, sultana and currant mix by mistake, which I must admit was so much yummier than just raisins, so I probably will use this going forward….Of course I will not tell him that his simple mistake worked so well…shhhhhh. So I just use my hands and judge but for the purpose of writing this recipe I measured and its about 1/3 cup…otherwise as much or as less as you want. You can also add dried cranberries, would be a lovely favour and colour. Give this a stir so your raisins are evenly distributed.
Now add ½ cup yoghurt. If using the very thick double cream yoghurt, I would use a very very heaped half cup, should you go for just your normal plain yoghurt, it will be a lot thinner so a level cup should be fine. I must admit I have not ever tried a low fat version, so full cream or double cream all the way.
Your final ingredient is 30ml milk… again we only buy the full cream variety. You may need a little more to bring all the dry ingredients together, but the total quantity should never exceed 60ml. I find that sometimes when I use a specific brand of yoghurt I need a little less milk because the yoghurt is thinner, other times I need a little more milk, because the yoghurt is extremely thick and creamy.
My gran taught me to never overwork your scone mixture/dough, simply use a fork and bring all the ingredients together, similar to dumplings (or what we call dumplings) – recipe coming soon. I would not use an electric mixer or knead the dough as you would for bread (Sorry Ina). Turn onto a lightly floured surface and pat gently, no need for a rolling pin either, in fact I would just cut it into squares and place on a baking sheet, but there is just something about having round (roundish) scones.
These scones don’t rise much, so don’t be tempted to flatten your dough too much. I get a total of 10 scones with my cutter. For me this is great, because scones are best eaten the same day…then again these are so yummy, they never last anyway.
So I give them a brush over with milk. Some scone recipes ask for an egg wash, melted butter, a sprinkling of sugar etc., but I find milk works just fine for me, however, you must choose what you like and go with that.
Bake in 190 degree celcius preheated oven for 17mins…Right then I guess the correct way of writing this is to give you an approximate time so how about 15-17 mins. I have a thermofan oven and it’s done at exactly 17mins in my oven – yours may be different. I simply open the door, pick one up and if the bottom is starting to just brown – it is done! My scones certainly don’t look anything like perfect store bought scones, if anything they are very rustic, but they are oh so delicious, so I really don’t care what they look like. If you want really decadent scones you could mix together a bit of icing sugar and water (or orange juice) and drizzle over…but I really couldn’t be bothered. I don’t even let them cool down, because I want to add on tons of butter and watch it melt into the scone…mmmmmmmm…..
And that’s all there is to making the simple no fuss scones. I would also just serve this with butter and nothing else. If I left out the raisins I would then probably serve it with butter and jam. So where is the pic of the scone with the melted butter….oops….too late, I already wolfed it down.
