Tonight I made scones for the second time.

I had never been a fan of the scone. It seemed like every time I had one it was flavorless and dry. Then, earlier this year, I paid a visit to my pal Jamie down in Carson City, and one morning her mother made scones. Let me tell you, those were the most delightful baked goods I had had in a long time. Delicate orange and cranberry flavors and just the right amount of moisture. I was inspired.

A few weeks later I found myself with a bit too much milk for my cereal and decided I needed to bake something. In the past, I’ve made drop biscuits, but this time I decided to go for something different. The scones I had in NV were vegan, but I had a feeling that the typical recipe had milk. I found a recipe on the internet, and I made scones. To my pleasant surprise, they turned out well!

Fast forward several months, and I find myself in a similar milk situation. This time, I call upon my newly-acquired Tassajara Bread Book (more on the book another time). Nothing too surprising about the ingredients – I finally got to use some Cream of Tartar, yay! – but the baking method was quite new to me. The instructions asked that I cook the scones on a griddle on medium low heat, 5-7 minutes on each side. I have never in my life baked on a stove top. I did as instructed, however, employing my cast iron griddle I normally use for heating my tortillas. By golly, it worked! I think I had the heat a tad too high, but not high enough to totally ruin the batch.

In retrospect, it’s a bit like making pancakes, which I never really thought of as “baking”.