Ticket to Ride Cookbook Review + Utah Scones Recipe

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All aboard for a new way to make scones found in the 2024 “Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook.” These fried strips of dough aren’t what you’d expect when you read the word, “scone.”

I wouldn’t call Utah scones a scone, scone. These aren’t a European-style scone in any way. It’s kind of like how Boston Cream Pie is called “pie” but it’s really cake.

But when in Utah?

For our first stop, we’ll learn about Utah scones and chugga chugga choo choo over for the delicious recipe found in the Ticket to Ride cookbook. I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. This wouldn’t be Little Indiana Bakes if we didn’t tour the cookbook a bit, too.

Get your tickets and enjoy the scenic route or zip ahead to the Utah scones recipe using the Table of Contents below.

Table of Contents

• Discovering Utah Scones in “Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook”
• What Are Utah Scones?
• Where Did Utah Scones Come From?
• What Makes Utah Scones Unique?
• How Do You Eat a Utah Scone?
• What Are Other Names for Utah Scones?
• Where Are Utah Scones Restaurants?
• Are Utah Scones Deep Fried or Oven Baked?
• “Alan R. Moon: Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook” Review
• Inside the Alan R. Moon Ticket to Ride Official Cookbook
• Recipe for the Best Utah Scone
• Other Cookbooks by Allyson Reedy and Greg McBoat
• All The Ticket to Ride Board Games
• Ticket to Ride Board Game for Kids
• Ticket to Ride Expansion Packs
• Related Recipes

Discovering Utah Scones in “Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook”

It’s been a heck of a heatwave in eastern Pennsylvania. Even an early morning run is brutal — there is no escaping the heat and humidity.

My Wednesday night run club canceled. My pals discussed the dew point and how it’s hovering in the tropical zone, as well as who ran that morning, who was still going to meet up and run, and who wanted to skip the running part to meet up for dinner or drinks later.

As for me, I was busy making Utah scones. #priorities

I’ve been climbing the walls wanting to bake something, anything. Since images accompany each recipe in the Ticket to Ride cookbook, I looked at Hazelnut Coffee Cake and Wild Berry Cake, while drooling over the photo for the Raspberry Brownies, or Thimbleberry Brownies.

Thimbleberries are what we called wild raspberries back in Indiana.

But the oven. They required the use of an oven. Who can use the oven at a time like this? When it feels like you can drink the air, the oven is off limits. That’s when the image of Utah Scones caught my eye. I’d never heard of such a thing but it looked interesting.

What Are Utah Scones?

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of dining in a down-home Utah restaurant and ordered a scone, you may have been shocked to find a piping hot slab of deep-fried dough set down in front of you, usually topped with a gloriously fluffy scoop of honey butter.

Most of the world thinks of a scone as a crumbly biscuit or pastry, often with raisins or currants baked in and sometimes served with clotted cream and jam.

But as with many other things, Utah does scones a bit differently. 

Madisen Swenson, Utah Scones Hit A Little Differently, Mashed, April 19, 2023, Accessed July 11, 2024.

A Utah scone is a puffy fried flat bread and a regional food. Although it is most often found in Utah, you’ll find it in nearby states, too, at least according to food historian Raymond Sokolov:

. . . At any rate, the Utah scone flourishes on its native ground . . .

And no matter how Navajo bread, sopaipillas, and Utah scones actually came about, it is the case that at the Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet, is the fried bread capital of the world.

Raymond Sokolov, Everyman’s Muffins: The scones that are the specialty of Salt Lake City appear to be the only bona fide regional food of Utah Issue 6, 1985, Page 84, Natural History

Where Did Utah Scones Come From?

It’s always surprising to stumble upon something popular with scads of people, yet you’ve never heard of it.

That’s the way it was when I moved to Pennsylvania and discovered scrapple (pork scraps mixed with flour or cornmeal, depending on who is preparing it, and fried). It’s a Pennsylvania Dutch dish that made its way into the homes of families all over the region. Everyone I know here has a story of who made scrapple and how.

Utah scones are a curious thing. Who invented the Utah scone? Why is a Utah scone called a Utah scone? What is the history of the Utah scone and how do we know?

We always thought of scones as baked tea biscuits, powdery rolls that rich people eat in lieu of English muffins. Not in Utah.

