Paul Hollywood’s Scones

These scones are perfectly light and tender, and totally delicious! Paul Hollywood’s recipe makes the ideal scone!

Who else is totally thrilled about the new season of the Great British Baking Show? It was the highlight of my week to see the whole crew again, and I can’t wait to watch a new group of bakers do their thing! We watch every Friday on Netflix as a family, and it is something we all look forward to all week long. I’m sure it’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan, since I love baking so much, and it’s so fun being inspired to try new recipes. One of the things I’ve been working on lately is mastering the perfect British-style scone, so I figured Paul Hollywood’s recipe was the best place to start. It turns out it really is the best! These scones are so light and fluffy, and perfectly tender.

I’ve made a lot of scone recipes before that turned out dense and heavy, and these are the first I’ve ever made that were as fluffy as a dream! As a rule, I don’t generally weigh my ingredients unless I’m making artisan breads, but this is definitely a recipe that you need to weigh the ingredients for! If you don’t own a kitchen scale, they are pretty inexpensive (there are many under $15) and totally essential if you want to bake using British, European, or Australian recipes, or just want to be really accurate when adding ingredients. It took a little time for me to get used to weighing my ingredients, but now I actually love it and find it really satisfying. Like I said, I probably won’t change the way I bake the majority of the time, because it would be so much work to convert all of my recipes (ugh!) but I can definitely see the benefits of weighing ingredients.

It’s really important to be gentle with the dough and not overwork it (and yes, you are required to hear the word “overworked” in Paul Hollywood’s voice in your head as you bake). If you handle the dough more than absolutely necessary, your scones won’t be as light and fluffy as they should be. The recipe says to serve the scones with clotted cream and jam, but since I didn’t have any clotted cream on hand (and have never actually tried it or seen it in a grocery store) they were totally delicious with just butter and jam. I’ve made these three or four times over the last few weeks, and every time I’m pleasantly surprised all over again by how absolutely delicious they are. Yum!

Paul Hollywood’s Scones

Print Recipe

Prep Time:20 mins

Cook Time:15 mins

Total Time:35 mins

Ingredients

for the scones:

• 500 grams bread flour
• 80 grams butter cold
• 80 grams sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 250 ml milk

for the egg wash:

• 1 egg
• pinch of salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425. Add 450 grams of flour to a large bowl. Grate in the cold butter, and use your fingers to rub it into the flour to make a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the sugar, eggs, and baking powder, and mix gently until the dough starts to clump together. Add half the milk and continue to mix gently, adding the remaining milk to form a soft wet dough.
• Sprinkle the remaining 50 grams of flour onto a clean work surface, and tip the dough out onto the flour. Gently turn it over to coat both sides with flour. Fold the dough in half, then turn the dough 90 degrees and fold it in half again. Continue turning and folding the dough until most of the flour has been incorporated and the dough is smooth. Be careful not to overwork the dough! Roll the dough out to 1 inch thick, and cut the dough into circles using a biscuit cutter or a glass. Place the scones on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Whisk the egg with the salt, and brush the egg over the top of each scone. Bake 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Servings: 12