Scones

Today I am going to try and write about food. That was what I was planning all along, but sort of have strayed.

Scones.

What is a scone? Is there an original recipe? I know that scones originated in Scotland back in the 15oo's. I began making them a bit more recently.

In the mid eighties I was a stay at home dad. This is when I decided to learn how to bake/cook. I did not live near any relatives and I wanted to create the feeling that I had when I was a kid. The smell of something cooking for dinner, a fresh baked treat for after school, cookies cooling on paper grocery bags and there was nothing like melted butter on fresh baked bread. During this time I found a recipe for drop scones. (was there ever a magazine called HOME the size of the old TV guide?).

It took a lot of playing around and searching for different recipes before I began to like scones. It is weird, but now I have this strange affection for them. Owen asked me if I invented Sticky Buns. I feel that I did discover scones.

The scone that I learned to love is a sweet buttery biscuit. In my mind it is reminiscent of farm food. Now you can find scones everywhere. When I see them I am always curious. Most of the time they are a cross between a muffin and a scone, call it a mone or a scuffin. The reason for this is that a muffin and a scone are very close in ingredients. But with them you are striving for opposite effects. A muffin light and moist a scone dry and dense. I find that I might be the only one that is looking for this. Lately I am seeing recipes that use eggs in the scones. This is new to me. I am beginning to like these scones but they are not a true scone or are they?

Before writing this I Looked up the origins of scones. The recipes that I found contained eggs! I guess I have been wrong all this time. It makes it easier for me to accept some of the newer recipes that I have found. They are good, what I think of as the origonal scone is still the best. I do remember reading this recipe in the Foster's a few years ago. It turns out someone from South Berwick won a contest with her recipe for scones. It was the same recipe I use. I wonder if she came into Flynn's once and maybe...

This is that recipe:
3cups flour
1T baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
1/3Cp sugar
8T butter (cut into pieces)

Put all in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until it is like coarse cornmeal.
Pour into a mixing bowl.
add

1Cp buttermilk

mix till no flour shows. Knead till it just comes together. Roll out to a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 6 wedges. Bake in pre-heated 400 oven till done (about 20 min.)

Enjoy with butter, jam or honey (or a combination!).
This is the basic recipe. It is easy to vary the recipe. Add some raisins or grate an orange rind into the flour mixture, add some almonds, cranberries, lemon, I think you get the picture. Play around with it. A simple rule to remember for rising purposes is 1T baking powder to every cup of flour.

This week no eggs in the scones.