A Utah scone is a six-by-two-inch rectangle of dough that gets cooked by immersion in boiling oil. It turns all gold and puffy, and is then cut open and filled, like a hero roll.

We’d like to know how on earth the Scottish scone evolved into this grubby pastry, and why it took root in, of all places, Utah.

Jane and Michael Stern, Goodfood (1983), Stonecutter in Salt Lake City, Utah. Page 400.

There are plenty of theories. I find this to be one of the best:

Let us suppose that both the Navajo fry bread and the sopaipilla predate the Utah scone. They are simpler and history is on their side. Both Navajos and Hispanicized New Mexicans were in their present regions long before the Mormons.

Their fry breads are almost identical, and so it makes sense to look for an archetypical southwestern fry bread from which both descend.

Now since most culinary ideas in the U.S. Southwest moved there from the South, when Mexico controlled the area, there ought to be a Mexican ancestor for the sopaipilla and for the Navajo fry bread.

In fact, there is one.

Diana Kennedy located sopaipillas in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which shares some of its northern border with New Mexico. Sopaipillas are uncommon there, but they are called sopaipillas and are similar to those eaten in New Mexico, except that in Chihuahua they aren’t made with a chemical raising agent (or with yeast).

This greater simplicity argues in favor of Chihuahua as the birthplace of American fry bread. . . . The primitive fry bread now preserved in Chihuahua was probably once indigenous to the entire region we are talking about and now survives only in Chihuahua because of its remoteness from outside influences.

Most probably then, when Mormons first came into contact with southwestern Indians . . . eating an unleavened fried bread that puffed up in hot oil. Inevitably, they taste it and liked it.

Mormon women then tried to duplicate the recipe and added a whole battery of rising agents they knew about from English baking. They put in buttermilk because its mild acidity was necessary to activate baking soda and make it give off carbon dioxide.

They added eggs and sugar and ended up with a delicious and regional bread, related in kind to the beignet family, but a thing unto itself. And making a name for the thing, they remembered scones, quick sweet breads from home that were also cut into individual serving pieces before cooking.

Raymond Sokolov, Everyman’s Muffins: The scones that are the specialty of Salt Lake City appear to be the only bona fide regional food of Utah Issue 6, 1985, Page 82-84, Natural History.

There is more to the Native American frybread.

Throughout the 19th century, the Federal government often prohibited intertribal gatherings, and as proud expressions of Indian identity, today’s powwows are partly a reaction against that past suppression.

Many powwows host frybread competitions, and you’ll typically find long lines at frybread stands.

Last winter, Leonard Chee, a high-school history teacher who works part-time as a frybread vendor, drove his concessions trailer 330 miles from the Navajo capital in Window Rock to the Thunder in the Desert Powwow in Tucson, Arizona.

Eating a slice of frybread at a powwow is like “absorbing everything about the event,” he says, adding: “A powwow won’t function without frybread.”

Jenn Miller, Frybread: This seemingly simple food is a complicated symbol in Navajo culture, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2008, Accessed July 12, 2024.

What Makes Utah Scones Unique?

The menu is all Utah scones, rectangles of dough that are deep-fried and stuffed with cold cuts or fruit preserves.

. . .

The fried “bun” was a puff of flat bread with a chewy western texture that must be like the pan-fried bread pioneers used to eat. . . .

Let us not pretend otherwise: scones are junk food. But with personality, unique to Utah.

Jane and Michael Stern, Goodfood (1983), Rolling Scone Sandwich Shop in Provo, Utah. Page 399.

“Fading feast: a compendium of disappearing American regional foods” (1983) by Raymond A. Sokolov

Compared to the usual scones recipe, Utah Scones involve yeast and are fried. Traditional scones are baked and rely on a leavener, such as baking powder, to rise.

Why not call a Utah scone fry bread or a sopapilla or even a donut?

Native American fry bread and Mexican sopaipillas Mexican scones

Here’s the other unique thing about scones in Utah. These aren’t only eaten plain, with honey butter, jam or jelly, and the like, but they may be used in place of a bun and split down the middle for sloppy Joes or for a taco shell.

How Do You Eat a Utah Scone?

Have you ever been confronted with a food so unusual, you have no idea how to tackle it? That won’t be the case with a Utah scone. This simple fry bread might look a little different, but it speaks to the depth of your deep fried loving soul.

