Scones

Professor was cross with Pig. He had to cringe at the ignorance of his mate. “Potato.” he said and shook his head. “If you only wouldn’t pig out on everything edible that was offered.”

As you may know the two of them are an item. Professor is the one who usually does all the talking in their relationship and Pig does all the nodding. Now Pig nodded again, but everybody could see he only wanted to be helpful. It is well-known that Pig is socially awkward and gets very stressed when he has to listen for too long. That is why he usually just nods. Of course he wants to be a valued member of the group (nodding again) and when, for a change, he believes he knows what’s going on he  often jumps in, boots and all. Often it turns out he only listened to half the story. To his defense here, he honestly thought the Dedes were working on a normal cookbook, not one limited to flour-and-water recipes.

He hung his head and admitted sadly: “I don’t know a recipe with potato flour.”

“It doesn’t need to be potato flour, dumb head” Professor scolded. “None of the recipes require potato flour. Just normal flour, nothing special.” But when he saw his mate becoming distraught again he added “how about your scones?”

“Oh yes, scones,” said Pig, eyes lighting up. “Let’s do scones.” Pig ran to the kitchen drawer and leafed through the contents to find his recipe to hand to Mouse.

Scones are basically soda buns. Like the soda bread, they are very easy to make and ready in no time flat. 5 Minutes prep time and 20 Minutes baking.

Mouse looked at the recipe. “I see you have baking soda and baking powder in your recipe. Can you explain the difference?” she asked interested.

“Please don’t ask Pig” Professor said “He wouldn’t know!” Then he gave the explanation himself. Baking soda is natriumbicarbonate. It is a leavening agent that makes the goods rise when an acid liquid is added, e.g. butter milk or lemon. The acid reacts with the baking soda and in the process carbon dixoid bubbles – like in soda water – are generated. Without some sort of acid, baking soda will simply not be able to do its job. Baking powder on the other hand contains not only natriumbicarbonate (baking soda), but also cream of tartar, which is an acid component   to make sure the reaction takes place. (Often it also contains starch as drying a agent.) If you want to mix it yourself use 1 part baking soda  and 2 parts cream of tartar.

Any dough made with baking soda requires speedy handling, as the described reaction will start as soon as the acid liquid is added. If the dough is mixed for too long or is allowed to stand for a while, the baking soda will fizzle prematurely and as a result the baked goods will be hard.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 30g butter cut in small pieces, half a cup of water, half a cup of milk (water and milk together should make one scant cup. I usually add a dollop of plain yoghurt as well for extra acid)

Method

Preheat oven to 200 °C

Place the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and mix well with a fork. Cut pieces of butter into the bowl and rub into the flour with your finger tips. The flour will become moist and grainy. Make sure the butter is well distributed throughout the flour.

Combine the water and the milk (and yoghurt) in a cup. Make a well in the middle of the bowl of flour. Pour all the liquid in at once (keeping just a little bit for glacing), then quickly work the flour with your hands. The dough should be quite moist and sticky, but firm, and keep it’s shape when placed on the baking tray.

With your hands scoop six evenly sized helpings onto the baking tray dusted with flour. Brush the scones with the remaining milk/water mix.

Bake for 20 mins.