Lemonade Scones with Strawberry Jam and Cream

Scones, Skones or biscuits, whatever they’re called, wherever you’re from, it spells delicious!

Scones have been a tea time tradition since the day when Anna, the Duchess of Bedford ordered her servants to bring her some tea and sweetbreads for afternoon tea. The assortment of sweetbreads they provided Anna, Duchess of Bedford just so happened to include scones, and she loved them so much that she ordered them every single afternoon thereafter. Just like that, the tradition of eating scones at tea time was born! Speaking of tradition… I recently heard that in some parts of the world it’s traditional to apply the cream to a scone before the jam… umm, what!? How do you spread strawberry jam onto the top of the cream, is this even scientifically possible? and more to the point, why? Do you enjoy making your life harder than it needs to be? Ok, rant over.

Now, after all this talk of tradition, these scones aren’t exactly what I would call ‘traditional’, because these are scones with lemonade. With only three ingredients and very little handling, they are soo easy that it almost feels like cheating, this is why this lemonade scone recipe isn’t just for the scones, but also for the Strawberry Jam that accompanies them. Why did I add extra work to a quick and simple recipe just for the hell of it? Because if you’re anything like me, when you're in the mood to bake, 10 minutes in the kitchen just isn’t enough, and 10 minutes is all these scones take. Obviously, if 10 minutes is more than enough time in the kitchen for you, you can just buy some strawberry jam at the supermarket, but I highly recommend that you invest just a little more time into making this homemade version. It’s more than worth it for the fresh, sharp flavour, of a homemade jam, and it’ll be in its jar setting before your scones are even out of the oven. Promise! When you combine the tart, homemade strawberry jam with the freshly whipped, sweet chantilly cream and these gloriously flakey lemonade scones, you will thank me, and Anna, Duchess of Bedford for making scones with jam and cream a tradition in the first place.

Also, can I just take a moment to say that these photos were an absolute pleasure to shoot. I was in our spare room, set up on my old desk at around 5:00pm this past Sunday. As I was setting up to shoot (ie. splattering jam on the backdrop and adding copious amounts of jam and cream to scones) the sun began to set on our little street. It was gorgeous timing, the colours the sunset was throwing through our windows were just divine, and the combination of the warm orange hues and the cold blue tones made these photographs shine in a way I couldn’t have done without the help of mother nature. Just wanted to take a moment to appreciate that. And, now we can move on to the stuff you’re actually here to read, my top tips, some quick scone etiquette, and the actual recipe…

MY TOP TIPS FOR MASTERING THIS BAKE

#1 Use freshly opened lemonade. The bubbles in the lemonade go a long way to making your scone dough soft and workable; should your lemonade be flat you may find that your dough is dense and difficult to work with.

#2 If you don’t have lemonade, you can also use soda water, mineral water, any fizzy drink without a flavour really… or with a flavour, whatever floats your boat… just maybe not cola…?

#3 In English tea etiquette, it is proper to break your scone in half instead of cut it. The folding of the dough while rolling it out creates a natural fault line in the scone so that it can be easily and neatly broken in two with your hands. Handy!

#4 The strawberry jam recipe is more of a bonus recipe because these lemonade scones are so quick and easy that I always feel like I need to put more effort into them than just the scones and end up making jam too. The fresh, homemade strawberry jam really does take the scones to the next level, but if you’re short on time you can definitely just buy some strawberry jam instead, I won’t judge.

#5 Not a fan of chunky jam? Just pass your jam through a sieve before it goes into your jamming jar to pull out the chunky bits and voila, your jam is chunkless.

SCONE EATING ETIQUETTE BY OH HOW CIVILIZED

• Never take the jam and cream from the communal bowls with your knife, always use a separate spoon to move the jam and cream to your plate and then spread them onto your scone with your knife.

• Always break your scone into bite-sized pieces prior to eating.

• Use your hands to break your scones apart, don’t cut with your knife.

• Don’t pre-break the scones, only take off pieces as you go and only after you’ve already retrieved an adequate amount of jam and cream for the piece you’re breaking off. 🙄