American Bread Scones

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, stolen from Smitten Kitten, submitted by Bethie

Smitten Kitten notes: I adapted the original recipes into mini-breads (that I like to call scones) but this recipe will also work as a whole loaf, with a 40 to 45 minute cooking time. However you do or do not divide them, like all soda breads, you should plan to consume these on day one. On day one, they’ve got a craggy crust and a warm, plush interior; they love butter and you love them. On day two, they have a density, especially when your big toe breaks their fall, that could threaten your efforts to reign in your foul language now that tiny, impressionable ears linger about.

Yields 8 mini-bread “scones” which are fairly hefty, and can be split between two people

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
• 1 cup cake flour (or, make your own)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon table salt (this is 2/3 the original amount, which I found too salty)
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (4 tablespoons softened, 1 tablespoon melted)
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or, make your own)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup currants or raisins
• 1 tablespoons caraway seeds (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the upper-middle position. Whisk dry ingredients (flours, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt) in a large bowl. Work the softened butter into the dry ingredients with a fork, pastry blender or your fingertips until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the wet ingredients (buttermilk and egg), currants or raisins and caraway seeds, if you’re using them, and stir with a fork until the dough just begins to come together. Turn out onto a work surface (CI says you need a floured one but I didn’t agree) and knead until the dough just becomes cohesive and bumpy. You’re not going for a smooth dough — CI warns that this will make it tough.

Pat dough into a round and use a knife or dough divider to cut it into 8 wedges. Form each wedge into a round and place on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet. Cut a cross shape into the top of each. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees (this is especially helpful in this recipe, where doneness is hard to judge from the outside). Scones should be golden brown a skewer should come out clean. Remove from the oven and brush with butter before cooling to room temperature. Eat on day one.

RESULTS: And so ends the Soda Bread Cookoff of 2010. Bethie sent me this recipe. I really like the scone aspect of this recipe. Although Smitten Kitten cautions that these must be eaten the same day they're made, I'm going to wrap them individually in foil, put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them for later. We never get through a soda bread without me getting sick of it by the end, and this way I can save some love for later in pre-portioned units. However, I gotta say, these really didn't turn out much different than the Bisquick biscuits we used to make as kids (just adding milk to Bisquick and ta-da!). I think I actually prefer the denseness of traditional soda bread. But the question is, what made these turn out Bisquicky? I suspect it may have something to do with the cake flour or the Cream of Tartar. I plan on investigating both. Or, I may simply have made them wrong. Either way, I'm very happy for the cooking times and temperature to convert soda bread into scones, and I plan to do so in the future.

EDIT: I just now realized that I had forgotten to add the sugar, which could account for it's Bisquicky-ness. Oh well!

From Smitten Kitchen, contender #1.

• Butter for greasing pan plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 1/2 cups raisins or currants
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• Good aged Cheddar cheese, for serving
• Tart apples, cut into slices, for serving.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-inch oven-proof skillet and line with parchment or waxed paper. (Deb note: Mine came out a bit taller, as my cast-iron is 8-inches and deep.)
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Stir in the raisins or currants and caraway seeds.
3. Pour batter into skillet. Brush top with remaining butter. Bake until golden and firm to touch, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving with Cheddar and apples.

RESULTS:
Yuuuuuuummm. This turned out, for me, to be far less dense than normal soda bread. It was fluffy! I used my 10-inch dutch oven than an iron skillet, so that might something to do with the fluffiness. I dunno. I replaced the raisins (ick!) with craisins. Much better. I've also decided never to buy buttermilk again. I just replaced the buttermilk with half milk and half plain yogurt.

I've fallen behind with both cooking and writing about cooking, which is sad because I got a few cookbooks for Christmas and I've been dying to dig in. Sigh! You know when you're running, and you stub your toe and trip, and then you sort of do this fall/stumble thing, when you sort of run out of control while pinwheeling your arms as you catch your balance? That's been my life lately. I haven't fallen, but I haven't caught myself yet. This isn't permanent busyness, but it's looking pretty long-term from here. :) I reap what I sow! That'll learn me for not figuring out how to say no.

Hey kids, it's almost March which means, it's almost time for Irish Soda Bread! I'm going to stick with this time frame, even though spring is going to be a lot longer coming up here than it was in Indiana. Send me you recipes to test drive. Jean, I still have that iron skillet recipe you sent me last year, I'm going to try to put that one one the docket. Any other requests?

Dark Irish Soda Bread (Cuisine: Irish; Course: Bread)

Well, I'm trying the one that Bethie sent first. Lest you think I had a specific reason for doing so, I made the decision based solely on the fact that I had neither candied orange peel nor Irish whiskey (I have Seagram's... is that ok? There's only going to be a little whiskey in there...). Mom just sent me a recipe for candied orange peel, and I found a recipe in my Joy of Cooking. Maybe the next thrown-down can be the candied orange peel throw-down! (although, Mom's has much better directions, so I might just go with that.) Regardless, I am NOT avoiding the currants, aka tiny raisins.

Dark Irish Soda Bread

The Washington Post, March 5, 2008

• Cuisine: Irish
• Course: Bread

Summary:

This soda bread gets its appealing brown color from molasses and whole wheat flour. The flour used here is the traditional whole-wheat flour that is made from red-wheat berries.

It's best eaten on the same day it is made, but it tastes great toasted the next day. The bread can be wrapped well and frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost with the wrapping on so that any condensation will form on the foil and/or plastic, and not on the bread itself.

Makes one 8-inch oval loaf (12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (plus softened butter for greasing the baking sheet)
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more for the baking sheet
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 cup low-fat or regular buttermilk

Directions:

Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet with softened butter, then sprinkle lightly with whole-wheat flour; tap to discard any excess flour.

Combine both flours, brown sugar, caraway seeds, baking soda and salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Mix to combine on low speed; add the melted butter.

Combine the molasses and the buttermilk, then add to the mixer bowl, on low speed; beat for a minute or two, until a soft dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball and roll it around in the palms of your hands to smooth it; the dough will not be perfectly smooth. Form into an 8-inch long oval and place on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smooth-edge knife to cut a slash about 5 inches long and about 1 inch deep along the length of the loaf.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the bread feels firm and crisp and you can see that the bottom has browned when you lift it carefully. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

RESULTS: some of the molasses seeped up from the knife cut and caramelized, which was really good. The next time I make this bread I might try just drizzling a little bit in the cut (although you don't want to put so much that the bread would be soggy or the sugar might burn. It's a fine balance). The texture was light and fluffy, and the whole wheat had a good chewy-ness. I love the caraway seeds and the bread smelled really good as it was cooking.

However, did this meet my Irish soda bread craving? I have to say, not really. It was excellent bread, and especially for being a whole wheat bread, it was really fluffy. But I like my Irish Soda Bread to be a little denser, so you KNOW you're eating bread, like, for hours later when you're still not hungry. It could be that I didn't wait for it to cool all the way before slicing, I really don't know what that does to the final texture. I was hungry! Or, I might have needed to stir it longer to get the dough a little tougher.

Anyway, bottom line, this was a great recipe and hats off to Bethie for finding it, but it didn't quite feed the need. The search continues.