Ok, now that you have your lemon curd, you need something to put it on! Here is Geraldine’s recipe for scones.
If you want one of the fancy recipes with chocolate chips or some such, there are plenty at other websites, so out of respect for Geraldine, we won’t put them here. The auld Scotswoman who taught her to make scones used to say, “Well, you can put in what you like, dear, and they may taste lovely, but they doon’t be scones.”
Scones
by Geraldine Duncann
Makes 12 scones
This sounds hard but it really isn’t. Just follow the directions and don’t stir the dough too much or you won’t have scones; you’ll have Hockey Pucks.
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 ½ sticks of cold butter or margarine
- 3/4 cup cold water
Preheat the oven to 500° or 550°. Oil a baking sheet (cookie sheet) or line it with baker’s parchment, and set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and sugar together into a large bowl. If you don’t have a sifter, just put them all into the bowl and stir with a fork or wire whisk. Cut the butter or margarine into very small pieces. Then, using a wire pastry blender, work the butter into the flour mixture until it is well blended.
At this point, none of the bits of butter should be bigger than a pea. (if you don’t have a pastry blender you can cut it up with two table knives or even use your hands and mush it.)
After the butter is worked into the flour, pour in the water, all at once, and using a dinner fork, stir it all round and round until the flour mixture has all been moistened.
Then, gather it into a ball and sort of shove it all together. Put it on a flat surface that has been lightly sprinkled with flour. Set the ball on the flat surface and cut it in half.
Form each half into a ball. Flatten the balls into disks that are about six inches in diameter. Cut each disk into six equal sized wedges; like you were cutting a pie.
Place the wedges of dough about an inch apart on the baking sheet and put in the center of the preheated oven.
Bake for five minutes, then turn the heat down to 350° and bake for another twenty minutes.
Remove from the oven and put in a basket or bowl lined with a clean cloth to help keep them warm.
Serve immediately with lots of butter and strawberry preserves. To eat these wonderful scones, do not cut them apart with a knife. Just pull them apart. If you try to slice them while they are hot, it will sort of squash the crumb and they won’t be quite as nice.