Royal English Scones served with clotted cream and maple syrup

Traditionally Scones originated from the English county of Devon, served with jam and clotted cream. But trust me, have them with maple syrup instead and you will instantly forget all your sorrows. So in order to get your sorrows draining, note the ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 3 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1 egg beaten to be used as egg wash
• Maple syrup and clotted cream for serving 

Preheat your oven at 180-200 C . Now lets, get cracking with making the butter milk for the scones first, mix the milk and the lemon juice together and let it sit while you prepare for the rest of the recipe. After 15-20 minutes you will see the milk separating slightly and that's when you know your butter milk is ready.

Mix all the dry ingredients together with the butter and the shortening. Knead it well and add the butter milk little by little until you get a nice smooth dough. If your dough turns out to be too wet, sprinkle some flour on your worktop and work it well until you get a dough that is manageable.Pat the dough into a round about 4 cm deep. You can now, use your creativity and use any cutter of any shape but about 5 cm deep and smooth edged to get a clean cut so that the scones rise better. Dip the cutter in some flour and get cutting.Once you get the maximum number of scones from your dough, take the remaining dough and repeat the process. Place the scones in a well greased baking tray. Now, brush the egg wash mixture i;e the beaten egg into the top of each of these scones. The egg wash will give a very nice colour to the scones. Bake them for 15-20 minutes until the top is nice golden colour. 

Serve them hot with some maple syrup and a generous portion of clotted cream. This is the best tea partner and am sure everyone in your family and friends will thoroughly enjoy them.