Mom called these scones; most just call it fry bread. They are a summer tradition in our family; we grew up with a coal/wood burning cookstove,and baking bread was completely out of the question in the summer months. Fry bread, however, was not.
If you’re not up to making your own dough, you have several options. You can purchase frozen dough out of the freezer section at your grocery store; you will need to follow the thawing/proofing instructions on the package. You can also go up to the bakery section and ask for an unbaked loaf of bread (um, dough). The baker will look at you strangely. Tell her to put it into a plastic bread bag and slap the bread price label on it. You get your dough with no hassle, and she gets a great story to tell her family when she goes home that night (mind you, I doubt you’ll come out of the telling looking like the next Einstein).
If you *are* inclined to make the dough yourself, you can use your favorite white or wheat bread recipe. I use the Better Homes and Garden’s White Bread recipe for fry bread, excepting I replace the milk with water, and I use oil instead of shortening. This allows you to skip the heating/cooling step by using warm water in the first place. AND you won’t notice the difference once you slather the fry bread with honey butter, homemade jam, or chili (Yes, I said chili. Welcome to the West!)
I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (a $75 refurb minus a birthday check = $25, woohoo!) to mix the bread; it cuts down on kneading the dough. Sometimes I knead it anyways, but it’s really not necessary with fry bread.
After your done kneading dough* , place it in a bowl, and let rise in a warm place till double. If you bought frozen dough, follow the directions through the first proofing. If you bought bakery dough, jump right in here. NEXT:
Divide your dough into lots of smaller dough balls (about 8 balls per loaf of dough prepared). Gently flatten and stretch them into rounds, let rest for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes you can flatten/stretch them a little more, or decide good enough is good enough. That’s generally what I do.
So here is where you wait for the second rising. In theory. I never do, but it really is possible.
Next, heat a heavy pan with about 1/2â€-1†of oil. I’d say medium to medium-high heat.
Now, fry your bread till it’s a nice golden brown on both sides.
Not that hard, see?
Serve warm with honey butter, homemade jam, or (and I said it before) chili. If you top with chili, go ahead and put some lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, whatever on it. It’s good stuff.
My favorite topping for fry bread is butter and my mom’s homemade peach jam. I’m out of jam, so I made honey butter instead. I whipped one cube of softened butter together with a couple big tablespoons of honey that I wheedled out of my uncle when I visited this summer. It was very, very good.
IF you have leftovers (you never know), wrap them and eat within a few days.
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*Really, are we ever done needing dough?
