Tomato pinwheel scones

I love to bake but have never really done much with scones (apart from eating them, of course!). I can never get the process of rubbing butter into a dry mixture and end up either covered in flour or just really frustrated. Sticking to muffins or cupcakes is much easier. This week's Food in a Minute recipe is for tomato pinwheel scones. It's unusual in that it uses creamy tomato soup in place of milk. I was feeling adventurous and gave it a go ...

The recipe itself seemed quite straightforward; however, it wasn't plain sailing for me. I followed each instruction religiously to make the ham and cheese variety. All was fine and I arranged the pinwheels in a cake tin, cut side up. I cooked them for 15 minutes, then gave them another 5, then another 10 ... they looked fantastic on top but were still really doughy and undercooked in the middle and bottom. I can't remember how many more times I set the oven timer (I resorted to covering them with tin foil to prevent the tops from burning). I eventually took them out and ate them as they were, not quite cooked but passable. For the record, they smelled and tasted great.

So, I'm appealing to the scone experts out there ... where did I go wrong? Does anyone have any tips for cooking scones or similar mixtures evenly?

Tomato pinwheel scones

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 30 g butter
• 4-6 sundried tomatoes, chopped (optional)
• 535 g can Wattie's Very Special Creamy Tomato Soup
  
  Feta and spinach
• 100 g feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
  
  Ham and cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Edam cheese
• 1-2 slices ham, chopped
  
  Pesto and cheese
• 2 tablespoons basil pesto or basil chunky dip
• 100 g cottage cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 210°C. Lightly grease a 22 cm square cake pan.
2. Sift flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the sun dried tomatoes and season with pepper. Pour in the tomato soup and mix to form a dough. Add more flour if the mixture is too wet.
3. Roll out on a well-floured board to make a 1 cm thick rectangle. Spread with a topping of your choice. Gently roll from the long side to make a pinwheel and cut into 9 pieces. Place in a cake pan cut side up.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked.

Tomato pinwheel scones