How to Make Splits and Scones — The Victorian Way

Ah, there you are, just in time to watch me make some tea time delicacies for Lady Braybrooke and her guests. I'm making scones and splits, one from Scotland and quite commonplace nowadays and one from Devonshire and a little less known. For these recipes you will need. For the splits, yeast, warm water, sugar, milk, butter, lard and flour. For the scones, flour, butter, sugar, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and milk. I'm going to start with the splits. Sylvia has already prepared the yeast this morning when she made the bread. It's compressed yeast mixed with sugar, warm water and a spoonful of flour and then set aside until it bubbles. I've also melted the butter and lard in warm milk. It's important to leave this to cool. Blood temperature will do nicely. Now I'm going to make a well in my flour and add the yeast and the milk. And add the milk and mix it into a dough. There are many tea breads, breads to go with tea, and this is the one that I grew up with. Although we only ate them on special occasions on account of white flour back then being very expensive. They are simply enriched bread rolls with Devonshire milk, which is the best, although I think the Cornish might disagree. And the lard and the butter makes the crust soft. Most people outside of Devon call these splits and we do occasionally. They are split when they are served, which I think is where the name comes from. But depending on where you are, you might also hear them called chudleys or threepennies or cutouts. Lots of different names. And they come in lots of different sizes. Now, this will need to be kneaded for about 20 minutes. And then I will set it aside and let it rise. While my split dough rises, I'm going to make the scones. Scones are much quicker to make because they use chemical raising agents rather than yeast. I think that's why they've become more popular rather than the yeasted bread. Even in Devon you see a lot of scones. For tea rooms and commercial bakeries, they are quicker, easier and cheaper to make. I'm going to mix my butter and flour together. And then I will add my sugar, along with my cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda. You can of course use baking powder, which is a ready mix of both, but I like to know how much of each I am putting in. And then I will add the milk. You have to work really quickly. That's one of the mistakes people make with scones. They overwork them. Scones are made in Scotland and are usually made on a griddle. They are very, very, very old and were once made with yeast, a bit more bread-like. But now they use artificial leaveners. Since the invention of baking powder, it's become quite normal to use it in scones instead of yeast. Although I'm not entirely convinced about bicarbonate of soda, as I think too much of it can lead to a very soapy taste. The dough should be easily handled and not too flaky. I'm now going to divide it up and flatten it out and use a knife to divide it into four equal parts, so that when it's cooked, they can be easily broken apart. Some people like to cut them individually, roll them out and use a cutter, but I think that is too wasteful and also can mean it's overhandled. This is a much older way of making them, and the one I was taught to do. And there we are. These need about 20 minutes in the oven. While my scones are cooking, I'm going to make the splits. I'm simply going to make them into little delicate rolls. These are going to need about 20 minutes to rise again, and by that time, Marianne will have taken the scones out and set them aside to cool, and the oven will have got to heat again after having the door open. Once these are cooked, I'm going to roll them in butter and then wrap them in a warm cloth. That will make them shiny, but also make sure that the crusts are soft, which is how splits should be. As you can see, these have turned out well. All that needs to happen now is the scones need to be split and served on a plate. And these are my splits. To eat splits or scones, all you need to do is to split them open and then serve with cream or jam. In Devonshire, we like to use clotted cream, and so Fanny has made me some, specially. And here is some of Mrs Warwick's finest strawberry jam. There you are, splits and scones, perfect for a summer's afternoon tea.