If you are making Utah scones, you can follow the Ticket to Ride cookbook’s serving suggestion. A simple recipe for honey butter is included (you combine softened butter with honey and a little salt and a touch of granulated sugar).

Something about this Utah buttermilk scone demanded powdered sugar, at least for my youngest son. My oldest son and I slathered on copious amounts of honey butter and dug in.

Some people like to eat a Utah scone with jam or jelly. Although it isn’t something I’ve seen, my youngest thought a nice vanilla glaze would work well here, too. I think he’s right, if you want a bit more sweetness.

I like to serve my fried scone on a pretty platter, as the usual.

What Are Other Names for Utah Scones?

The Dictionary of American Regional English calls our scones all sorts of names, including dough goddy, dough gob, doughboy, and doughbelly.

The dictionary says that the scone was used when homemakers got behind in their breadmaking and needed to quick-fry some bread for supper.

Jerry Johnston, `Mormon scones’ may actually be converts, Deseret News, July 13, 1997, Accessed July 12, 2024.

Although I wanted to verify the Dictionary of American Regional English, it required a premium account. I had hoped for a free trial to look up this one term, but alas.

Right or wrong, there are many nicknames associated with Utah scones. These include the following names (if I left one off used by your family, please let me know):

• Utah scones
• Utah buttermilk scones
• Mormon scones
• Pioneer scones
• Native American fry bread 
• Mexican sopaipillas 
• Mexican scones
• Dough goddy
• Dough gob
• Doughboy
• Doughbelly
• Indian Fry Bread
• Frybread
• Deep Fried Scones
• Pan Fried Scones
• Swiss Days Scones

Utah buttermilk scones? Mormon scones? These aren’t Mexican sopaipillas or scones, either. Not every name is a great fit.

Baptist cakes, for example, are cut into squares, but resemble donuts more than the slab of yeasted dough of a Utah scone — and definitely don’t look like a cake recipe.

Baptist cakes, at least according to a 2006 article in the LA Times, are served, “. . . with a dunking bowl of warm milk topped with a pat of butter, or maybe a bowl of maple syrup heated until warm.”

Swiss Days Scones are prepared in celebration of a huge Utah event, Swiss Days. The town of Midway, Utah, of just over 6,000 people boasts roughly 100,000 attendees starting the Friday and Saturday before Labor Day, according to Visit Utah.

Swiss Days honors the Swiss pioneers who visited Herber Valley and loved the mountainous reminder of home, indicated The Herber Valley Utah.

Frybread in the Navajo language is dah díníilghaazh, or bááh dah díníilghaazh, according to Navajo World. No matter how you say it, the Navajo frybread isn’t a complete match to Utah scones, either.

The recipe for Native American fry bread is similar. But, they appear to lack granulated sugar and are often used as the base for Navajo tacos, as shared by Navajo Chef, Freddie Bitsoie on PBS Food’s Lidia Celebrates America; Part 4: Ancient Navajo House Blessing in 2013.

Where Are Utah Scones Restaurants?

The best thing at Sill’s Cafe was (and still is) its version of the Utah scone. For those not in the know, a scone here in the Beehive State would likely be called “fry bread” elsewhere.

A fluffy, yeasted dough goes into the fryer and comes out to be served piping hot with powdered sugar or whipped honey butter, sometimes both.

The closest thing I’ve found in my travels would be New Orleans beignets. But beignets are small and powdered to the point that they are impossible to eat without ending up a snowy, sticky mess.

The Utah scone at Sill’s Cafe is easily the size of a plate. Fried to golden brown, the edges curl up slightly to make a raft for the ice cream scoop of honey butter plopped in the center, right as it comes out of the fryer.

By the time the scone makes it to the table, the butter is melting into every crevice. Sill’s skips the powdered sugar, which, to my mind, is just fine. It is sweet enough with just the house-made honey butter.

The best part, which teenage Lydia and grown-up Lydia agree on, is the price. When I was in high school, the scones were $1.05, and today, they are just $3 each.

The approved method of eating a Sill’s scone is to tear off a chunk, dunk it in melting butter, devour it while trying not to burn your mouth, take a sip of coffee and repeat.

Lydia Martinez, Food Crush: The Utah Scone, Salt Lake Magazine, July 11, 2024, Accessed July 11, 2024.

