Bake with Me: Fruit Scones...

I was sorting through a pile of old books in my cupboard, when I came across some cookery books from my childhood. I got my love of cooking, as I'm sure many of you did from yours, from my Grandma. We had a bit of a difficult relationship at times, but I loved her and everything she passed down onto me.

We had used this book many, many times and her handwriting still remains on the front, where she noted the page number of "Choc Crispies" - a favourite of ours to make. After spending a few moments fondly reminiscing, I decided I would challenge myself to bake something from the book (my copy published in 1978!) and went with Fruit Scones, as I had all the ingredients in the cupboard.

The recipe is very unlike recipes of today, and I thought it would be fun to see how they turned out - as you can see, not too bad at all!

I will list the recipe exactly as it appears in the book, although I did make a tweak or two along the way! You can read what I did differently at the end. The recipe suggested from the pictures that I would get 6 scones, so I doubled the recipe and I got 16 scones.

Cooking can be a wonderful way to relax the mind and ignite the spirit. Why not take some time this weekend and create a new memory, for your child to have with them to reminisce about one day, when they too are older like me?

Recipe taken from Floury Fingers by Cecilia H. Hind.

Fruit Scones

Ask Mummy to put the oven on at Electric 475 f (250 c) or Gas Regulo 9

You Will Want

• Flour Self Raising
• Salt
• Margarine
• Milk in a cup
• Caster Sugar
• Sultanas
• Big Basin
• Rolling Pin
• Cutter
• Blunt Knife
• Pastry Brush
• Sieve
• 2 Small Spoons - for measuring
• Big Spoon - for measuring
• Cup - for measuring
• Baking Sheet - Rub it with a bit of margarine paper to make it greasy

See that your hands are clean and your overall on.

Take the basin and the sieve. Put the sieve over the basin.

Now put into it

FLOUR ...... One (1) cup, heaped

SALT ...... One (1) pinch

Shake the sieve until all the flour and salt have fallen into the basin. Take off sieve.

Put into the basin

MARGARINE ...... Two (2) small spoons rounded

Now rub together the flour and fat. Do it with your fingertips until there are no more lumps of fat left in the flour. Then wash your hands.

Put in

CASTER SUGAR ...... Three (3) small spoons

SULTANAS ...... One (1) big spoon

Mix them in with your fingertips. 

Pour in the

MILK ...... Four (4) big spoons

Stir quickly with your blunt knife.

Now you have to hurry or your scones will be spoilt.

Sprinkle flour on the table. Tip out the mixture and pat it to make it round. 

Take your rolling pin. Sprinkle it with flour and roll out the mixture until it is 1.2 cm (1/2 in) thick.

Take your cutter, dip it in the flour, cut out round scones and place them on the baking sheet. Gather up the pieces, quickly make them them into a round and cut out more scones until all the bits are used up.

Dip your pastry brush into the milk and paint the tops of the scones. This will make them shiny brown when they are cooked. Do all these things quickly.

Now ask Mummy to put them into the oven. Leave them there until they are brown, about 8 - 10 minutes.

Tell Mummy when it is time to take them out. When they are cooled a little, split them in half and butter them.

As you can see, a very basic recipe - but it worked! I used a Table Spoon measure for the "big spoon" and a teaspoon measure for the "small spoon". I needed to use 14 "big spoons" to get my mixture to come together. I would suggest starting at 8 (remember I had doubled the recipe) and keep adding until the mixture comes together in a light dough (not too wet and not too dry).

I also used raisins instead of sultanas, as that was what I had on hand.

Unfortunately where we live now, there is no Western style oven and I had to use my table top oven. 200 c. worked best for me in this instance. Again, I would suggest starting at the given temperature and keeping an eye on it, as soon as they start to go brown, take them out. You may need to lower the temperature as I did and turn the tray half way through.

I like the way the recipe asks the child to keep an eye on the time, this is a great way for children new to time telling to learn how to follow the minutes on the clock - however given that this recipe calls for the scones to be checked on regularly, maybe this is not the best recipe for that!

It's funny how all those decades ago, Mummy was obviously the only one who would be baking with the children! I'm glad that today, Daddy's get to cook too!

Do you have any favourite recipes from your childhood? What delicious treats do you like to cook with your kids (or on your own!)? 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time...