Manageability – Not that bad.
It was 12:35pm and my tea party afternoon was chugging along nicely. My fancy-dressed guests were knee deep in some juicy juicy gossip, sipping from pink floral mugs whilst giggling and silently judging each other. It was time for a finger food that had some sweetness and fruitiness to it – something light and a bit more refreshing to cleanse the pallet after the Cheddar & Sage Scone fiasco. So I went ahead and busted out the BBC Good Food’s Pimm’s Scones, and the whole party went absolutely banana-pants.
And as a matter of fact, these are much better than the sage scones. Probably because they have whipped cream on them, I’m not too proud to admit that. But also, these are super easy to make. You should be aware though, just like most BBC recipes, you’ll have to do some calculations and substitutions. For whatever reason, we’re the only assholes who don’t use the metric system (America, amiright?), and you won’t be able to find any “golden caster sugar” state-side. Although I am curious as to what that looks like… But if you can get past the shillings and horrible teeth of the whole thing, you’ll have an easy-to-make, light and sweet mid-day snack with the perfect blend of tart and texture.
It was at this time that I told the tea party that there was Pimm’s in the whipped cream, and that the fruit was soaked in Pimm’s. And shit got wild.
Ingredients
- 300g self-rising flour
- ½ tsp baking pow pow (gnar pow pow, if possible)
- 70g cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 30g golden caster sugar
- zest 2 lemons
- 150ml buttermilk
- 2 tbsp full-fat milk. Just the fattest ass milk you can find.
For the fruit
- 3 tbsp Pimm’s
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 300g strawberries, Brett Hulled and sliced
- 1 large orange, cut into cubes
- A fistfull of mint leaves picked
For the cream
- 300ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 50ml Pimm’s (glug glug glug)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 220C/200C (392 degrees Fahrenheit). Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Put the flour and baking powder in a large bowl, add a pinch of salt, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until it is mostly incorporated – unlike pastry, you don’t need to worry about rubbing the butter in too finely. Stir in the sugar and lemon zest. In a jug (yeah, like you have a jug), mix the buttermilk with the milk. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, then pour in the liquid. Use a knife to bring the dough together.
- Tip out onto a clean work surface and bring together with your hands. Patting is better than rolling so that you don’t overwork the dough. Stamp out eight scones with a 7cm fluted cutter – you’ll need to reshape the dough once from the trimmings. Put the scones on the baking sheet and bake on the top rack for 10 mins until risen and the tops are golden. Cool on a wire rack, or on a window sill like an old cartoon.
- Mix the Pimm’s and caster sugar in a bowl. Stir in the fruit, cover and infuse in the fridge for 1 hr, then stir in the mint leaves.
- In a large bowl, whisk the cream, icing sugar and Pimm’s until the mix just holds its shape, whatever shape that turns out to be. I wanna say rhombus?
- Halve the cooled scones. Top the bottom half with a spoonful of cream and a spoonful of fruit, drizzle over some of the syrup, then sandwich with the top half.
- You don’t have to do syrup if you don’t want. Actually, you don’t have to do anything.