Scones with Clotted Cream and Jam
Classic British scones, lightly crisp outside and soft within, split and piled with clotted cream and strawberry jam.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 12 min
- Total
- 32 min
- Serves
- 8
- Level
- Easy
Ingredients
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Method
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The story of this dish
Scones are generally agreed to have come from Scotland. The first scones were usually flat cakes made with oats, shaped into a large round, cut into wedges and cooked not in an oven but on an iron griddle, known in Scotland as a "girdle".
With the spread of baking powder in the 19th century, the soft, well-risen, oven-baked scone we know today appeared. Around the same time the custom of afternoon tea took hold in British social life, and the scone became one of its stars.
The cream tea, scones served with clotted cream and jam, is closely linked with Devon and Cornwall, which keep up a friendly rivalry: in Devon the cream goes on first and then the jam, in Cornwall it is jam first, then cream. Even the pronunciation, rhyming with "gone" or with "bone", is still hotly debated in Britain.
British Cuisine
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A much-loved British bake of lamb mince in a rich vegetable gravy, topped with buttery mashed potato and baked until golden.
Apple Crumble
An easy British pudding of warm cinnamon apples under a buttery, crunchy crumb topping, with no pastry to roll.