Buttermilk and Sour Cherry Scones for Afternoon Tea and Picnics

French Tart's Note:

A delightful and EASY scone recipe that is perfect for a proper afternoon tea or to take on a picnic. Dried sour cherries are sensational and give a deep essence of cherry flavour to these scones, whilst the buttermilk makes them light and airy. This is a casual eating scone, easy to rustle up, and is perfect when eaten fresh from the oven with butter and maybe some cherry jam and cream too! If taking on a picnic, wrap the scone in a clean tea towel to keep it warm and pack the butter and jam separately. Makes one large scone, which is marked to split into wedges when served.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4-6

Yield: 1.0 large s ...

• 250 g plain flour
• salt
• 2 tablespoons golden granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 150 ml buttermilk
• 50 ml milk
• 75 g dried sour cherries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/190 C fan/Gas Mark 5. Dust a baking sheet with flour.
2. Sieve together the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda. Mix together the buttermilk and milk. Make a well in the centre and pour on the buttermilk mixture. Mix well until the dough is even, and stir in the sour cherries.
3. To shape for cooking, set the dough on a floured surface and turn around in your hands, until you have a neat round shape. Use a floured knife to score the surface into 4 or 6 sections.
4. Transfer to the floured baking sheet and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Set aside on a rack to cool. Best eaten straight away, but can be stored for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Reviews

[Baby Kato]

A lovely quick and very easy recipe to make. I used large dried sour cheeries, they were incredible in this recipe. I loved it, I reduced the recipe by half and ended up with two beautiful scones for myself to enjoy. What a treat. I will definitely make these again. Thanks for sharing another wonderful recipe ma lettle tart. Made for Aussie Swap #41 :)

[Lalaloula]

YUM! Very flaky and crunchy scones with a lovely soft interior. The cherries add a wonderful sweetish sour taste that makes the scones special! The low amount of sugar used is perfect as it makes the fruit be the star of the scone. :) I was so sceptical about the total lack of fat, but completely trusted your British scones knowledge and of course it worked out fabulously well. I really like the ease of preparation of this recipe and how quick everything went together. I made half the recipe ending up with 3 big scones, that I cut with my Easter cookie cutters. Perfect, what a treat! Made and reviewed for Veggie Swap #21 April 2010.

[Cookgirl]

I was able to whip this together very quickly. The tops were brushed with buttermilk and lightly drizzled with demerara sugar. Barberries subbed for sour cherries because I could not find them in the pantry! Where are they?! As for the salt, didn't know how much therefore added 1/4 teaspoon. Baked in an eight inch cast iron skillet and served with butter and strawberry jam. Thanks, FT. Reviewed for 8th Annual Photo Swap 2010. (200 C converts to approx. 390 F.)