Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/58

 get buttermilk, unless on a farm or station. When it is procurable, both soda loaf and scones are the better for it, as indeed are all kinds of cakes that are not required to keep any time. For scones the dough should be rolled out to about half an inch in thickness, painted over with a feather dipped in milk, and laid close together upon a thin baking sheet, baked in a quick oven; a slow one will utterly spoil them. For this reason you should never begin to mix them until your oven is ready. It should be just hot enough to bear your hand in it for an instant. Flour your tins just before laying the scones on them, and when baked remove them at once. Dust the flour off with a clean napkin, and range them on end, one against the other, to cool. Some people when making scones do not trouble to light the oven but use the frying pan: of course if you have a griddle it is better than oven or pan, but very few people possess this useful utensil. When baking scones in a common frying pan great care must be taken lest they burn. The fire must be low and clear, as much flame will smoke them.

Fried Scones are very nice. You mix the dough in the same way, but roll out much thinner than for baked scones: half as thin again will do. Put two good spoonsful of dripping into the pan, and let it boil: mind, it must not be merely hot, it must bubble and boil before you put in the scones. Put them in carefully, and directly one side is a rich brown turn it, and when you remove one, add another at once in its place, or your fat will burn.

Puffs.—There is a very nice little scone my children call puffs. They are quickly made, and capital for breakfast or tea. Rub your flour free from all lumps, salt it according to taste, add soda, half a teaspoonful to about a pound of flour, and one small teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or failing that a small quantity of acid, but the former is better; moisten with sweet milk, roll out very thin, and cut into three corner cakes, and fry in plenty of fat. If properly made they puff up into round balls quite hollow in the centre. They should be eaten hot with butter or jam. Some people put eggs in scones. I cannot think why, for they certainly do not require them. [sic] The eggs would be very much better boiled, and eaten as an accompaniment to the hot scones.

Scones (the best).—Put your flour (already sifted) into a large basin, a washhand basin is as good as any to use. To every pound of flour allow half a teaspoonful of salt, and the same of bi-carbonate of soda, crushed with the blade of a knife. Mix thoroughly while the flour is dry, then make a hole in the centre, pour in the sour milk, and very quickly stir into a dough. Knead a few minutes till the proper consistency is obtained, but on no account work it too dry. Roll out and cut into scones, and bake in a very quick oven. Everything depends on the oven, which should be heated and ready beforehand. Cut your scones about half an inch thick, or even thicker, so they will rise to nearly two inches, and a trayful should take just fifteen minutes to bake. Sweet scones are made by adding to the above about a cupful of white sugar. Butter can be rubbed into the dry flour if it is liked, but the plain unsweetened scones are best of all.

Scones (another recipe).

Ingredients: Three cups of flour, three teaspoonsful cream of tartar, one of soda, three of sugar, milk, salt.

Mode: Mix cream of tartar and a little salt with the flour, melt soda in milk, pour the mixture into the flour, mix up quickly into a soft dough. Bake in a quick oven.

Drop Scones.

Ingredients: Two cups flour, one and a half teaspoonsful baking powder, two tablespoonsful sugar, salt, milk, butter.

Mode: Put flour, powder, sugar, and salt in a basin, and mix well. Pour on sufficient milk to make a batter thin enough to drop. Put a