Girdle Scones

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 79, 27 December 1940, Page 46

Girdle Scones

Dear Aunt Daisy, I heard you speak of girdle scones and pikelets, and how a _ well-known cooking demonstrator says that one must have a girdle for the former. Well, I have been married fifteen years, and still have no girdle! But I make girdle scones and pikelets two or three times a week. I make my scones on top of the range, on the oven side! I just sprinkle a little flour on the range, and when it browns slowly, I know it is ready. One soon gets to know how hot to have it. I turn out beautiful girdle scones, and I have no "secrets" or anything. My recipe is-2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon each of baking soda and salt; and mix to a soft paste with sweet milk, and a little cream if available. The pikelets I bake on the oven tray, right over the fire, but I have the range lids on. The tray needs to be fairly hot, and I grease it with a little butter. My recipe is 2 eggs, 5 dessertspoons sugar, 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon each of baking soda and salt, and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, and a little cream or fresh milk. When the mixture runs from the spoon it is right. I always double this recipe, as my family are boys, so they last only a day.-‘ Hopeful" (Otago). That is splendid, giving us the good tried recipes as well as the method of cooking. It was of gas ranges only that the cooking demonstrator was speaking when she said a girdle was indispensable, You have a good old-fashioned fuel range, you see. On an electric range, the hot plates on the top are thick, and serve quite well as girdles.