Garlic Cheddar Scones

I've made these several times in a campfire, but never in the oven. However, If I can make them outside, cooking them inside the house should be pretty easy.

Scone Ingredients:

3 cups of self-rising flour
3 tablespoons of butter
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup of cheddar cheese ( I use a mix of sharp and mild cheddars)
2 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped into very small pieces
1 and 1/2 cups of milk
A bit of cornmeal



Preheat the oven. Probably 350 degrees, maybe a little cooler. ( In a fire, you want coals hot enough so you can put your hand over the fire and count to three, but not quite four) Wash your hands too.

Mix the salt and flour together. Use a whisk when possible to make sure there are no clumps. Cut the butter into four or more pieces. now you put the butter into the flour mix and use your hands to crumble the butter into the flour. Melted butter does not work. Keep crumbling the butter bits into the flour until there are no clumps and the flour mix looks a little crumbly.

Add the garlic bits and cheese next. I do this with my hands to keep the garlic from clumping and to make sure the cheese is evenly dispersed. Make a well in the midst of the dry ingredients, and pour the milk in. now mix in the flour until you can handle it by hand. I form it all in a clump, then turn out on a floured surface. Separate into two balls of dough.  Make a flat round of each ball so that it would cover the bottom of a pie plate.

 Grease two pie plates well (or a cookie sheet if you'd rather) and then sprinkle cornmeal over the surface. This makes sticking less likely. Cut each round into 8 pieces for large scones, or 16 wedges for smaller scones.  Put them in your pans.  You're supposed to brush milk over  the top of them before they go in the oven. I tend to drizzle a little olive oil on them instead.  Bake until they're done. I suspect in the oven that will be 10-20 minutes. In the fire, it depends on the coals... 15 to 30 minutes. They'll be brown on top when they are done.

 Try to cool them before eating. Mine were gone before a picture could be taken, so a friend allowed me to show hers - they were made in a dutch oven in the fire.

Maple Glazed Scones

3 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup (or more) plus 6 tablespoons whipping cream
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/3 cup (about) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk flour, 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1/2 cup maple syrup in small bowl to blend. Gradually add cream mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until dough comes together and adding more cream by tablespoonfuls if dough is dry. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead dough gently until smooth, about 5 turns. Using floured hands, pat out dough to 8-inch round; cut dough into 8 wedges. Transfer wedges to baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake scones until golden and tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to rack.

Meanwhile, whisk remaining 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, 6 tablespoons whipping cream and 2 tablespoons maple syrup in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in enough powdered sugar to form thick glaze.

Drizzle or spread glaze over warm scones. Let stand until glaze sets.

We made this recipe  at a French & Indian War encampment in the fire, with a few differences.  Instead of one round, we made two smaller ones to fit into pie pans. We heated a dutch oven in the fire, then pulled it out, set a trivet into it, set the pan of scones on top and covered them. Then we laid down a bed of coals, put the dutch oven over them and added coals to the top. After about 10 minutes we checked on them, and turned the top to prevent hot spots. Another 10 - 15 minutes and they were done. We let them cool a bit and then glazed them. Although they were dark on the bottom, they went over very well.  Many thanks to my sous chef Caroline, who did a lot of the work on these scones in primative conditions.