I am looking for a scones recipe that uses yeast. I have some that require baking powder or soda, but would like to replicate some that were made in a local restaurant, with yeast.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 18, 2001

Answers

Here's two I found online: www.virtualcities.com/ons/ut/c/utc76014.htm has a recipe for buttermilk scones with yeast and www.betterbaking.com/baker2/yeastcinn.html (Baker Boulanger) has a recipe for cinnamon butter drop scones. Now you're making me want to bake : )

-- Kristin, in Central Alabama (positivekharma@aol.com), January 18, 2001.

Kristin, thank you. Now I have another question, Are scones always fried? I thought they were baked.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 18, 2001.

Rebekah,

I'm wiht you- I thought they were usually baked, as well. Randy used to live in England, so I asked him and he says he can't remember seeing them prepared.

I hope somebody else knows more about this...

Goog Luck

-- Kristin, in Central Alabama (positivekharma@aol.com), January 19, 2001.

They are usually baked. This is the first time I've seen any mention of frying! However, I am very intrigued by the yeast component and plan to try these -- baked, however -- really soon now! I haven't liked the type with baking soda very well. They're fine when they're fresh and hot, but once they cool, I find them lackluster.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 20, 2001.

I grew up with a different kind of scone. When my mother made bread, she would reserve some of the dough and cut it into golf-ball sized chunks. Then she would let it raise and fry it in a frying pan with butter until no longer doughy. I was well into adulthood before I ever tasted a baked scone made with baking powder, so maybe we have two very different items here that happen to share the same name.

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), January 20, 2001.

Laura -- we always called that Fry Bread.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 20, 2001.

This began to make me think about scones more, so I braved one of the closets to find all the cookbooks I bought when I was in the UK. Baked scones seem to be more of an English thing, and the historical cookbooks refer to scones in scotland being baked on a girdle (sic -- that is a griddle to us in the States) until recent times. Their recipes, and the Welsh ones, for scones and bannocks call usually for flouring a girdle and baking it on that. Except for the really old ones that bake on a rock or in the ashes wrapped in cabbage leaves. None of them called for yeast, and the really old ones didn't call for any leavening at all. It was more like baked mushes of potatoes, grain, and even weed roots. Anyone feel adventurous with those?

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 21, 2001.

Please, please send me some. yum. yum.

-- hillbilly (internethillbilly@hotmail.com), January 23, 2001.

Hi. I BAKE MINE AND THE KIDS AND GRANDKIDS LIKE THEM.

-- PRISCILLA (Mtasheacres@aol.com), January 25, 2001.

Julie, I too, would be interested in knowing more about your scone recipes. I love reading about and sometimes even trying old recipes.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), January 25, 2001.

Julie, I love to try old recipes done in old ways, please post. Thanks

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 25, 2001.

Okay, I will post 'em as I uncover them. The first is for cornmeal cakes, since it has a bearing on Ash Cakes. Add 1 cup cornmeal (yellow or white, stone ground preferred) and1/2 tsp salt to 1 cup boiling water, and mix until smooth. Add 3 T. melted butter and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls on a flat buttered baking sheet and flatten out with a wet spatula. Bake in a moderate oven (375) until browned, about 20 minutes. -OR- Put the baking sheet with the cornmeal cakes on it on the grid of your charcoal fire. Turn once when the underside is brown, but don't press down - leave them just as they are. -OR- Have ready 5-inch squares of buttered aluminum foil. In the center of each, drop a tablespon or two of the cornmeal mix. Fold the aluminum, carefully sealing all edges. Place right over the hot coals on your grill and cook about 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes.The time depends on the heat of your fire -- test one first. Unwrap and serve hot.

Ash Cakes -- the meal is just scalded with boiling salted water. Make into a dough, rolled out thin, and cut into little scones. A bed is made on the hearth by raking away the spark-sprinkling ashes. Each scone is rolled in a cabbage leaf and place in the bed of hot ashes, and hot ashes piled on top and left for half an hour. Lift them out of the scorched leaves and eat with rasher (bacon) gravy and eggs.

I will admit that I haven't tried the Ash Cakes! i used to bake apples and potatoes in the fire wrapped in foil, so it would likely work, and I've roasted enough corn in the husk on the barbeque to think it'd be okay!

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 27, 2001.

Here's an interesting off-shoot recipe

Old Wives' Sod (I kid you not, that's the name and no explaination of how it ever came about! Except that I think it's 'sodden' and baked)

6 eggs, well beaten, with 1 cup milk, pepper and salt to taste. Butter a shallow ovenproof disha nd pour in the egg mixture. Break up stale cornbread (scones?) or muffins into small pieces and sprinkle on top -- enough to cover the top of the baking dish. Sprinkle melted butter over all, and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 27, 2001.

To Make Cakes (dated 1663)

Take a pound of sugar finely beaten, four yolks of eggs, two whites, one half pound of Butter washt in Rose-Water, six spoonfuls of sweet Cream warmed, one pound of Currans well pickt, as much flower as will make it up, mintle then well together, make them into Cakes, bake them in an Oven; almost as hot as for Manchet half an hour will take them.

Currant Cakes (modern version)

Preheat oven to 350 F

Wash 1 cup currants and dry on a paper towel. Butter 12 muffin tins copiously and dust with flour.

