What are you Baking the Week of June 14, 2020?

[Mike Nolan]

I need to make hamburger buns, but probably not today.

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[BakerAunt]

We are enjoying cooler weather, with highs in the mid-70s, so Sunday is Pizza Night! I made my sourdough pan pizza. I experimented by adding 2 oz. more water and 1 Tbs. flax meal. It was very messy getting it out of the bread machine. I topped it with homemade tomato sauce that I made a couple of weeks ago and had frozen, a package of 8 oz. chopped ham, 4 oz. cubed mozzarella, 8 oz. sliced mushrooms, sliced green onion and grated Parmesan. The crust came out nice and light, yet crispy on the outside. The extra water does produce a superior result, although it is more of a mess to clean the bread machine.

[Mike Nolan]

The next day it isn't supposed to be in the 90's here is Thursday.

[skeptic7]

It is wonderfully cool here right now, but it will get hotter as the day progresses. I've got windows open to let the cool air in.
I plan to bake some raisin bread today. 1/3 whole wheat

Baker Aunt; Do you know any scone recipes that use oil instead of butter? I was thinking how much easier it would be to mix in oil instead of cutting in the butter.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic7--If you go to the week of April 19, "What are You Baking?" I did a post (on April 21) on substituting canola oil for butter in my Cranberry Scones. You can also find it by using the search tool with "Cranberry Scones."

I think that the key is to whisk the oil and buttermilk (or regular milk) until it is a "creamy emulsion," as my pie crust recipe says. I then added it to the dry ingredients and tossed with a fork, then used a bowl scraper to bring it together. I baked these in the Nordic Ware 8-well scone pan. It makes a respectable "faux" scone. I would like to find another name for this delicious treat. No, it's not a scone, but the name implies that it is somehow not worthy in its own right, and it is. The texture was very different from a muffin, perhaps due to the amount of flour.

I've been thinking of trying oil in our favorite cinnamon oat scones, but I've not done so yet, as I froze some of the cranberry ones and have not used them yet. They are my early morning go-to breakfast (defrosted the night before) for when we are going somewhere early in the morning. Due to Covid-19, there have been fewer early morning departures.

Now that you have reminded me of this experiment that is on hold, I may need to try it soon.

[skeptic7]

My "whole wheat scones" use a muffin style batter baked in a cast iron frying pan and cut into wedges. I tell people that they are scones and threaten to whack unbelievers with the frying pan. These are easier to mix since they use oil instead of butter.
Due to the recent shortage of whole wheat flour I baked a couple batches of white flour scones and found I like the short time they take to bake, and dislike the time needed to cut in the butter. I was hoping that you would have had a solution to this since you were eliminating butter from most recipes.

[BakerAunt]

I'm not sure if my results are partly due to using whole wheat pastry flour. I find that it makes a lighter final muffin, scone, quick bread, etc. I do think, however, that it is key to whisk together the oil and buttermilk (or regular milk).

I'm sure the frying pan works fine--and is more traditional than my scone pan, which when I was making butter scones I rarely used except for this Cranberry Scone recipe, as the dough was rather sticky, and the original recipe had called for dropping them from a scoop. Usually, when I was using butter, I would just form it into a circle. Sometimes I cut them apart and baked them separately; sometimes, I left them in a circle after cutting into sections and slightly moving them apart from each other.

So far, on naming this delicious treat, I've rejected "Faux Scone," "Un-Scone," and "Not a Scone." I could call it Neither Scone Nor Muffin, but that is rather a mouth full. Of course, there are oil-biscuits, so perhaps I should settle on Oil Scone?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Not all scones have butter. There are cream scones. Granted they have dairy (and high fat dairy) but they don't contain butter.

Unless you want to draw attention to the fact that they have oil and not butter just call them scones.

Skeptic would probably loan you a frying pan for people who want to argue.

[skeptic7]

I've made cream biscuits, but not cream scones.
A good frying pan deters quibblers. I recommend an 8 inch frying pan, its heavy enough to have momentum and presence and light enough for a good swing. A frying pan that requires two hands to pick up is too heavy to swing fast.

[BakerAunt]

And you might throw out your shoulder....

[Mike Nolan]

One of the things we learned in Scotland was that they're pretty strict about what you can call a scone there. You better pronounce it right, too. 🙂

[skeptic7]

The raisin bread took hours on its final rise. I eventually put the bread pan in a plastic cake carrier with warm water on the bottom for the last hour of its rise. It was baked for 50 minutes in an oval Dutch oven and reached 180 degrees. Its sweet and tasty, a little more dense than I expected for a bread thats 2/3 white flour. It made a decent snack last night, and a good accompaniment to strawberries and yogurt for breakfast.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Scones are funny. I have my modified recipe that my family knows and loves (it has been modified again to sub the raisins with chocolate chips - I prefer the raisins). When we took our boys to Scotland (before Violet was born) the boys were eager to try scones there and did not like them. Then they put lots of stuff on them and did.

I tried to avoid making them for Kate's grandmother because she grew up in Scotland but I had to one Thanksgiving and she became a big fan. Not that Granny would have said they were bad. She just wouldn't have eaten them.

Wish I had her teach me how to make her biscuits.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I have started using my square cake taker almost exclusively as a bread rising chamber. It fits two 8x4 or 9x5 loaves beautifully. My observation suggests that a snapped down lid improves the rise. I have discovered, however, not to put it on the quartz countertop, which is too cool. I either put a pad underneath it or let it rise on the table in the dining area.

Maybe your bread needed more liquid? At least it is tasty.

[skeptic7]

Aaron;
KAF email is featuring cream scones. Looks very rich but easy to make.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-tea-scones-recipe

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