Date Scones

Ingredient	24 scones
Wholemeal plain flour	4 ½ cups
Baking powder	1 tablespoon (use 3 teaspoons if using self-raising flour)
Salt	Pinch
Sugar (optional)	1 tablespoon
Butter	3 tablespoons
Chopped pitted dates	1 ½ cups
Eggs	3
Vanilla essence	3 teaspoons
Milk	¼ cup

	1 Preheat oven to 200ºC.. Lightly dust a baking tray with flour.
	2 Sift all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, add any meal back in from the sieve.
	3 Using fingertips, rub butter into flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
	4 Stir in chopped dates, then eggs and vanilla essence.
	5 Add ¼ cup of milk and combine mixture (using your hand or a table knife). Add more milk if the dough is too dry.
	6 Knead the dough to combine (1-2 minutes).
	7 Dust flour over the bench and roll the dough out to approximately 1cm thick. Use a round cookie cutter to cut into 20 scones.
	8 Place on prepared baking tray and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden.