Grandma Hall's Scone Recipe

In my family, there are few recipes more coveted than my Grandma Hall's homemade scones. The recipe was once thought lost, but after digging through several of her old cookbooks that my Dad let me borrow, we were able to find the original! 

Grandma Hall's Fried Scone Recipe

4 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp. salt
2 cakes yeast
1/2 cup warm water
4 beaten eggs
8+ cups flour

Scald 4 cups milk. Add sugar, oil, salt and stir until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add yeast and eggs to milk mixture. Add 4 cups flour. Beat until spongy. Sift in remaining flour and stir until smooth. Let stand for an hour. Beat down. Toss half the dough on a well floured table and let rise until twice in size. Cook in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

*Notes: I can't remember exactly how Grandma cut her scones every time. Seems like maybe sometimes she would just pinch off the dough she wanted for each scone, shape it a bit in her hands and put it in the fryer... but I also seem to remember at least a few times where she rolled the dough out and cut it with a can can of some kind (like a tuna can or soup can).

Also, I don't typically buy yeast in cakes of yeast anymore, so I did a little research.

From “The Fresh Loaf” there are:
0.6oz (17gm) in a cake of yeast (USA)
1 oz (28.5gm) in a cake of yeast (some parts of Europe)

One (0.6 ounce) cube of Fresh Compressed/Cake Yeast equals 1 envelope (or packet) of Active Dry Yeast, Instant Yeast, Rapid Rise Yeast, Fast Rising or Bread Machine Yeast, which equals 2 1/4 teaspoons or 7 grams (11 ml). 

According to Red Star Yeast...

"Fresh cake yeast is only sold in a limited number of stores in the Upper Midwest and Northeastern US in that choose to stock it based on demand for the product. Even in those regions the availability is ‘spotty’ and the stores will generally only stock it during the holiday baking season. Since cake yeast is so perishable and requires constant refrigeration, we only sell it through supermarkets and it is not available through online sources. 

 Due to the limited availability of the cake yeast, many bakers do successfully substitute dry yeast in place of cake yeast, even in their traditional family recipes. Since dry yeast is essentially cake yeast that has been dried, using the proper conversion and given a little extra time to fully activate, dry yeast will yield the same results. Keep in mind that cake yeast has been sold in many different sizes over the years; therefore, if a recipe doesn’t specify the weight of the yeast cake, it is best to determine the amount of dry yeast you’ll need based on the amount of flour in your recipe.

Using the chart below, determine your yeast requirements based on the total amount of flour in your recipe.

* One pound of flour is approximately equal to 4 cups of flour. ** We sell the cake yeast in only one size (2 oz.) at this time. If you divide the 2 oz. cake into three equal sections (thirds), each section (one-third of a 2 oz. cake yeast) is equivalent to 0.6 oz. cake yeast, or one 1/4 oz. packet dry yeast, or 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast. Each section will raise up to 4 cups of flour. TIPS If the ratio of sugar to flour is more than 1/2 cup sugar to 4 cups flour, an additional packet of yeast (2+1/4 tsp) per recipe is needed. An excessive amount of sugar slows down yeast fermentation."