Recipe of the week: sweet scones

Good food is key to diplomacy: it helps smooth the path to the resolution of conflict, says Ameer Kotecha. And its role is celebrated in The Platinum Jubilee Cookbook, a collection of recipes from Britain’s diplomatic outposts.

These are the scones served at Wilton Park in Sussex, an agency of the UK Foreign Office which is used to host summits and other diplomatic events.

Makes ten scones

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Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour, plus extra for rolling
• a generous pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 175ml whole milk
• 85g sultanas (optional)
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze

To serve:

• Devonshire or Cornish clotted cream
• English strawberry jam

Method

• Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan and put a lightly greased baking tray inside to heat up at the same time.
• Tip the self-raising flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, and mix to combine. Add the butter, and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs (you can do this in a food processor, but take care not to over-process the mixture). Stir in the caster sugar.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture, then add the milk and combine it quickly with a fork until you have a sticky dough.
• Lightly flour your work surface and tip out the dough. Sprinkle some more flour over the dough and, using floured hands, knead the dough very lightly. Work in the sultanas, if you like – to make fruit scones. Roll out the dough to a rough rectangle about 3cm thick. Dust a 5cm round pastry cutter with a little flour and cut out as many circles as you can, re-rolling the trimmings as necessary until you have used up all the dough and have 10 scones.
• Brush the top of each scone with a little beaten egg, trying not to let it drip down the sides (which can stop the scones rising evenly). Then, place the scones on the hot baking tray in the oven. Bake them for 12-14 minutes, until they are risen and a pale, golden brown colour. Remove the scones from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
• Eat the scones either just warm or fully cool, but as soon as possible. There is only one way to serve them: split in half and served with lashings of clotted cream and strawberry jam.

Recipe contributed by Tony Franklin. Taken from The Platinum Jubilee Cookbook by Ameer Kotecha, published by Jon Croft Editions at £30. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £23.99 (incl. p&p), call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.