Four Seasons Scone

Divide the class into four groups and allocate a season (spring, summer, autumn or winter) to each group. They will decide which ingredients will go into their seasonal scone.

Prepare equipment and switch on oven: Gas mark 7/220°C.

Ingredients: 250g self raising flour, 1 x 5ml spoon baking powder, 150ml milk, 50g butter or margarine, 25g grated or crumbled cheese PLUS a choice of 1 or 2 additional seasonal ingredients (see next 4 slides for ideas).

Choose from these …

or these …

1. Lightly grease a sandwich tin.

2. Coat the base and sides of the tin with flour.

3. Put the flour, baking powder and margarine into a mixing bowl and cut the margarine into small pieces.

4. Rub the fat into the flour using finger tips, until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

5. Add the cheese and any other flavouring ingredients.

6. Add the milk a little at a time and stir into the mixture with a round bladed knife. You may not need it all - stop when the dough sticks together. It shouldnt be sticky!

7. At this point you can press the mixture together with your hands.

8. On a lightly floured table, use your hands to shape the dough into a round, 2-3 cms thick.

9. Place the dough into your prepared tin and score into quarters, not quite cutting all the way through.

10. Brush the top of the scone with a little milk.

11. Top with nuts, seeds or grated cheese if you wish.

12. Bake for approximately 20 – 30 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Then cool on a wire rack.

13. To check if cooked, the base should sound hollow when tapped.

14. Once all 4 scones are baked, each group divides its scone into the 4 scored portions, passes 3 of them on to the other groups and keeps one. With this one, plus the 3 portions they have received, each group can reconstruct one scone made up of all 4 seasons.