I’m finding the little 1944 cookery book, ‘Cookery To-day and To-morrow’ really interesting and very practical. If you were a beginner baker or cook today you’d find the straightforward instructions easy to follow and not the least patronising as in some old recipe books. Here is what Nell Heaton says about buns and scones:
Buns are a cross between bred and cake. It is easy to vary their flavour by the addition of extra fruit, candied peel, grated fresh orange and lemon peel or vanilla essence. Some people prefer them toasted. Always make a good batch while baking, so that you have some on hand for an emergency.
Scones are very easily made and the plain ones may be used as a substitute for bread. Scones generally consist of flour, fat, baking powder or soda and buttermilk. They are moistened with milk and the consistency is usually fairly stiff. They are baked in a hot oven or on a girdle or hot plate.
Dried egg may be substituted for shell eggs. Allow a pinch of baking powder to each egg.
If dried eggs or milk are mixed with the dry ingredients, remember to allow extra liquid content.
I wonder in what instant you would need an emergency bun?! The use of dried eggs is explained by it being written for people cooking during the war when many foods, including eggs, were rationed. There follows two bun recipes – currant and hot cross, and four scone recipes, potato scones, soda scones, wholemeal scones (fatless – which sound more like plain pastry) and these, which I might make tomorrow:
Oatmeal Scones
- ¼ lb oatmeal
- ¼ lb flour
- 2 oz fat
- 1½ oz cream of tartar
- 1 rtsp bicarb of soada
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- buttermilk or sour milk
Mix together the fine oatmeal and flour and rub in the fat
add bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, a good pinch of salt and golden syrup.
Mix well together and moisten with buttermilk or sour milk to make a soft firm dough
Place on a well-floured board and form into small rounds, of not more than ½ inch thickness, and bake on a girdle or hot-plate.
Lois Elsden 