After a lovely Easter weekend spent sunning myself (aka burning myself to a crisp) on Boracay island in the Philippines, today brought me back to reality with a bump.  I’m yearning to be back on the beach, lazing about and over-indulging.  As with any seaside destination, the local cuisine there focuses on sea food so there were slim pickings for vegetarians.  Besides a sumptuous dish of tofu with ginger, chilli and lime, the real culinary highlight for me was the breakfast buffet in the hotel.

I live for breakfast buffets, they are the ultimate opportunity to gorge yourself purely under the pretence of getting your moneys worth.  And there is such a variety of breakfast food, much of it veggie friendly.  Amongst the usual cereal, fruit salads, cooked breakfast goods and pastries, was a basket of Breakfast Scones.  Dedicated scientific research on my part showed these scones to be no different from normal scones.  I thoroughly approve of the idea of shoving the word “Breakfast” in front of something and automatically making it suitable for that meal.  Like a Breakfast Jacket Potato, or Breakfast Brownie.

Nevertheless, the scones were delicious and put me in mind of my own favourite recipe, from the good old Be-Ro Book provided by the flour-makers.  It’s by no means a fancy recipe, but I’ve yet to find one that I prefer.  Whip up a match for breakfast, or stick to the more traditional afternoon tea, either way they’ll be delightful!

Scones

From the Be-Ro Book (Makes 8)

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

50g margarine

25g caster sugar

50g currants/sultanas

1 egg, beaten with enough milk to make 150ml liquid

Method:

1.  Heat oven to 220C and grease a baking tray.

2.  Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then rub in the margarine with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3.  Stir in the sugar and fruit, either with your hands or a wooden spoon.

4.  Add most of the egg and milk, reserving a little for brushing the tops of the scones.  Mix well until it forms a dough.

5.  Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out to 1cm thickness.  Cut into 6.5cm rounds, re-rolling the trimmings to make more.  (Mine are bigger than 6.5cm, due to the tools available, but I’d say smaller is better.)

6.  Place them on the baking tray, brush with the leftover milk and egg and bake for about 10 mins.  Serve with tea, jam and cream.