Scones (or, as I sometimes like to call them, ‘an excuse to eat jam and cream’) have always been a favourite of mine. They are perfect for picnics, girly afternoon teas, bringing a plate along to family lunches, sharing at the office or packing in kids lunchboxes! They are also extremely versatile. Into the scone batter, you could add chopped dates, sultanas, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, caramel bits, berries, pumpkin, cinnamon, nuts and much more! You could also drizzle the baked scones with a simple glaze or melted chocolate for some extra decadence. You could also try other spreads rather than the staple jam and cream — why not try peanut butter, Nutella, or lemon curd? The possibilities are endless!

I am a big fan of shortcuts in the kitchen. Any way I can make recipes faster, cheaper and with less washing up is a huge plus for me! I do love cooking, but the less time spent cooking and cleaning up is certainly an attractive option! I always have plenty of other things to do, including reading up on my fave food blogs, catching up with friends and my TV shows (yay for the return of Dexter, Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Merlin and more!).

Fortunately for me, these scones are an absolute snap to put together! I borrowed this recipe from a work colleague who is famous for these scones and have heard many other friends say they enjoy this simple, tried and tested recipe.

Are you ready? … I hope you have your notebooks ready, because if you blink, you’ll miss it!

Some call this recipe “Lemonade Scones”, but I like to call them “Cheat Scones” because they’re so dang easy to make, it feels like cheating!

Cheat Scones
Ingredients List : Makes 1 large batch of scones – about 20, depending on how large you make them

• 3 cups self raising flour
• 1 cup cream I used Coles thickened cream
• 1 cup lemonade I just used a homebrand version

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl.
3. Pour over cream and lemonade and mix together to form a sticky dough.
4. Turn onto lightly floured surface so the dough will not stick and knead lightly.
5. Press the dough into your workbench until it is about 2-3cms thick.
6. Cut with scone cutter (I dip it into flour before cutting each time to avoid sticking) and place on a lined baking tray and place all following scones together so they touch lightly (they will bake together but don’t worry – they will be easy to pull apart.) Optional – you can brush the tops with milk before baking.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and sound hollow when tapped.
8. Serve warm with freshly whipped cream and jam of your choice. These taste best fresh from the oven while still warm but are still delightful later, microwaved for 1 minute on high. This recipe also freezes well. (I just pop them in ziplock bags and throw them into the deep freeze for easy scone goodness later on!).

Freshly baked golden scones just waiting to be covered in jam and cream!

I always buy the 600ml container of cream from Coles — it’s the perfect amount because you can use one cup for the scones themselves and the other to whip and serve with them! I usually add a spoonful of caster sugar and cornflour to each cup of cream to slightly sweeten and stabilise the whipped cream. Any leftovers I keep in the fridge for scone goodness later on 😉

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! It’s so sad it was over so quickly but I hope you managed to sneak in a bit of relaxing in with all the hustle bustle!

Here’s to another week, cheers!
xoxo
C

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