When I was a young bloke, morning tea ("smoko") was part of the daily pattern of life, and scones were a regular occurrence at morning tea.
(As an aside, I wonder how many shearing sheds now come equipped with fancy coffee makers? Back then, you either brought your own coffee in a thermos, or put up with whatever instant muck was available in the shed. Or you had tea. Have shearers also been infected with the fancy coffee virus?)
I can't remember the last time I had home made scones - probably decades ago. Sure, I've had them in tea rooms from time to time, but never as part of a work break and freshly made on the spot.
I had a go at making them last weekend, using a Delia Smith recipe for buttermilk scones. Of course I had no buttermilk, and used plain old milk instead. They seemed to be a bit dry, but they came out fine. They were gone in about 10 minutes.
I just had to repeat the exercise this weekend. This time, I had buttermilk, but not enough butter. Ah well, they seemed to work when topped up with margarine. I felt that the batter was just a little bit dry, so I put in a teaspoon more buttermilk. The scones rose all right - they pretty much exploded upwards. And then they fell over like a tower constructed by dodgy Pisan builders. I used the smallest cookie cutter that we have - maybe they would have worked better if I'd used the next size up...more base for the height.
And who cares? No one. Once broken in half and smothered with jam and cream, they were scoffed in minutes.
4 comments:
"how many shearing sheds now come equipped with fancy coffee makers"
FWIW - I occasionally get inside sheds in my bush travels, and I haven't seen a coffee machine yet.
Give it time.....
Now that most sheds have electricity connected, a fancy coffee maker is at least possible....
.... but not likely.
Buttermilk is slightly acidic and can affect the rising of baked goods. If the recipe has baking soda (alkali) and buttermilk (acid), they generate gas when combined and that is what makes the scones (or whatever) rise. Changing the amount of buttermilk in the recipe will affect the rising -- make it too fast or too slow.
The scones that rose and collapse probably had too much buttermilk. Lots of gas was generated, which is why they rose fast, but they reached their maximum rise before the batter was ready to set, and that's why they collapsed.
A CWA recipe...
3 cups selfraising flour, 1 teaspoon salt (level), 300mls cream (not thickened), 1 cup lemonade (not diet), 15 minutes on 230 degrees. Don't handle dough much. good luck
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