It’s the kind of e-mail writers love to get. A reader responding to my words and recipes. Its subject line was “years ago.”
It began, “Hello, Jan, my daughter is going to be 25 years old next month. She was born in Eugene, Ore., though we lived in Beaverton.
“I read the Oregonian’s FoodDay religiously. I found your recipe for Grandma Skinner’s Scones one day and we are still savoring them.
“I live in Pennsylvania now and said daughter lives in Seattle. She is coming here for a birthday visit next month and I’m planning your scones — with everything we eat. They are wonderful!”
So like most mothers preparing for a child’s visit, she was plotting her menus. That’s when she discovered that the scone recipe was missing. But unlike most e-mails of this sort that come through my mailbox, Anne wasn’t asking for a duplicate of said recipe.
I get a lot of that, and trust me, I don’t mind. I love reconnecting folks with a treasured recipe. Anne had found Grandma Skinner’s Scone recipe on the Internet and was simply sharing her story. Because she knew I would care.
As she wrote, “My kitchen would fall apart if I couldn’t make those scones. I hadn’t missed them until now as I’ve been a bit too ill to eat much but am well now and starving. Thank you so much for sharing and providing us with years of eating pleasure.”
It’s always amazed me how one little tea cake with such a short name can have so many variations — both in preparation and pronunciation. These are griddle scones, but there are also oven scones. And within those two categories, there are baking soda scones and yeast scones, treacle scones and sweet cream scones.
As far as pronunciation is concerned, our family says scone so that it rhymes with “on.” But it’s just as often pronounced with a long “o” — and in some parts of Scotland and Wales, the word has acquired an extra syllable, making it “scoo-en.”
Grandma Skinner’s scones
3cups all-purpose flour
11/2teaspoons salt
11/2teaspoons baking soda
11/2teaspoons cream of tartar
1teaspoon sugar
1tablespoon butter
11/2cups buttermilk
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar and sugar. By hand, rub the butter into the flour mixture, making small cornmeal-like granules. Add the buttermilk all at once, then working quickly but gently, mix with a dinner knife (spoons over-work the dough, making a tough scone) until the dough is just barely mixed. Add a little more buttermilk if necessary, but don’t make the dough sticky.
Divide the dough into quarters. On a floured cutting board, roll out each quarter into a circle 1/4-inch thick. Cut each circle into quarters. Bake the scones in batches on a medium-hot (325 degrees), lightly greased griddle for a few minutes (until lightly golden). Turn and cook the other side. Now brown all of the edges by standing the triangles up and leaning them against each other for about 30 seconds; repeat with all three edges. As the scones come off the griddle, keep warm in a tea towel until ready to use.
Makes 16 scones.
At Scottish banquets, I’d sample other people’s scones. Some were extremely fluffy and contained moist raisins; others were made from treacle. There was even one that Bessie Scot always brought that didn’t resemble a typical scone at all. It reminded me of plain old pancakes, with one difference: it had a velvety smooth surface, and inside, it was spongy, not doughy or cakey.
I liked Bessie Scot’s funny little pancake scones, but as a child, it never occurred to me to obtain the recipe. In college, long after Mrs. Scot’s demise, I set out to duplicate her scone. I finally found a likely candidate in one of my Scottish cookbooks. It was called Mrs. Duncan’s Drop Scones, and it came pretty close. Even my roommates appreciated their unusual texture and slightly sweet flavor, so we’d make up huge batches and store them in the freezer for midnight study breaks.
Mrs. Duncan’s drop scones
2cups all-purpose flour
1/2teaspoon salt
2tablespoons sugar
11/2teaspoons baking soda
1egg
13/4cups buttermilk
Mix together the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. With a wire whisk, mix in the egg and buttermilk. Pour the batter in 3-inch rounds on a medium-hot, lightly greased griddle.
Cook the scones until they are lightly browned on the underside and the top is covered with small bubbles. Turn and cook the other side. As the scones come off the griddle, keep them warm in a tea towel until ready to serve. Serve hot or cold, with butter and jam or honey.
Makes 12 drop scones.
Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis, Ore., food writer, cookbook author and artist. Readers can contact her by e-mail at janrd@proaxis.com, or obtain additional recipes and food tips on her blog at www.janrd.com.
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