Preheat your oven to 200C.

By hand, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the orange zest and give it a brief mix. Grate the butter into the flour mixture on the large holes of a grater. Using your fingers work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse crumb. Stir in the raisins.

In another bowl, whisk the milk and egg until smooth.

Using a fork, stir egg/milk mixture into flour mixture until a dough forms.

Empty the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead briefly so that it comes together. Pat down to form a large flattened disk. Using a sharp-floured knife or pastry cutter cut the dough into 8 triangles. Place these on a lined baking tray allowing space in between each. Brush the tops ONLY of the scones with a beaten egg and sprinkle the 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

If you are making the optional glaze, add the orange juice to the icing sugar a little at a time until you get a thick but runny consistency. It should not be too runny that it totally drips off the scones. Add more icing sugar to thicken if necessary. 

Allow the scones to cool a little before drizzling over the icing sugar and serve as soon as possible. 

A few tips on how to make perfect scones:

1. Don’t overwork the dough. Handle it as little as possible and gently flatten out before cutting your shapes.
2. Make scones by hand and work on a cool surface such as marble if possible. 
3. Allow the scones to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating.
4. Use cold or frozen butter. With this recipe, the butter is grated in and using fridge cold or semi-frozen butter makes it easier. 
5. Flour your knife, cookie or pastry cutter before cutting slicing into the scones. This makes the pastry drag less as you cut down which helps it rise in the oven.
6. If you are going to egg wash the top to get a more golden colour don’t egg wash the sides of the scone, ONLY the top.
7. If you want really high scones don’t flatten the dough too much before cutting. Keep it quite thick to start with. 

The raisins give the scones a lovely sweet edge and the orange zest a fruity note and if you add the orange drizzle no jam is necessary here.