Yes, they don’t look like scones, but they are.
The original recipe for these came from the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) and seemed to be just the sort of recipe I was looking for, as it included some teaching points and was an easy recipe for a class to do.
I can’t find the original recipe on the internet as I can’t get a working link to the HGCA, but this link seems to have the same recipe as I remember it. I have a vague feeling that the HGCA recipe might have had mustard powder in it to accentuate the taste of the cheese.
And I probably used self-raising flour because it’s easier than using baking powder.
Seeds, flour, cheese – at one time I had aspirations to write a book on food
They use rapeseed oil instead of butter, which makes it a quicker and easier recipe, and allows discussion of oilseed rape as a crop, the perils of monoculture, EU grants (at the time), self-sufficiency in food production and plant breeding. It’s also sold as vegetable oil in supermarkets as the word rape isn’t seen as being particularly positive from a marketing point of view, and Canola oil in the USA. IT also makes it easier to make if you have arthritic fingers. I was just starting to develop arthritis in the final year on the farm and my fingers would ache after a long baking session.
The recipe, with seeds and cheese is quite pleasant and always went down well. I used to cook them for the group when we were on the farm because everyone likes to tear off a warm scone. From a practical point of view it is easier to do them this way than to use a cutter as a scone cutter won’t cut seeds and things get a bit messy. If you go for a rustic tear and share look nobody notices that they are messy.
With a different selection of seeds
I have used the recipe to make successful fruit scones and developed the recipe for date and Stilton scones. It’s a bit fiddly because you have to cut the dates into smaller pieces and crumble the Stilton, but it worked quite well. Initially I halved the quantity of cheese when using Stilton, because it’s a strong tasting cheese. That strength of flavour doesn’t really come through in a scone and we ended up going back to using the full amount.
Before batching – Date and Stilton Scones
I seem to have used flax seed in the mix. I don’t honestly remember doing that but the camera doesn’t lie. It also seems that I cut the narrow end of the cheese off for cookery, which is frowned on. You are supposed to cut it along the length of the wedge so that everyone gets a bit of the outer edge and a bit of the central part of the cheese, which is supposedly riper than the outer edge. .
Despite this, I remember that they tasted good and that I thought this was the start of me becoming a cook and food blogger. In hindsight, life can be very cruel.
Date and Stilton scone with at least one pumpkin seed in it.
If I can get any flour I’m feeling inspired to make these again.
Yes, a single pumpkin seed. Worrying. It suggests I didn’t clean the bowl properly between mixes.
The plates were part of a set my mother got as a promotional offer from Boots. She didn’t use them much and passed them on to us. We didn’t use them much and passed them on the the farm. I once put one in the microwave – the silver line around the rim produced some alarming sparks. At that point I remembered my mother telling me not to use them in the microwave. I didn’t forget again.
Baking brings back a lot of memories.
Exciting stuff but I can’t help feeling the putting dates and Stilton, both of which I love, into a scone is not the best use of them. A plain scone is the only scone for me.
I have no doubt that plain scones, porridge with salt and hair shirts all have their place in the life of a Scot. 🙂
Not to mention the barbed wire underpants.
My eyes are watering as I type…
Lovely post – I enjoyed your food blogger photos very much. Did you do the 2nd photo as well (ingredients)? I thought that was wonderful – very artistic.
It’s interesting that you can’t get flour. Flour and yeast have been an issue here, too. But I routinely buy both, so I was well stocked. My daughter in Brooklyn asked for yeast a month ago and I had enough to send her 12 or so envelopes without depleting my supply too badly.
Toilet paper, on the other hand, was an issue. At one point, my husband panicked and bought 24 TINY rolls – the box was 18″ by 12″ by 12″ or so – for $90 online. Lol
Yes, I was more artistic in those days. 😉
I had a large stock of flour and yeast when we left the farm but let it run down because I stopped baking. Now I regret that. 🙁
We were lucky with toilet rolls – bought some extra when they got short, then found that I had another pack of nine in the boot of the car. Disorganisation was working in my favour that day.
Your scones look like what we would call biscuits in the United States. No matter what they are called, they look oh so good. I could have one right now.
Scones are biscuits and biscuits are cookies, and I am confused. If I had flour I would be baking some now.
All good, no matter what you call them.
🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s a wonder how language develops.
Actually, I love it! Wonderful how different words are used in different places.
My grandfather, born 1897 and a speaker of Lancashire dialect rather than standard English, always referred to taps as faucets. As far as we know he never met an American, but I can’t find any reference to it on Lancashire Dialect sites.
It’s a mystery.
https://sites.google.com/site/billingtonandwhalleyweb/lancashire-dialect
That is extremely impressive. I am no baker so I didn’t know about setting them in a floral shape so they can be torn off. If that is your idea it is even more impressive.
No, it’s all in the recipe. I don’t have many original thoughts.
🙂
🙂
I agree, Derrick. The photos and the ideas are all very well done.
Unfortunately I can’t claim to be the originator of the idea.
Fresh scones and hot tea… I have bookmarked your recipe link. I can adapt this recipe for my dietary needs.
I am sorry to hear about the arthritis developing back when you were at the farm. I can see where baking a lot would cause troubles.