Mary Berry's Fruit Scones

These scones are absolutely delicious; they are made from scratch in only 20 minutes, and the smell of freshly-baked goodies is pure heaven. If you need some yummy bites for any party or celebration, look no further, some classic English scones is all you need.

To say that English people love scones is definitely an understatement. They are ever so popular all year round, and make for an excellent choice if you fancy a posh British afternoon tea.

Or even a lovely breakfast or brunch. Butter them nicely, if you don't have clotted cream, and there can't be anything more indulgent. A proper treat, I'm telling you!

Now, the English scones are quite different from the American version. They are closer in texture and shape with the American biscuits, while the term biscuits means crackers in the UK.

The fruit scones are quite similar to another classic British treat, the rock cakes, although the rock cakes are a lot shorter than the scones.

Ingredients overview

• self-raising flour - it helps with the fluffy texture
• baking powder -still used, even if self-raising flour is required
• full-fat milk - the semi or skimmed milk is not as creamy, and might not get the same texture
• butter- soften
• eggs - at room temperature
• handful of dried fruit - it can be only raisins, or a combo of dried fruit
• caster sugar - granulated sugar would also work

Step-by-step photos and instructions

• sift the flour together with the baking powder, then add the butter and use your fingers to rub it with the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs

Most recipes call for unsalted butter, but for my scones I used normal salted butter and they were just perfect. Perhaps it's best to give both a try and see which one you like to use best with this recipe.

• beat the eggs well, add the milk and pour over the dry ingredients together with the fruit

Do not overmix though, we need the scones to be light and fluffy rather than dense. Just knead until the dough comes nicely together.

• use a rolling pin to roll the dough into about 1 ½ cm or half an inch thickness
• use a round cookie cutter or glass to cut out 20 scones

Now, depending on the size of your cookie cutter, you can get more or less scones, the shape is not that important. I would, however, use the same size so the scones can bake at the same time.

• bake in the preheated oven at 220 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 10-12 minutes or until golden
• serve warm or cold

Expert tips

This is pretty much a failproof recipe that can be enjoyed any time of the year, be it for a special occasion like the upcoming Queen's Platinum Jubilee, an Afternoon Tea, birthday parties, Mother's Day, and so many more.

Scones can be sweet or savoury, I absolutely love my Cheese and Chive Scones, they are a great addition to any picnic, BBQ or a nice snack inbetween meals.

The secret to making delicious scones is getting the right balance between the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Too little liquid, and the dough is tough, hard to work with, and the scones are blah.

On the other hand, if the dough is a bit too wet, it can be easily fixed with a bit more flour - add a bit at a time to have a nice soft dough that is easy to roll.

Now, I'd rather not getting into the good old argument about what goes first on a scone, cream or jam, I think the pictures show clearly what my view on that is 🙂

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