Sourdough scones

Most mornings my thoughts follow the same pattern as I wake up...those initial seconds of waking up to a new day, observing what the weather is doing, wondering what adventures the day holds, before realising it is another day of isolation. We're into week 7 in our household. 

Today, I woke up excited that I had been thinking of making scones since going to bed. 

I couldn't use the last of our precious eggs for baking, so knew that scones don't have to use egg. I could just brush them with milk instead. 

I decided to use some of my sourdough starter in an attempt to get them lighter and fluffier than usual and I'm not sure if it was the addition of the sourdough starter or the rest of the recipe (which used milk and lemon juice to make buttermilk) that did it, but they turned out great so I wanted to write up the recipe quickly so I don't forget! 

I used an adapted version of this recipe from BBC Good Food. 

Ingredients:

100g sourdough starter

135ml milk

310g self-raising flour

a quarter tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

85g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

38g caster sugar

squeeze lemon juice

a little milk to glaze (or a beaten egg to glaze but we only had a couple left in the current COVID situation so didn't want to use one for glazing)

A handful of sultanas

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C (fan oven)
2. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, then rub in the butter to make a breadcrumb-like texture.
3. Warm the milk for 30 seconds in the microwave. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to the milk. Add the vanilla extract. Mix and set aside.
4. Add the sugar to the bowl of flour which now resembles breadcrumbs, then add the sultanas. Mix.
5. Preheat a baking sheet in the oven.
6. Mix the sourdough starter into the milk, then pour the wet mixture into the bowl of flour and mix gently to form a dough.
7. On a floured surface, pat the dough to a thickness of around 4 cm. Then using a 7cm circle cutter cut out 10 circles. Place onto the heated baking tray and brush with a little milk.
8. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until looking lightly golden.
9. Remove from oven, leave to cool slightly, serve with cream and jam or butter and jam as you prefer.