Baking Disaster/Baking Triumph, Part II

So many of these things seem to be common sense, but obviously, when it comes to cooking, I've been a slow starter. Virtually every time I step into the kitchen it is an alien experiment, which is funny considering I do it every day.

Here's how I saved the day as far as Sunday School was concerned. Last week when I went grocery shopping, I went ahead and picked up a special ingredient so I could make scones to take to church just in case the Overnight Bubble Bread (see previous post) didn't work. I'm really glad I did.

I have a really simple recipe for scones using Bisquick. I've made these many times on a whim for breakfast, or in anticipation of a morning visit from a friend, but I had never made the glaze to go over the scones because, while the main recipe allows milk as a substitution for heavy cream, the glaze recipe does not. The scones as I normally make them (with whole milk) are more dry than my husband prefers. Since I had actually planned this in advance, however, I already had heavy cream in the refrigerator waiting to go.

The cream made all the difference.

The glaze only called for half a cup of confectioner's sugar and one tablespoon of heavy cream, but when I mixed the cream in with a spoon I wound up with a mound of sugar with a little bit of sludge floating in the middle. So I added another tablespoon of cream and that particular problem was solved. The glaze still looked more like a paste than a glaze, so I put it on top of the oven to warm while the dough baked.

The dough mixed up fairly well with the appropriate addition of cream, but some of the dry ingredients didn't want to incorporate, so I formed the dough into a ball and poured some additional cream over the top. I worked the rest of the dough together with my hands and then flattened the whole thing on a greased baking sheet. Usually you would cut the dough into eight pieces before baking, but I did more since I would be feeding lots of people.

Coming out of the oven, the scones seemed a little underdone in the middle. I couldn't just drizzle the glaze over the top because it was too thick, but I did what I could under the circumstances, and it turned out quite all right. The glaze melted as it hit the hot bread, making it a little bit easier to spread. By the time I got the plate to church the goopier pieces had become more solid. By the time Sunday School started it was perfect!

These scones were much more moist than those I had made before. The flavor was terrific, and the glaze really did make a difference to the taste. I may have just discovered a new item to add to my list of refrigerator staples: heavy cream.

While I'm talking about cream, I'd just like to mention that I've been using dried nonfat milk in my coffee the last couple of weeks, and it seems to work just as well if not better than commercial dry creamers. I haven't looked into the price differential yet, but my idea is that if I keep dry milk around the house to use in my coffee, I'll at least have some recourse in a cooking emergency requiring milk.