Deirdre Maddens’ Scones

Those of you who did the Home Economics in the Leaving Cert back in the day will have probably used- or come across- Deirdre Maddens fantastic All About Home Economics book.

If ever you wanted or needed to know the basics of cooking, sewing, general home-making; this is your bible. My well-thumbed copy is regularly used, and, following a dream about her scones, I made them exactly to her recipe (well, I doubled the quantities…)

As would be expected, they were perfect (funnily, I find, this is an outcome that happens when one actually follows a recipe rather than winging it)

When my children eventually fly the nest (although they regularly threaten they will never leave) this will be the book I give them a copy of. Recently the book has been re-published, find it here, and in the meantime, do go and make these scones….

Tea Scones

200g flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g butter

25g caster sugar

1 egg

A little milk (approx 2 tablespoons)


Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl

Rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar

Beat the egg and milk in a small bowl and add to the mixture (you can keep back a little to use as a glaze if you like) Mix to a soft dough, adding more milk if necessary.

Turn onto a floured worktop and knead until smooth underneath.

Roll out to at least 1 cm in thickness and cut into rounds.  Place on a greased tray, brush with egg and bake in a fairly hot oven 215’C/ 425″F, Gas 6 for about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire tray.

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