The better scone

I have been baking some scones for a church coffee morning.  For many years I have made my scones using the traditional British method – this is the one Mary Berry uses.  Basically it is self raising flour with a touch of extra baking powder, butter, milk and eggs -the dough is mixed with a knife blade into a soft ball and then handled as little as possible before baking.

I wanted to try making the scones for yesterday as professional looking as possible a) to be nice for the coffee morning b) to test out the new oven c) as a practice for my entry for the Cupar Flower Show in August.  So I tried a “battle of the scones” – the traditional Mary Berry style one versus Paul Hollywood’s method.  His is quite different as he uses strong bread flour with quite a lot of baking powder, and also recommends turning and handling the dough more.

I tried his way first – I went to a lot of trouble with precise measurements, very careful cutting and precise egg washing.  This was the result.

As you can see they are ok but not great – they have risen but don’t have the proper straight sided look a good scone should have – more a dome.  They tasted fine but were a little dry.

Then I made the traditional/Mary Berry ones.  I was starting to run out of time, so I made them my usual rather slapdash way.  This was the result.

I forgot to take a photo of the interior, but from the outside they were much more of a proper scone shape.  They were also fluffy and moist.  All round better in fact.

Sorry Paul, Mary wins.