Scones with Balsamic Strawberries & Cream Recipe

Ingredients

175ml whole milk
Juice of ½ lemon
250g strawberries
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
50g sugar, plus 1 tbsp & extra for sprinkling
450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1½ tsp baking powder
85g unsalted butter, chilled
2 medium eggs
250ml double cream
A handful of mint leaves

Prep: 25 mins | Cook: 10-15 min

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Method

1. Heat your oven to 250°C/Fan 230°C/Gas 9. Dust a large baking tray with a little flour. Measure out the milk and add the lemon juice. Give it a stir and set it aside for 5-10 mins. It should start to look a little curdled.

2. Hull the strawberries and halve or quarter any large ones. Pop them in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar and a crack of black pepper. Set aside to macerate and become juicy.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of sea salt into a large bowl. Stir in 50g sugar. Chop the butter into the bowl then use your fingertips to rub it in. You should have a sandy mixture, but a few larger lumps of butter are fine.

4. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat to break them up. Spoon out 1 tbsp of the eggs and set aside for later. Add the beaten eggs and ¾ of the milk to the dry ingredients. Stir together to make a soft dough, adding more of the milk mixture as you need it (some days it will need more than others to work).

5. Dust your work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Gently knead it to bring it together and then pat it into flat round, roughly 3cm high. Stamp out scones with a 7cm cutter and put them on the baking tray. Bring the dough trimmings together and pat them back into a round 3cm high. Stamp out more scones and put them on the tray. Repeat till you have used all the dough – remember, the faster you work and the less you handle the dough, the lighter your scones will be when they are baked.

6. Brush the tops of the scones with the beaten egg you saved in step 3, making sure it doesn’t drip down the sides of the scones (this will stop them rising). Sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake the scones for 10-15 mins, till they are risen, golden and feel light when you pick them. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes.

7. While the scones bake, whip the cream in a separate bowl. Finely slice a handful of mint leaves. Transfer the strawberries and cream to serving bowl. Pile the scones up on a serving plate.

8. Serve the scones warm with the strawberries, cream and finely sliced mint. The scones are best eaten on the day they're made.