I happen to bake scones. I don’t actually think that I’ve ever had them on the list for my weekly bake, but I can and do make scones for folk. When I was little my mother would bake scones and she really would be able to whip up a batch when a friend called to the house unexpectedly. She wouldn’t have many stock ingredients to hand, but we would always have butter, flour, sugar eggs and milk.
As a young adult I tried baking scones but they were disappointing. They were always too thin and too small and so I didn’t bother.
When a customer asked me to bake some scones during the first lockdown I did a bit of recipe research and came up with a really good fruit version and a lovely cheese version, too. I realised that miracles do not happen when it comes to scones, and so that it is best not to flatten the dough much, (if at all), and that you may as well go wide in this day and age, as a narrow scone, (which I think was more traditional when I was a child) now just looks mean and skimping.
The first time I made them to sell I was astounded at the brevity of the operation. I mean. I timed myself last week making a quick batch of cheese scones to take swimming and I think from start to end of baking it was 28 minutes. Such a difference to bread which is at least 3 hours.
Maybe I should make some more scones. I do find my older hands don’t enjoy rubbing in the fat as much as they used to. But I do enjoy the quick alchemy.
Bread by Sarah 