Scones with Jam and Clotted Cream

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C (200 °C fan) and put a baking tray in to heat up with it.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar.
3. Warm the milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds until lukewarm and stir in the vanilla and a dash of lemon juice.
4. Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in the milk and stir quickly with a knife; the dough is quite wet at first.
5. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface, flour the dough and your hands lightly and fold the dough over two or three times until it is a little smoother. Pat it into a slab about 4 cm thick.
6. Using a floured 5 cm cutter, stamp out rounds straight down without twisting. Press the offcuts together and cut out more until you have 8 scones.
7. Brush the tops with beaten egg, set the scones on the hot tray and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until risen and golden.
8. Serve warm, or cold on the day of baking, generously spread with jam and clotted cream.

Drink with it

• Sparkling wine · excellent match

  Champagne or Crémant, brut, well chilled

  Bubbles and acidity cut the butter and clotted cream, and the yeasty notes of the sparkling wine mirror the fresh bakes; customary for a festive cream tea in England.

  Sparkling wine, Champagne, and Prosecco: what's the difference? ↗

• Sweet wine · good match

  Riesling Auslese or Sauternes, well chilled

  The residual sweetness stands up to the jam, and the lively acidity stops the cream and pastry from feeling heavy.

  Which wine goes with dessert? Comparing sweetness deliberately ↗

• Fruit liqueur · good match

  Crème de cassis topped up with brut sparkling wine (Kir Royal)

  Dark berry fruit ties in with the jam, and the sparkling wine brings bubbles and acidity against the cream.

• Floral gin · good match

  Floral gin as a gin and tonic, with ice and a lemon zest

  Carbonation and the bitterness of the tonic cut through the butter and cream, and the floral notes suit the fruit jam.

  Gin styles: London Dry, Old Tom, Navy Strength, and more ↗