Just when you think you have seen and done — and eaten — it all, there are restaurants serving up the best scones in Utah. I’m sure I left plenty of great cafes and diners frying up Utah-style scones. Please, feel free to share your favorites in the comments section below or let me know using my contact form.

You’ll have to make the trip to Utah for the real fried scone, of course. Or, turn to The Ticket to Ride cookbook for the best scone you can make at home when you can’t head out west.

Restaurants offering delectable golden brown Utah scones include the following:

• Sill’s Cafe: 335 E Gentile St, Layton UT 84041, 801.544.7438
• Penny Ann’s Cafe: 1810 S Main St, Salt Lake City UT 84115, 801.797.1334
• Sconey Island: Food Truck, 801.699.9550
• Midvale Mining Cafe and Catering: 390 W 7200th S, Midvale UT 84047, 801.255.5511
• Alice’s Kitchen: 94 N 400th W North, Salt Lake UT 84054, 801) 992-3148
• B&D’s: 8178 Gorgoza Pines Rd Ste A O’Shucks Bar and Grill, Park City UT 84098, 435.658.0233
• Sharon’s Cafe: 2263 Murray Holladay Rd Ste A, Salt Lake City UT 84117, 801.278.9552
• Ramblin’ Roads Restaurant: 544 W 400th N, Bountiful UT 84010, 801.298.1752
• Over the Counter Cafe: 2343 E 3300th S, Salt Lake City UT 84109, 801.487.8725
• Virg’s Family Restaurant: 5770 S Redwood Rd, Salt Lake City UT 84123, 801.968.7180
• Lazy Day Cafe: 2020 E 3300th S Ste 24, Salt Lake City UT 84109, 801.953.0311
• Janet’s Sunshine Cafe: 20 S Orchard Dr North, Salt Lake UT 84054, 801.936.0915
• Chubby’s Cafe: 1276 W 12600 S, Riverton UT 84065, 801.999.4783
• Chick’s Cafe: 154 S. Main St., Heber City 435.654.1771
• Navajo Hogan: 447 E 3300 S, Salt Lake City UT 84115, 801.466.2860
• 7-11 Ranch Restaurant and Catering: 77 E Main St, Vernal UT 84078, 435.789.1170
• Sunday’s Best: 10672 S State St, Sandy UT 84094, 801.441.3331
• Black Sheep Cafe: 19 N University Ave, Provo UT 84601, 801.607.2485

Are Utah Scones Oven Baked or Deep Fried?

I made a tweak to the recipe. Although the recipe in the book calls for baking the raw scone dough in oil in the oven, I knew I could whip out my handy dandy deep fryer without a problem.

Heat up your fryer while you make the scones recipe. I set my temperature to max, or sfsf*. My deep fryer isn’t particularly large, so I kept within the recipe guidelines concerning size. I rolled my Utah scones out to more of a square (or an oval, oops), rather than the circle — that shape wouldn’t fit.

Then, it only took 1-2 minutes per side to get the dough a nice golden brown. Have a paper towel lining a platter or plate and scoot the cooked bread onto it.

These delicious scones were the answer to a blistering hot morning.

What Do You Need to Make Utah Scones?

This yeasted bread is a simple introduction to working with yeast. You’ll proof the yeast in warm water, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and add all of the ingredients together. You don’t even need bread flour — all-purpose flour is fine for this one. 

I used my KitchenAid stand mixer, but you could knead the dough by hand, of course. Use a neutral oil to grease another large bowl (I’d suggest either a baking spray, such as PAM for Baking with Flour or Baker’s Joy, not olive oil or anything that could add a flavor to your dough).

Place dough in the greased bowl and turn it over, so the top stays soft while it rises. Drape a kitchen towel over it and leave it in a warm place.

Get your hot oil heating while your dough is rising. Make the honey butter now, unless you plan to use this as the base of a Navajo taco, as places do in Utah. Either way, have a paper towel on a platter or plate ready to catch some of the grease. You’ll serve warm with honey butter and dust with confectioner’s sugar, if so desired.

“Alan R. Moon: Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook” Review

Let the “Alan R. Moon Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook” be your guide to new culinary destinations. This regionally-focused cookbook keeps to the train theme of the popular board game, Ticket to Ride.

