Anna Hansen updates the humble afternoon tea with her take on the British classic of scones and strawberry jam. Toasted hazelnuts add nutty depth and texture to the scones, while adding ground tonka bean to both the scone mix and strawberry compote adds a huge flavour boost, with spiced notes of vanilla and clove.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 8.
Rinse the strawberries, hull and cut into quarters lengthways (or into eighths if large). Add the vanilla/icing sugar and ¼ of a teaspoon of ground tonka bean. Mix well and set aside. This will form the cold strawberry compote.
Roughly chop 50g of the hazelnuts and set to one side. Toast the remaining 200g of hazelnuts in the oven until they have just started to colour and roughly chop.
Sift the salt, flour, baking powder, remaining teaspoon of ground tonka bean and caster sugar together in a large mixing bowl then transfer to a food processor.
Add the butter, pulse until the mixture has the consistency of fine crumbs. Return to the mixing bowl, add the 200g of toasted hazelnuts and gently mix. Lastly add the cream and mix once more to form a dough, being careful not to overwork
Lightly flour a work surface, place the dough on to it and flatten to roughly 2.5cm. Use a knife or a pastry cutter to cut into 12 squares and transfer to a baking sheet. Brush the top of the scones with a bit of milk and sprinkle with the 50g of untoasted hazelnuts and Demerara sugar
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown. Serve whilst still warm with lashings of clotted cream and the strawberry compote.
