Scones

Since living in Indiana many years ago, I always bring out one of my favorite movies, “Hoosiers”, this time of year. The opening scenes show Gene Hackman, affectionately known to my sons as “Coach”, driving through the colorful autumn trees in Southern Indiana. While there are many places that are beautiful as the trees put on their autumn colors, Indiana is where I associate that amazing change from the hot stuffy Midwest summer to the pleasant relief of fall. Fall is one of my favorite times of year and as the air turns cool it makes me want to bake.

I admire people like my daughter-in-law who have the patience to bake cookies other than bar cookies that you dump in the pan to cut into pieces after they have finished baking. My patience only extends about as far as scones. Although scones come from Great Britain, I always associate them with Indiana because that is where I found my favorite scone recipe. It doesn’t take much time or effort to prepare, cook, or eat!

One of the things about scones is they are really quite versatile. They are sweet enough, but not to sweet; light enough, but not too temperamental; and they are pretty resilient if you aren’t exact on everything. I do mostly measure the ingredients, but if I don’t use a knife to level the top of the flour, for example, they still turn out ok. They are good with breakfast, brunch, snacks, or dessert. You can add other things to them or serve them plain. Basically, they are undervalued in food circles.

Although these are not authentic British scones because they are more cookie-ish than biscuit-ish, I am somewhat of a purist in that I don’t really prefer raisins, craisins, blueberries, or the myriad of other things that people and restaurants add to scones. I like to just enjoy plain scones with the tiniest brush of butter across their tops when they are warm. I don’t even prefer treacle or honey that is customarily served with them, though I would certainly not discourage others from enjoying them that way.

Scones

The ones I usually make

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

½ cup shortening

½ cup raisins or dried currants

2 eggs, slightly beaten

¼ cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together. Blend in shortening with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add remaining ingredients. Mix with fork, divide into two parts, and turn each part out on floured board. Do NOT handle. Flatten with rolling pin into circles about ½ inch or more thick. Cut into triangles and put on greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake in preheated hot over (400º F.) for 15 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm, lightly buttered. Makes about 16.

What I Do: If you handle these, they will lose their light texture which contributes to my enjoyment. I am very hard on rolling pins so after breaking three of them, (How do you break rolling pins? Another story for another day.) I now just use a large drinking glass—although my favorite one is not glass at all. I have tried making these into the more traditional biscuit shapes, but the lose some of the texture that I enjoy about them.

The Real Deal

Scones

The real ones they make in Scotland

3 T. butter

2 cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp sugar

sour milk (or buttermilk)

Rub the butter into the flour. Mix with the other ingredients and enough sour milk to form a soft dough. Roll out ½” thick and press out into rounds. Bake 5-10 minutes @ 475º. These are kind of like biscuits that are served in Scotland. This recipe is from my friend’s mom who is from Scotland.