Every recipe in this 183-page cookbook includes an image of the finished product so you’ll always know what to expect. These are full-color, whole page images, too. The hardcover keeps it safe from splashes and splatters. At 7.5 x 0.8 x 9.25 inches, it’s a nice size, too.

Consider this your culinary tour of destinations across the United States. You’ll enjoy the dining car-inspired menus. Look at this interesting layout below. There are 15 routes in this train themed cookbook.

Each route in the Ticket to Ride cookbook offers a recipe for the following:

• Appetizer
• Side dish
• Main course
• Dessert
• Cocktail (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)

You don’t need to be familiar with the Ticket to Ride board game to enjoy this beautiful cookbook. But if you have played “A Ticket to Ride” before, then you’ll extra enjoy this book. It’s a wonderful and useful addition to my cookbook collection.

Inside the “Alan R. Moon Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook”

You know my love of menu cookbooks. The “Ticket to Ride” official cookbook offers a menu with the recipes for each destination ticket. You may need to fill in the blanks a little, but it’s a nice train-themed starting point.

For example, the West: Destination Ticket: Calgary – Phoenix: Desert Limited: Salt Lake City-Las Vegas-Los Angeles (starting on page 103) includes the following menu and recipes:

• Classic Cobb Salad
• Chateaubriand
• Fries with Utah Fry Sauce
• Utah Scone
• Cocktail Pairing: Moscow Mule

Chapters inside the Ticket to Ride cookbook include:

• Introduction
• East
  • Destination Ticket: Montreal-Atlanta
    • Appalachian Mountaineer: Pittsburg-Nashville-Atlanta
    • Mississippi Special: New Orleans-Little Rock-St. Louis
  • Destination Ticket: Boston-Miami
    • New England Flyer Boston-New York
    • Diplomat Connection Washington, D.C.-New York
    • Atlantic Night Express Miami-Charleston-Raleigh
• Midwest
  • Destination Ticket: Sault Ste. Marie-Oklahoma City
    • Midwest Mail Oklahoma City-Kansas City-Omaha
    • Great Lakes Zephyr Sault Ste. Marie-Duluth-Chicago
• West
  • Destination Ticket: Vancouver-Santa Fe
    • Pacific Beachcomber Los Angeles-San Francisco
    • Redwood Zipper Portland-Seattle-Vancouver
  • Destination Ticket: Calgary-Phoenix
    • Rocky Mountain Eagle Denver-Helena-Calgary
    • Desert Limited Salt Lake City-Las Vegas-Los Angeles
  • Destination Ticket: Los Angeles-Miami
    • Southwest Express Phoenix-El Paso-Santa Fe
    • Texas Star El Paso-Houston-Dallas
• Coast to Coast
  • Destination Ticket: Vancouver-Montreal
    • Maple Leaf Vancouver-Montreal
  • Destination Ticket: New York-Los Angeles
    • Cross Country Rocket New York-Los Angeles
• Conversions
• Recipe Index

Recipes range from super simple, such as the recipes for a Root Beer Float or Wild Mushroom Crostini, to only minimally more complicated, as is the recipe for Chateaubriand, Chicken Enchiladas, or Beaver Tails with Real Maple Syrup.

You’ll find the best scone recipe, the Utah scone, below. I know, it isn’t like English scones at all — but they are delicious scones. It uses yeast dissolved in warm water (not hot water) instead of baking powder or other leavener.

If you want a cookbook with lovely images, mouthwatering classic recipes with a few regional surprises thrown in, then your journey stops here. The “Alan R. Moon Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook” is on track to be your new kitchen workhouse.

Recipe for the Best Utah Scone

Other Cookbooks by Allyson Reedy and Greg McBoat

All The Ticket to Ride Board Games

You’ve heard the buzz, now play the game. Browse the numerous city and country-themed Ticket to Ride board games below. I have my eye on the colorful San Francisco Ticket to Ride game and the Pennsylvania version.

Ticket to Ride Board Game for Kids

Much like how I write in my cookbooks, I also write in the inside of the board game box. The winner writes who played, the score (if applicable), and the date. I can see my youngest played the original Ticket to Ride board game when he was seven years old. The made for kid versions below, however, would take significantly less time to play.

Ticket to Ride Expansion Packs

The base game, Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe, is required to play an expansion pack. What is a Ticket to Ride expansion pack? These are new maps to extend and enhance your game.

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