Weekend, Midsummer's Day, the lovely Alys Fowler and A Father's Day Treat :: Man-sized Old School Scones

Summer is here and it began with an explosion of flowers. There were lots of Gardens in the Wild to visit this weekend but we only had a morning to spare and I had tickets for the lovely Alys Fowler's talk, How to have your garden and eat it: Growing flowers and vegetables together. I learnt so much and it seems that so far I'm doing all the right things for our smallish garden. She's even prettier in real life and very entertaining and amusing too, even if I did catch Ahmad with his eyes closed at one point...Just for a few seconds...

We'd been away for two days to London a quick dash for  Ahmad to see his friends, and stock up with our favourite Persian foods. It's amazing just how much happens in your garden in two days. We spent most of the weekend weeding and planting, watering and harvesting the radishes before they bolt, and strawberries before something else eats them, leaving some plants to go to seed and planning what to plant next. I can't believe that it looked like a building plot complete with JCB not too many months ago. 

So it was a quiet weekend just peppered with the whirring sound of wheels and a mad dash for the camera and bumping into neighbours doing the same thing as 'A' dashed out to catch a shot of the cycle race rooted through the village. 

These scones are genuinely my old school recipe complete with imperial measurements. As with all school recipes it's basic but also tried and tested by thousands of school children so pretty fool proof too. 

Old school scones

Ingredients:

• 8oz of flour (I used self raising)
• 2oz of butter
• one egg plus a little milk
• 2oz golden caster sugar
• 2 to 3 oz of fruit
• 1/4 pint of milk

Method:

1. Rub the butter into the flour
2. Add the sugar and fruit
3. Add the beaten egg and milk leaving some to brush onto the top of the scone and combine all the ingredient making them into a firm dough. 
4. I put mine in the fridge to chill for about half an hour before making the scones. It's much easier to work with when a little cold.
5. Either roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into small scones or if you want nice big hearty man-sized ones like I made, just form the dough into a roughish circle shape and cut into four pieces. Form each one into a smaller circle and flatten a little. Place all the scones onto a prepared baking tray or pans.
6. Brush the top of the scones with the reserved egg/milk mixture.
7. Bake regulo 8 for 10 to 15 minutes. 

You can link to a conversion chart here for metric measurements. 

These are scrumptious served with clotted or double cream and strawberries or jam...or both...

...that's just a bit of my weekend...how was yours?