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Oven Scones
2 cakes compressed yeast 2 cups milk, scalded and cooled 1 tablespoon sugar 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup of lard or butter 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup citron 1 egg 6½ cups sifted flour 1 level teaspoon salt Dissolve the yeast and one tablespoon of sugar in the lukewarm milk; add three cups of flour and beat well. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from draft, until light-about one hour. Then add butter and sugar creamed, the egg well beaten, fruit well floured, balance of flour, to make a soft dough, and the salt. Turn on board; knead lightly; form into twelve round cakes; cover and allow them to rise fifteen minutes. Then roll one fourth inch thick; cut across each way nearly through, making an impression of four cakes. Place in well-greased pans; let rise about one hour, or until double in size. Then brush with egg diluted with water. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.
This is a yeast-raised, fruited sweet bread in the older Scottish sense of a scone, not the baking-powder wedge sold under that name today. Nothing about it is difficult, but two things need translating: the yeast and the oven.
- The yeastTwo cakes of compressed (fresh) yeast comes to about 1.2 oz if they are the standard small 0.6 oz cakes, though compressed yeast was also sold in larger sizes. If you cannot get fresh yeast, the usual equivalent is roughly 4 1/2 teaspoons of active dry, or 3 1/2 teaspoons instant, proofed in the lukewarm milk as directed.
- Scalded and cooled milkScalding was done to deal with enzymes and bacteria in raw milk that could weaken the dough. With pasteurised milk it is generally unnecessary; just warm 2 cups to about 105F. Do not use hot milk -- yeast begins to suffer well above blood heat and is killed at around 120F and up.
- Moderate ovenAbout 350-375F. Fifteen minutes is right for cakes rolled this thin; watch for a deep gloss on the egg wash rather than trusting the clock.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in tubs around the winter holidays. Half a cup, chopped small. Candied orange or mixed peel is the usual substitute and behaves the same way.
- LardOne-third cup of lard or butter, creamed with the sugar. Lard gives a softer, shorter crumb; butter gives more flavour. Either works, and shortening is a straight swap for the lard.
- Flouring the fruitTossing the raisins and citron in a little of the measured flour keeps them suspended instead of sinking into the bottom of the dough. Take that flour from the 6 1/2 cups, not in addition to it.
- The shapingTwelve rounds rolled a quarter-inch thick, each scored crosswise nearly through so it breaks into four farls after baking. Cut deep enough to guide the break but not so deep that the pieces separate and dry out.
- YieldTwelve scored cakes, or forty-eight small pieces. The dough is large by modern standards; halve it if you are not feeding a crowd.
- Filed oddlyThe section heading given in the book reads Frozen Desserts, which does not match the recipe.
In Scotland a scone was originally a large flat round baked on a girdle and cut into farls, and the oven scone is often said to be simply the version made where a girdle was not to hand. This one keeps the old shape — a round scored crosswise into quarters — while using yeast rather than the sour milk and soda of the girdle tradition, which puts it close to a small fruited bun bread. The compressed yeast cakes date it: commercially produced fresh yeast in cakes was widely used as a household leaven in North America from the late nineteenth century until dry granulated yeast displaced it in the 1940s, and cookbooks of the period specify cakes as casually as we now specify packets. The citron and raisins mark it as a treat loaf rather than daily bread.