I learned how to make scones in school. I was a very studious home economics student for Junior Cert. Shout out to Mary Hyland for her excellent teaching and endless patience. I can’t possibly imagine how frustrating it must be dealing with teenage girls who genuinely haven’t a clue what they’re doing in the kitchen.

Although I love baking now and feel like I’ve come a long way since my home ec days, I rarely (never) make scones. Until this night, in January 2020 when I revisited a classic.

I was visiting a family friend who needed to make a batch of scones. I rolled up my sleeves, tied up my apron and got elbow deep into a bowl of flour. This recipe makes 30 small (traditional sized) scones. The ingredient are imperial measurements because we were working from an old cookbook. If you want to translate to metric, by my guest.

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

Ingredients
2lb self-raising flour
1lb cold butter, cubed
1/2lb granulated sugar
100g glace cherries, quartered
100g desiccated coconut
8 eggs
4 tbsp milk

Method
Grease 2-3 baking trays. Preheat the oven to 200C.

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar, cherries and coconut.

Beat together the eggs and milk.

Make a well in the centre of the dry and mix in almost all of the egg mixture (reserve 4 tbsp for egg washing). Pull the mixture together with clean hands and tip out on to a clean work surface dusted with flour.

Roll out the dough to approx 1.5 iches and cut out approx 30 scones. Transfer to the prepared baking tray, brush the tops with the egg mixture and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

Allow to cool before transfering to an airtight container. Best served on the day of baking, afterwards I recommend heating in the oven, microwave or toaster.