Who can resist freshly baked scones straight out of the oven slathered in good quality jam and cream? These 'magic' lemonade scones are made with only 3 ingredients - seriously, just self raising flour, lemonade (lemon soda in the US) and cream - in just 20 minutes. Just delicious!
2¼cupsself-raising flourPlus a little extra for flouring the surface, hands and pastry cutter. To make your own self-raising flour, add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to every cup of plain/all-purpose flour. For this recipe make 2½ cups to allow for any extra you'll need.
1pinchsalt(optional)
⅔cuplemonade NOT American style lemonade. It needs to be fizzy/carbonated. If you're in the US, Sprite would work!
⅔cupthick creamDouble, thickened, heavy cream depending on where you live.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 220C/430F.
Sift the flour into a medium to large bowl. Add the pinch of salt if using.
2¼ cups self-raising flour, 1 pinch salt
Stir the lemonade and cream together, then pour into the flour. Gently fold everything together until just combined. Then bring dough together into a ball with your hands (it will be soft and a bit sticky).
⅔ cup lemonade, ⅔ cup thick cream
With floured hands, pat dough down onto a lightly floured surface so that it’s about 3 cm thick (1 inch). Then use a small round pastry cutter (2.5 inches/6cm) to cut out rounds. Keep gathering the dough back up and patting it down again. You should get 8 to 10 scones.
Place the scones on the baking tray so that they’re close but not touching (1 to 2cm apart). Brush the tops with a little extra cream thinned with water if you like. Then bake for around 12 to 15 minutes until nicely risen and lightly golden on top.
Notes
To make self-raising flour (if you don't have any): Mix 2 teaspoons baking powder to 2 cups plain/all-purpose flour.To mix the dough: You'll find that the dough is quite soft and sticky. This is OK, but feel free to add a little more flour until it's dry enough to handle. Handle as little as possible before patting down and cutting out the scone shapes.Occasionally a reader reports that the dough is a sticky, runny mess! Don't worry, just keep adding flour, but little by little, JUST until you have a dough that you can push down and cut circles out of. Use a knife or spatula to lift the scones gently onto the baking tray.Substitutes: Feel free to use carbonated water or sparkling mineral water (without sugar) if you prefer not to add sugar to your scones. Although please note that lemonade scones do not taste overly sugary or lemony. To make cheese scones, add 100 grams/3.5 ounces cheese to the flour before adding the lemonade/cream, then sprinkle another 50 grams/1.75 ounces on top before baking.For fruit scones, add about 75 grams/2.5 ounces dried fruit to the flour before adding the lemonade/cream.Storage: Store for up to 3 days in an airtight container. To reheat, microwave for 20 to 30 seconds or lightly toast. Freezing: Wrap these scones well and freeze for up to 3 months.