New Year, New Me! How are you all doing with your new year’s resolutions? I’m doing great, so after whole five days of excelling in my efforts it’s time for a reward.

Nowy Rok, Nowy Ja! Jak Wam wychodzą noworoczne postanowienia? Mi świetnie, więc po całych pięciu dniach wymiatania przyszedł czas na nagrodę.

These simple buns speak for themselves. Go on, bake them, you deserve it, you awesome you!

The recipe comes from Paul Hollywood’s “100 Great Breads” (ISBN 978-1-84403-700-1). I used to use random recipes on the Internet before, but now decided to take on this one and improve it when needed. For now I followed it fully.

I made two versions that Mr Hollywood provided: fully white flour and half½ with wholemeal.

Planning

None. It takes 50 minutes to make.

Ingredients

Enough for about 17 5 cm wide scones.

• 500 g strong white wheat flour (or 250 g strong white + 250 g strong wholemeal wheat flour)
• 75 g caster sugar
• 30 g baking powder
• 100 g sultanas
• 2 medium eggs, plus one more whisked for eggwash
• 75 g soft butter
• 230 g milk (270 g for wholemeal)

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C (200 C for wholemeal, didn’t use fan; may have been too much for my oven, know yours)

2. Add all ingredients except egwash and sultanas into a bowl and mix them for 2 minutes in the mixer, 5-6 minutes by hand

   

   Wholemeal dough (left), white dough (right)

3. Incorporate sultanas into the dough and put on a floured surface

4. Flatten the dough – a bit of an exaggeration, in this phrase, as the author tells to have it 5 cm thick

   

   “Flattened” dough

   

   The cutter sinks in the dough

5. Us a cookie cutter to cut out scones, brush them with eggwash and put into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill (if you have that much; I kept the for about 15-20 minutes). The wholemeal dough was significantly stickier, I would possible sprinkle some flour on top as well

   

   Brushed with eggwash

6. Brush the top again with eggwash, just don’t let it go down the sides so that they rise nicely (which doesn’t help my scones)

7. Bake for 15 minutes (15-20 minutes for wholemeal)

8. Let them cool on a cooling rack

   

   Scones

I seem to have given more butter than the recipe called for in the white ones, so they ended with a completely smooth sides.

Scones with a picture from the book

Both types simply cracked around the middle, not sure why. They didn’t expand like the ones from a picture. But who cares, they will all be gone in 24 hours.

The crumb

Serving

Serve classically with clotted cream and strawberry jam, or any way you like – butter works well, butter with jam, peanut butter. You can heat them a bit before eating for greater pleasure.

Scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam (thanks Mom!)