Cream 1/4 cup butter until soft and light, and gradually add 1/2cup fine powdered sugar. Add 1 unbeaten egg yolk, and beat vigorously. Measure out 1 cup flour and sprinkle a spoonfu or two over the currants. Add the rest gradually to the butter/egg/sugar mixture, moistening it with 2teasp. rosewater and 2 Tablespoons heavy cream. When well mixed, add the floured currants and mix well.

Beat one egg white until stiff, but not dry, and fold it carefully into the batter. Place in the buttered and floured muffin tins, distributing equally. Place in preheated oven and bake until done at center, or about 30 minutes.

*I am assuming that they mean dried currants, which are a variety of raisin, rather than the red currants fresh from the garden for jelly.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 27, 2001.

Potato Scones (from The Best of Scottish Cooking)

8 Oz. mashed potatoes, 1/2 oz. butter, pinch salt, 2 oz. flour. Mash the potatoes or put through a potato ricer for smooth texture. Add the butter and salt and beat well. Work in the flour by hand, and then roll out very thinly on a well-floured board. Cut into large rounds and then into quarters. Cook these on a hot girdle for about 5 minutes, turning when browned. Eat at once with butter for best results.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 28, 2001.

Welsh Cakes-- makes about 5 dozen, depending on size

7 Cups all purpose flour, 2 T. baking powder, 2 teasp. salt, 1/2 lb. lard, 1/2 lb. butter 2 1/2 c. sugar, 1 T. ground nutmeg, 1 1/2 c. currants, 3 eggs, 3/4 c. milk.

Blend the flour, b.p., and salt together. Using a pastry blender, cut in lard and buter until mixture is grainy. Stir in the sugar, nutmeg, and currants. Beat the eggs and mix with milk. Blend liquid into solids, stirring with a fork to form soft dough.

Roll out the dough about 1/2 inch thick and cut into rounds of desired size. A round cookie cutter works well for this. Bake on an electric griddle, with thermostat set between 325-35o F on one side until the edges are firm (golden brown), then turn only once to cook the other side. Do not undercook.

* my note -- I feel that it is very important to use only freshly grated/ground nutmeg in cooking. Preground nutmeg out of a bottle or can tastes about like pencil shavings and is a big disappointment.

Obviously, you can cook this on your own griddle on the stove instead. I'm still looking for the recipe using the weed roots...

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 28, 2001.

and....Silverweed Bannock. The silverweed bannock is essentially a spring cake for the months of March and April, when the roots can be obtained.

Go over a newly ploughed field and collect as many silverweed roots as you require. They are easily recognized, being long, thin, and white or cream-coloured. Wash and rinse the roots thoroughly in cold water. Scrape gently with a blunt knife when required. Spread out on a clean cloth and dry in the sun, turning over and over again. When quite dry and brittle, break into very small bits. Put these back into the cloth, tie tightly and pound with a pestel or smooth stone until reduced to powder. Put into a bowl with some oatmeal or barley-meal and a pinch of salt. Mix well and rub in a good pat of butter. Make a well in the centre and pour in, little by little, just enough warm milk or water to make a stiff paste. Roll out into a round from half to thre quaters of an inch thick. Have the bannock slab (Ieac nam bonnach) heating in front of a bright peat fire, and stand the bannock against the slab to toast in front of the fire. When well toasted on one side, turn and toast the other.

A chunk of silverweed cake and a cuach (cup) of milk used to make a satisfying meal for the labourer in the field.

NOTE: Silverweed is the plant Potentilla Anserina. This root was much used in the Highlands and Islands (Hebrides) before the potato was introduced. It was cultivated and grew to a considerable size, and sometimes boiled in pots, sometimes roasted on stoves, and sometimes ground into meal for bread and porridge. It was considered palatable and nutritious.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 28, 2001.

In England we call scones "dropped scones" or "griddle cakes". I think our scones are called biscuits in the US. Scones can be savoury, baked with cheese or herbs, or sweet, plain of fruit (saltanas). These are then served with butter and jam (US jelly) or clotted cream and jam . Either way they are scrummy. The jam has to be strawberry to taste the best(my opinion) I think this forum is great. I am still reading the past postings, and I've got a long way to go yet but thanks guys because I'm learning so much. I feel like I've come home. Alison

-- Alison UK (sandybeach@bournemouth.co.uk), January 29, 2001.

my email address is darkstarATwaviDOTcom I already get to much spam so forgive how I post my address.

I know this is an old thread, but I have the solution to question regarding Baked vs. Fried.

Having grown up in Utah, I also didn't know anything about these other biscuits called scones everywhere else. Scones there are fried dough served with sweets (jelly, honey, powdered sugar, etc) or (with the chain of fast food restaurants SconeCutter) used like pocket bread for sandwiches.

The Utah way is basically a pioneer food, and I've heard that some book on scones out there has a mention/chapter/etc stating that scones are scones unless you are in Utah. :)

if anyone is still reading this thread I hope it clears it up.

Garth

-- Garth Johnson (nospam@wavi.com), May 14, 2001.

I am originally from Utah, and in a pinch, my sister used to make scones with frozen bread dough BALLS (found in the freezer section of the grocery store). She would defrost them just enough to shape them into a triangle-type shape, fry them, and we ate them with honey butter (which was made from scratch but you could buy it at the grocery, too). I only know of them to be fried, not baked, but I suppose they could be. Blessings, Traci in KY

-- Traci rae Davis (krystalgrace61@yahoo.com), June 08, 2001.