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Devonshire Cutround
8 ounces of flour 1 ounce of butter A small teaspoon of baking powder Little less than half a pint of water Mix the flour, butter and baking powder together thoroughly; add the water. Roll out, and cut in rounds about one inch in thickness, with a tumbler. Bake in a quick oven and serve hot, cut in two and buttered. If each round is brushed lightly with milk it will be colored a richer brown but care must be taken that they are not burned.
A plain English scone in all but name, made with water rather than milk and leavened with a single small spoon of baking powder. It comes together in a few minutes; the only real decisions are the hydration and the oven.
- Weights and volumes8 ounces of flour is about 1¾ cups scooped and levelled, though weighing is safer here since the dough is meant to be soft. The ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons.
- The half pint is ambiguousAn English pint is 20 fluid ounces, an American one 16, so "a little less than half a pint" is somewhere between roughly 7 and 9 fluid ounces. Add most of it, then bring the dough together with the rest only as needed — it should be soft and slightly tacky, not wet.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400–425F; period equivalents for 'quick' vary. High heat helps the baking powder lift the rounds before the crust sets, where a moderate oven tends to give flatter, drier results.
- No salt in the originalPossibly because salted butter was assumed; either way the result will taste flat to modern palates. A half teaspoon of salt rubbed in with the flour is a reasonable addition.
- Leavening is lightOne small teaspoon of baking powder to 8 ounces of flour is modest, and older baking powders were more variable in strength than today's double-acting kind. Expect a dense, biscuit-like crumb rather than a tall rise.
- "One inch in thickness" means the rounds, not the rolled sheet"One inch in thickness" -- roll the dough to a full inch, since the rounds are cut straight from the sheet. Cut straight down with the tumbler rather than twisting it; twisting is commonly said to compress the cut edge and hinder an even rise.
- HandlingRub the butter in quickly and mix only until the water is absorbed. Overworked scone dough turns tough, and this one has no egg or sugar to disguise it.
- Timing and yieldEight to twelve minutes at that heat, until risen and pale gold. Expect five or six rounds from a 3-inch cutter, a few more if the scraps are re-rolled; they are best within an hour of baking, split and buttered while warm as directed.
The cutround belongs to the West Country tradition of small plain rounds whose purpose is to be halved and loaded with butter, or with clotted cream and jam. Devon is more usually associated with the yeasted "Devonshire split", and this baking-powder version needs no proving and no yeast. As written it contains no meat stock, no lard and no gelatine. The use of water rather than milk suggests an economical recipe, the kind that works with whatever is in the house.