Lemon & Elderflower Scones
What is a village green for if not for celebrating a Royal Wedding on? Come to our village green tomorrow (actually, do, there will plenty to go around) and you will find it festooned with bunting, tipsy villagers sloshing Pimms jugs from one picnic blanket to another and dogs trying to steal cocktail sausages. I will be handing out lemon and elderflower scones. I might even don a tea dress. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so much like I’m in an episode of The Crown. And yes, I’m a total sucker for it all.
In between watching every detail unfold on the BBC (there’s something so comfortingly British and about listening to a Dimbleby trying to find 5 minutes worth of inane commentary on the Queen’s choice of handbag), yes, in between these crucial facts, I will be making my scones. In a nod to the wedding cake flavours (lemon and elderflower incase you didn’t know, but I think it would impossible to not know given the coverage), they will be lemon scones with elderflower cream and lemon curd. They go stale very quickly, so make them during a boring bit of the ceremony and eat the lot before the highlights at 6:30, preferably with a large Pimms in hand, bunting overhead and a glint of fairytale romance in your eye…
(And if that’s not enough Royal Wedding related cooking for you, tune in to Magic FM on Saturday 8-9am where I will be cooking a wedding breakfast live on air. I know, what could possible go wrong…)
Lemon and Elderflower Scones
Ingredients
- 450g self-raising flour
- 80g butter, softened
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 300ml whole milk
- 200g clotted cream
- 2 tbsp elderflower cordial
- Lemon curd to serve
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 210C.
- I like to make this the old-fashioned way with fingers and a butter knife. When it’s a scone, the old ways are the best – no electric gadgets needed. So, in a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it looks like sand.
- Stir in the sugar, salt and lemon zest.
- Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in a little of the milk. Give it a good mix with the knife, cutting the doughy bits into the flour. Keep adding the milk bit by bit and keep cutting and mixing until you have a wet dough and all the milk is used up.
- Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead briefly until smooth. Flour your hands then pat the dough into a round approximately 2-3cm thick and use a cutter to cut out your scones. You can knead the off cuts together and make more scones until it’s all used up.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden on top. Remove and allow to cool.
- For the cream, tip the clotted cream into a bowl and whisk in the elderflower gradually (if you add it all at once the cream will curdle).
- To serve, slice the scone in half and pile on the cream and lemon curd.
