When is a Biscuit or a Scone NOT a Biscuit or a Scone???

My husband and I recently had a wonderful visit from a couple of friends who lived in McPherson, Kansas .......

We had thought and felt each time we´d met that we´d known eachother forever. In reality, we had only known eachother a couple of years , having bumped into them in Germany while we were all travelling.

It was exciting having them to visit us , when we were still living in Tenerife, (you´ll remember , before I was dragged kicking and screaming, scraping me off the runway, to live in England. .)

One day the conversation turned to baking, and suddenly it was as though we all spoke a different language, or at least my husband and I spoke a different language from our American friends.

l won´t go too deeply into the hilarity that followed my husband asking if they wanted cream cheese spread on their Tuc. !!!!!! As he pulled a packet of cheese biscuits out of the cupboard, , and our friends told us that to them Tuc was something to do with feminine hygene.

Scones and jam and cream? Anyone?.

´´Tt´s not a scone. That´s a biscuit´´ says my friend from the U.S.

Well what´s this, then?´´ I asked holding up some biscuits.??

They´re cookies.

OK I can go with that, but you can´t tell me that a scone is a biscuit. Makes no sense.

Here is a recipe for an English scone, if you want to call it a biscuit when you are back in Kansas go ahead,.

(We do really get along so, so well, but the amount of words that meant different things to us was a laughing point every day.

Énglish Fruit Scones

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Recipe.

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1 lb of self raising flour

a small pinch of salt

3 oz of butter or margerine

2 oz sugar

roughly half a pint of milk.

4 oz of dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, whatever you prefer)

milk for glazing.

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Method,

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Cut up the butter and work it into the flour (by hand or machine)

When it resembles fine breadcrumbs , add the sugar and dried fruit.

Gradually add the milk, mixing as you go, until it becomes a manageable dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly until smooth.

Roll out your dough to about half inch thick

Cut out scones with a pastry cutter the size you prefer . A 2 inch cutter makes quite large scones.

Place them on a baking tray and brush with milk to glaze.

They need only about 10 minutes cooking near the top of a pre heated oven.

gas mark 8 or 450 f

Cool on a wire rack until cool enough to handle. Split them in half and spread one half with jam/jelly add cream if liked.

Then call it whatever you want , but eat and enjoy.