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Scotch Scones
Make the preceding mixture for tea cakes, but shape with a small, round cookie-cutter. Bake on a griddle, turning on both sides until a delicate brown. Lay a napkin on a plate, arrange the scones on it and fold the corners of the napkin over them. Split and butter while hot.
A griddle scone rather than an oven scone, and the whole success of it lies in heat control: a dry pan at moderate heat, not high, so the inside cooks through before the outside colors.
- The missing base recipeThis entry depends entirely on "the preceding mixture for tea cakes," which is not reproduced here; from the handling described it is presumably a soft rolled dough stiff enough to hold a cut shape. Without that page in front of you the quantities are genuinely unknowable, so use any plain rolled scone or biscuit dough.
- Griddle heatThe recipe gives no guidance; aim for a heavy griddle at moderate heat, roughly 350–375°F if you can measure it. Too hot and you get a scorched crust over raw dough.
- Thickness matters more than diameterRoll to about half an inch. Much thicker and the middle is likely to stay underdone on a griddle; much thinner and it dries towards a cracker.
- TimingRoughly 5 to 7 minutes a side for half-inch rounds. The scone is done when the sides look set and dry rather than doughy, and a skewer comes out clean.
- "A small, round cookie-cutter"Read this as about 2 inches. Press straight down without twisting so the layers rise evenly.
- The napkin is functionalFolding a cloth over hot griddle scones traps steam and keeps the crust soft while the batch finishes — the same reason a bread cloth goes over a basket of rolls. It is not just table dressing.
- YieldA standard scone dough using about 2 cups of flour will give 10 to 12 rounds at this size, enough for four people at tea.
Griddle-baked scones are the older form: before the domestic oven was reliable, Scottish baking was done on a girdle, a flat iron plate hung over the fire, which is where oatcakes, bannocks and drop scones all come from. The origin of the word scone is uncertain, and early scones were large rounds scored into quarters rather than the small cut rounds directed here. Here it appears as a variation offered on the tea-cake dough already given, requiring no oven at all.