Part Intuition / Part Guess Work

While living in Bangladesh, I became quite the scone baker.  Good bread was hard to come by so I'd often whip up a batch of scones for a Saturday afternoon treat. I've always used the Edmonds Cookbook recipe but in recent years I haven't been able to bake them without that salty flavour.  As the recipe calls for 6 teaspoons of baking powder, that's not surprising!  I've tried sieving the dry ingredients and giving them a good whipping before cutting in the butter - it's still salty. 

The saltiness is easily disguised with plenty of butter, jam, and whipped cream if you have some.  We got our cream from the German butcher in the Bangladesh days (see this post).  But I felt dissatisfied with this - why should my guests have to pretend the scones are great when they're not?  Here in the States, I've taken to buying biscuits in a can when I find them on sale but they're full of artificial butter and flavourings.  Though they're delicious, I'm dissatisfied with that remedy too. 

As a little girl, I remember having scones which were rumoured to be made with a can of sprite and a cup of full cream.  They left a strong impression on me as the most incredible scones ever: smooth, creamy, and delicious.  I was excited to find somebody who knew the recipe this year, but then I returned to the States, to the land of the 'wrong' flour, so I never made them.  This morning I thought I'd try a little cooking science and I managed to adapt the recipe.  I'm feeling pretty chuffed - they are the same as my hallowed memory.  I didn't add raisins this time because I wanted to get the basic mixture right first, but raisins, or even cranberries, are my favourite addition to make.  I've included the recipes below, for comparison sake.  You'll see that the NZ recipe is much easier because there's already sugar in the sprite and it calls for self raising flour but I never have any of that stuff.

Cream Soda Scones in the USA

Ingredients
1/2 Cup soda water - I didn't have any lemonade

1.5 teaspoons sugar water - I'm not sure why I didn't just put in granulated sugar

1/2 Cup heavy whipping cream - Yes, that is the title used for normal cream here in the States

1.5 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn cream of tartar - I don't know why I included this, I've just seen it in lots of recipes and thought it might do something good

pinch of salt

1 1/2 Cup flour - I started with 1 cup but needed to add another. I kept it a really sticky batter.

Directions

1. Sift dry ingredients

2. Gently fold in wet ingredients

3. Plonk onto tray  - You never want to touch your scones too much, they'll turn out dry

4. Cut as best

4. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 + minutes. Should make about 7.

Compared to the:
Lemonade Cream Scones in New Zealand

Ingredients

4 Cups self raising flour

300 ml cream

one can lemonade/sprite

pinch of salt

Follow the directions as above, except there's no need to sift the dry ingredients, and you'll need 220 degrees Celsius. Should make about a dozen.