Emma Brandenberg’s Victorian Cream Scones

Emma Brandenberg’s Victorian Cream Scones

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 T sugar
½ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
¼ cup cold unsalted butter, sliced into pieces
½ cup currants or raisins
2 beaten eggs
½ cup cream
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Topping:
2 T sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Directions:
For best results, keep ingredients as cold as possible during preparation. Sift dry
ingredients and add butter. Stir in currants or raisins (other dried fruits may be
substituted). Combine the eggs and cream in a separate bowl and add to the flour mixture.
Blend the batter until smooth. Pat into a mound measuring ¾-inch thick. Cut
into triangles and sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon topping. Bake for about 20 minutes in
a preheated 375° F oven until lightly brown. Serve traditionally with jams, lemon curd, or
Devonshire cream or get creative. Makes about 1 dozen.
Author’s Bio:
I’m Catherine Karp, a Southern California native who’s been writing fiction since I
was about 5 years old. My debut novel, GILDED, , won the
Hollywood Film Festival’s Opus Magnum Discovery Award and took first place in the
Authorlink New Author Awards Competition. The novel can be ordered from most
online bookstores, and autographed copies are available through my web site.
In addition to writing my next novel, VOICES AIRY, I run HistoryandLovers.com, a
site promoting “historical love stories that don’t fit the historical romance mold.” I live
with my husband and daughter in San Diego, California.
Please visit my web site at
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OLD-FASHIONED JOHNNY CAKE
Setting the Scene:
The simplicity of pioneer cooking often fascinatesus as we try to re-create some of the
recipes of the early settlers. These take us back to earlier times and encourage us to read
stories and do research about the lives of the pioneers. Stores weren’t readily available
without traveling long distances tothe nearest town, so settlers had to be self-sufficient
and raise most of what they needed. So they picked and dried berries for winter food,
raised pumpkins, beans and squash, ate wild game, and caught fish in the streams. We
can still enjoy these simple recipes today. Whip up some old-fashioned johnny cakes to
enjoy with an excerpt from TALES OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY (
9651675-0-X).
Excerpt from TALES OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY:
Sarah Jane picked up the bucket of blackberries and started toward the cabin.
Suddenly Tag barked and ran to the far side of the berry patch.
“Tag, come back,” Sarah Jane called. But Tag continued barking. Then Sarah
Jane heard someone yell. She rushed through the berry patch, her blond braids with the
red yarn tied on the ends flying out behind her. She stopped suddenly when she saw Tag.
He was standing beside a native girl who lay on the ground. The girl was about ten years
old, the same as Sarah Jane.
“What are you doing here?” Sarah Jane asked as she approached the girl
cautiously. The Indian girl looked at Sarah Jane but said nothing. She got up, only to fall
when she put her weight on her right foot.
Later Sarah Jane’s mother offered the native girl biscuits and milk. Since
cornmeal and wheat flour were the most commonly used in pioneer days, cornmeal
griddlecakes or corn bread baked in a pan over the coals may have been what Sarah
Jane’s mother referred to as biscuits.
OLD FASHIONED JOHNNY CAKE