Today is what would have been Marguerite Pattenβs 100th birthday. In case you havenβt heard of her she was one of the first celebrity chefs, the Mary Berry of the 1940s and 50s, who died in June just five months short of her milestone birthday.
Marguerite Patten featured throughout my childhood, so to mark her special day Iβm taking part in #Marguerite100, a cookalong in which everyone is invited to create their favourite Marguerite recipe or meal and share it through social media.
As a child I learnt to bake with the help of Margueriteβs 1960s βCookery in Colourβ (in which most of the pages are in fact orange, and the bookΒ is undoubtedly the reason I measure everything in imperial instead of metric) and my absolute favourite recipe was, and still is, for rich scones.
Here I am making them with my brother in the early 1980s, and I followed the same recipe to the letter in order to pass my Brownies βcookβ badge several years later.
When I was 17 my mum spotted a copy of the recipe book in a charity shop and bought it for me, and I now use it with BB to make – you guessed it – scones. I love how the spine is battered and the pages are spotted with spilt ingredients from previous, decades old bakes.
Anyway, I digress. Onto the scones. This recipe is classic, timeless, and without a doubt the best English scone recipe ever:
Ingredients
8oz self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
A good pinch of salt
2oz butter or βluxury margarineβ
Β½ oz β 1oz of sugar (I add 2oz raisins to the recipe so IΒ only use Β½ oz of sugar)
1 egg (beaten)
ΒΌ pint milk
Optional extra: 2oz of raisins to turn them into fruit scones
Method
Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter (this is my favourite bit β I LOVE the smell and the feel of the flour in your hands).
Add the sugar, beaten egg and fruit if using, then mix in the milk until you have a sticky dough.
Turn the mixture onto a floured worktop and knead. Then roll the dough out so itβs about half an inch to an inch thick.
Cut out the scones with a cutter or top of a glass, then brush with milk and bake at 220 degrees (gas mark 7) for 12-15 minutes.
Et voila! Absolutely deliciousβ¦
In memory of Marguerite Patten
4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015
If you’d like to take part in the cookalong it’s not too late – you can add your post to the #Marguerite100 Facebook page all this week.
Linking up with…
What a lovely thing for your mum to buy you that book and for you to carry on using the receipes all these years later and with your children too. #throwbackthursday
I think the book only cost a few pounds – it’s got annotations from the previous owner too which I love!x
I love scones. Fruity with cream and jam or hot cheese ones with butter….. Mmmm
And well loved, well used cookbooks are great too. Nothing sader than an unused book. Thanks for linking up xx
#happydiaries x
I like mine with just butter – yum!
Oh this is perfect. I need a good scone recipe – mine always turn out rock hard! Great pictures too. Happiness is a good scone #happydiaries
You won’t be disappointed with this recipe x
It’s interesting how some of our best memories involve food π This recipe looks perfect! Thanks for sharing.
Probably because of the lovely smells!x
Oh this is fab! It reminds me very much of the ‘bero’ book that my Mum has and I now have! I love scones, delicious! Great throwback…thanks for linking up lovely #throwbackthursday *now wanting to make scones*.
You could pass it on too x
Big scone lover here too!! Jam and cream, delicious!! Lovely happy post, thanks for sharing! #happydiaries
You can’t be anything but cheerful after making scones!
What a lovely idea to use the recipe that you used in the ’80’s including using it to get your Brownie cookery badge. Made me remember similar times. The photo is great! I absolutely love scones too so will be giving the recipe a try.Thanks for sharing #HowToSundays
It brings back lots of memories x
Ouuuuu I have some clotted cream in my fridge, you know what that means
And jam – you must have jam!x
Lovely post. I have recipe books that I used as a kid – still go back to them again and again. I was actually thinking last night when I got one of them down about all the ancient splatters on them π Pinning your great recipe π
Thanks so much! I love the ancient splatters!x
What a lovely story! I must confess I’d never heard of her before but the recipe looks great. I always use my mum’s recipe but I will give this one a go next time. Love that pic of her too! Thanks for sharing! Becky x #HowtoSunday
She was a legend x
What a yummy and perfect recipe #Sundayhowto X
We’re still eating them nowx
Aww, love that you cook the same scones now as you did back in the 80’s as a child! My go-to cake recipe is a Victoria sponge recipe that I memorised from a very young age when I baked with my mum, I bake the same recipe now with O. Such happy memories! You and your daughter look very alike in the photos, definitely a little mini-me.
Thanks for sharing Marguerite’s scone recipe and thank you for linking up to #HowtoSunday π x
I also use the same Delia sponge recipe as I did with my mum – all the oldies are the best!
This is an old post, but I was looking for a classic English scones recipe, and my mum still has Marguerite Patten’s Cookery in Colour book which I hoped I’d find somewhere online as I no longer live in the UK. Wonderful to read that Marguerite had as much impact on you as me! And fabulous to find her scones recipe too π
Funnily enough although this is an old post (almost six years old now!) it’s one of my most-read posts. An oldie but a goodie! I hope you find a copy of the recipe book online – ours is still going strong & used often!