Selena Robins, Author

There are two things that my late mum-in-law gifted me that I shall treasure for the rest of my life. (Okay, really three things, the first is the gift of her giving birth to my husband 🙂 ) Other than a great example of being a wonderful mum and grandmother, she left me two books.

One, her personal journal.

She kept a daily journal with her thoughts; what she did that day and musings about all her travels. When I’m missing her I will read the journal. One entry that always makes me laugh is when she was over at our place for dinner one night.

She wrote:

Tired from our trip back from England so it was a welcome break to go to son’s and daughter-in-law’s for dinner and play board games. I brought Selena back a huge bar of Cadbury chocolate. Dinner was delicious and so was dessert, even though Selena changed my trifle recipe. Must remember to ask her if she also changed my popover recipe. Pretty sure she did, they taste good but a wee bit different. We had a wonderful visit, but Selena never opened the Cadbury bar I brought for her. Good thing I have a hidden stash of my own at home….

Then her musings went on to talk about her trip.

The second gift she left me was her handwritten recipe book.

She started writing her recipes in this book when she was a young bride. The highlight of this book are her comments beside each recipe, and it’s fun to read how her cooking skills changed from when she was a newly wed to when she became a mum and then a grandmother.

Welcome to another edition of Tasty Tuesday.

This week I am sharing a scones recipe from my mum-in-law’s recipe book.

She made these scones as a young bride, and I have not made any revisions to this recipe when I baked some myself….(okay, maybe just a teeny revision. I used currants instead of raisins).

Scones

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. Flour (2 cups)

Pinch of salt

2 “good” tsp. Baking Powder

2 oz. Soft Butter (1/4 cup)

4 oz. Milk

1 TBSP Sugar (dissolved in milk)

1/2 tsp. (not a good one, the exact teaspoon) Nutmeg

1 Small Egg

3 oz. Raisins

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 F

Dissolve sugar in the milk. Set aside.

In separate bowl: sift together the flour, salt, raisins and baking powder.

Rub in soft butter.

Beat egg well and add to sugar and milk.

Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add the liquid all at once, mixing with a knife.

This mixture is very soft and sticky.

Sprinkle your working surface with flour.

Shape the dough into a ball on the floured surface.

Make sure your hands are floured to be able to work the dough without it sticking to your fingers.

Roll lightly until 1/2 inch thick.

Cut in desired shapes. Round is a good shape. Flatten a little with fingers. Scones should be about 1/2 inch thick.

Brush each scone with egg wash (beat an egg with a fork and add a splash of water).

Sprinkle sugar on each scone.

Place on greased cookie sheet and place in hot oven.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes.

Serve warm, split and buttered.

Makes 2 dozen

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me and you make some of these for the next time you have a tea party….or to enjoy with a glass of cold milk (coffee drinkers, I’m sure they are good with coffee as well).