Spiced Tea Scones

a casual scone, perfect for breakfast

Hello friends,

As a freelance creative, I wear many hats. I always chuckle quietly to myself when someone asks the dreaded ‘so what do you actually do?’ Mainly because my efforts to give a short, clean answer usually fails and I end up waffling, trying to succinctly explain why although I am a baker, no you cannot place an order with me for your birthday or wedding cake.

Some weeks, I’m knee deep in recipe development, where I’ll be working to a brief for a magazine or brand, coming up with new ideas and testing them until they’re right. Some days, I’ll be food styling on shoots, or creating content for social media, hosting events, running a baking class, testing recipes for my Guardian column, or writing this newsletter. Lots of hats. And that’s not including all the admin. But it’s all part of the *mostly* joyful rollercoaster of working for yourself.

This week, I’ve been wearing my food stylist hat and I’m currently working on a cookbook for another author. It’s always fun being on the other side of a cookbook, helping bring it to life for someone else. It’s a great time to get stuck into ideas and recipes outside of your own work, especially when inspiration is running a little dry. Immersing yourself into another chef or food writers cuisine or point of view can really spark some creative juices. So I’m looking forward to getting back into the kitchen and playing around with new ideas that will hopefully make it over to this newsletter.

But for this week, we’ve got a British classic. Scones! When you think scones, your mind probably goes to afternoon tea, clotted cream and fancy, delicate teacups. All lovely things. But consider this recipe to be more of a casual scone. Something you might have for breakfast during the week. They’re larger and chunkier with a delightfully craggly top. I serve them with salted butter because clotted cream, as much as I love it, isn’t something I just always have in my fridge. Butter however, is.

For paid subscribers, I’ve got these flaky blueberry turnovers with earl grey cream. Very buttery and very blueberry forward. The earl grey cream is fragrant and warming and also quite addictive. You’ll want to pour it on everything. So sorry in advance.

Hope you enjoy these sweet things!

Benjamina x

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Spiced Scones

Scones should be pretty simple; they’re not the kind of bake that should come with a lot of stress. I really love having these for breakfast as they’re not too sweet with a gentle spice and the raisins just make them feel a little healthier. I already know there’ll be some of you who see the raisins and won’t be able to resist the urge to swap them for chocolate chips. Controversial opinion maybe, but I don’t think chocolate belongs in a scone. Sorry! The raisins just work, trust me.

RECIPE

makes : 8

60g raisins
70ml hot, strong black tea
300g plain flour
40g light brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
90g unsalted butter, cold and diced
160ml milk
1 egg
4 tsp demerara sugar

METHOD

1. Add the raisins to a small bowl and pour over the tea. Let it sit for at least an half an hour or up to overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 170C fan/190C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

3. Add the flour, sugar, salt and spices to a bowl and mix to combine. Add in the cubed butter and use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

4. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. Use a table knife to stir it together until it starts to clump and come together. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead it briefly to incorporate everything. Use your hands to flatten it out a little, about 1/2 an inch thick. Drain the raisins and place half of them on top of the dough. Fold the dough over on itself and place the rest of the raisins on top. Gently knead the dough again for a couple of seconds until the raisins feel incorporated. The dough might feel a little messy and rough but thats fine! Dust with a little more flour if it start to stick to the worktop.

5. Pat the dough into a round disk, approximately 1.5-2cm thick. Slice into 8 wedges. Place each wedge on the lined baking tray, leaving a little space between them as they’ll spread.

6. Brush the tops with a little egg wash and sprinkle generously with demerara sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the scones are well browned on top. Let them cool a little before serving warm with salted butter.

7. If I’m having them during the week for breakfast, I’ll just reheat in the oven for a few minutes until warmed through.