You know those people who make a signature dish or a kick arse cake or some other mouth watering delicacy and are too precious to share the recipe? Yeah..those people are a little bit sucky.
If we were living in Gilead, I would definitely agree that they should be sent to the Colonies. (sorry, I’m still obsessed with The Handmaids Tale…. Praise Be).
Luckily for me I don’t know many of “those people” and have a whole load of hand-me-down recipes from the wise cookers in my world. They’re just like hand-me-down clothes, but even better. Sure, some of them are old fashioned and out of style, but like good fashion, the best ones have stood the test of time. Thankfully we have said goodbye to some of the recipes born in the 60’s and 70’s where gelatine was the top commodity for the savvy cooker and pineapple pieces were a staple ingredient. Being a Gen X’er there’s still something comforting about a surprise burst of pineapple and a weird mixture of cultures within one dish.
I have a rabbled collection of recipes, stuffed into notebooks and folded into pages amongst recipe books. Some of these have been lovingly named after the giver. There’s Nanna’s Sponge, Sally’s Beef Strog, Mrs Beare’s Pav, Janet’s Potato Bake and Sherry’s Snag Casserole, just to name a few. I also stumbled across this one not that long ago.
Lyla Sutton’s Scones..
Bless her socks, what a super cook she was!
Anyone who I nursed with in the early part of the 2000’s would know about the scone of all scones.
This recipe was lovingly shared by Lyla, typed out and trotted about to all of the scone lovers amongst the staff. I forgot I had it. It got stuffed into my *cough* “well organised recipe collection”.
I gave up years ago on the scone making caper. I resolved it was a genetic default because my mum declared she couldn’t make scones and my previous attempts at scone making were horrendous. I’d tried every different version and even “fool proof” recipes didn’t crack the curse.
Mr “I’ll eat anything” Hooch even had some rather harsh things to say about the rock cakes I tried to pass off as scones. Comments like those have helped him master the art of celibacy.
Anyway….in the COVID slump we slid into, I was watching some day time TV and I saw a segment of an elderly lady cooking scones. I watched on, looking for the secrets. There’s always secrets. It seems it’s just one simple move between masterpiece and flop in the baking world and if anyone knows how to bake stuff, it’s usually women, over the age of 80. They’ve mastered their flops… in more ways than one.
I’m not sure what bit made the difference but I’ll share what I have learned…
“Scone making tips- 101 – from the worst scone maker in the history of scone makers who can now bang out a fluff ball of joy, like I’d always dreamed”.
Tip one. When it says “sift flour”. Sift the damn flour. Some recipes say sift, some don’t. For the love of baked goods, SIFT.
Tip two. Mix that sludge with a butter knife until it’s only JUST hanging together.
Tip three. Tip it out and GENTLY pat the dough down into a square shape.
Tip four. Don’t be messing about with a round cutter, just chop that dough up into squares with a floured knife.
Tip five. Always keep in mind that scone mixture is more fragile than a premenstral teenager. Don’t. Poke. The. Bear.
Tip six. Bang those squares of deliciousness onto a tray and put them close together. Apparently scones like to help each other rise up. Nice one scones.
Tip seven. Brush with a little milk, (preferably not with the pastry brush you coloured your own hair with while COVID shielding 🤔), and slide into a HOT oven.
Now sit back and watch those babies rise. Definitely eat them warm, straight from the oven so you can love yourself sick while dreaming of taking out the blue ribbon at the next Country Show.
Blessed be the scone.
Thanks Lyla. Your baking lives on.
M
