Category Archives: Scones

All of our scone posts

Scones, Uncategorized

Wayzgoose Diner

1 Comment

More news from our Bathurst correspondents as we in Scotland gently edge towards the same sort of freedom that they enjoy. Freedom to not only leave the house but to venture further afield … and to meet people … yeah! We’re not complaining, we are very happy with the way the whole COVID-19 thing has been handled in Scotland but like everyone else we have almost forgotten what ‘normal’ actually means. In New South Wales our correspondents can at least move around the state … and this little corner of Australia is four times the size of the UK! Anyway, today they made their way to the village of Leura and the Wayzgoose Diner. And what sort of name is that anyway? In their own words:

Welcome to Leura“Today we passed through Leura, a village halfway between our home in Bathurst, and Sydney. A spot we often stop at when travelling to Sydney. As it was coffee time, we called into the Wayzgoose Diner, and decided to sample their scones. To our surprise the scone arrived in a terracotta flowerpot, in which it had been cooked. Quite a nice scone, if a little odd looking with its tapered bottom”.

Flower pot scone at the Wayzgoose Diner
A flower pot scone

Intrigued by the name “Wayzgoose”, and thinking it was some sort of Canadian bird, I googled it and found:

“A wayzgoose was at one time a celebratory dinner given by a master printer to his workmen each year on or about St Bartholomew’s Day (24 August). It marked the traditional end of summer and the start of the season of working by candlelight.”

Working by candlight … those were the days! Our correspondents also sent these clippings about the Country Women’s Association (CWA) from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sconversations for the anxious and depressedSMH clippings for the Wayzgoose DinerKnead to know


In another cutting a Mrs Whitton explained that the secret of a perfect scone “Don’t knead the dough. Don’t fiddle or keep laying or touching it”. You have been told!

SMH clippings for the Wayzgoose Diner
Mrs Whitton and a tray of 40 scones


As always, a huge thanks to our Bathurst correspondents. But, would you believe it – another Aussie report has just come in! This time from our Brisbane correspondent. We think the intention was to assure Pat and I that not all Australians are as boorish as him.

Apparently, at a recent function, he was belittled, berated and generally ridiculed by colleagues for putting jam on top of the cream on a pikelet (crumpet) he was preparing to eat. Serves him right … not going to get any sympathy from us. But good to hear that Australia is not indulging in those devilishly delinquent Devon ways.

Back in the UK, Boris promised that everything would go back to the way it was once Brexit was achieved. And so it has, one of the few promises he has kept … rioting on the streets of Northern Ireland. Thanks Boris, you could do well to heed Mrs Whitton’s advice.

Scones

Cheese muffins

7 Comments

In what is fast becoming a tradition we bring you another non-scone – cheese muffins. Yes, they’re not scones but they are the best we can do in the circumstances. During lockdown we’ve already brought you tattle scones, Scottish empire biscuits, Welsh cakes, German Devil’s farts and even Norwegian skillngsboller  … you can’t say we’re not trying. VERY TRYING, we hear you groan! Anyway cheese muffins make regular appearances in our house. Unlike her, not so successful hot cross buns, Pat can rustle up a batch of cheese muffins in a veritable flash. They’re delicious.

Cheese muffinsAll you need is 150g plain flour, 50g cheddar cheese (roughly chopped), large pinch of salt, 20ml baking powder, 1 egg and 100ml of milk. Mix it all together, divide into individual portions and stick them in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Bingo, lay them out on a wire rack.

How do you eat them? With strawberry jam if that’s what floats your  boat but probably best just with a little butter. On this occasion we decided to add even more cheese … wonderful.Cheese muffins with cheese

The cooker is everything
Medicine generic cialis price shall enable a man to relieve the prostatitis pain, if you want to have an effective treatment. This in turn leads cialis generic usa to erectile dysfunction and other related problems as well. Can You Recover Without Antidepressants for Depression? Some doctors, particularly psychiatrists whose job it is to prescribe medications, will tell you cialis generic tadalafil that you need antidepressants for depression if you have any chance of eliminating this mental health problem from your life. The pills help have good intimacy with your cialis soft 20mg wife.

AGA recipe bookBack in 1982 when we bought this house it came complete with an AGA cooker. Pat took to it like a duck to water. It hasn’t changed its design since the first one was made in1947 and you can’t say that about many things these days. They say that an AGA becomes part of your family. We can testify to that. Here you can see Pat with the Christmas turkey and, in the background, you can also see our cream coloured AGA! AGA Christmas dinnerThis is what our AGA family looks like  … honest!

Changing the world

I think we’ve mentioned before that Scotland is holding the Scottish Government elections in a month’s time. It’s not going to be just any election, no, no, no. It’s going to be an election with the potential to change the world, to change maps, to change everything as we know it.

Should the independence leaning parties get an overall majority, it will make Westminster’s refusal to permit a referendum look more than a wee bit silly. At the start of the campaign in the 2014 referendum the SNP started with 27% support. This time they’re starting  at over 50%. The unionist parties are terrified. They keep telling us we’re too small, too  poor and too stupid so you’d think they would be glad to see the back of us. In an independent Scotland there would be free scones, free jam and free cream for everyone though no one has actually promised that … yet! We are looking forward to the day when the people of Scotland, rather than a bunch of public school numpties in Westminster, can actually decide their own future.  Anyway, no matter what happens, it will be exciting … watch this space.

Scones

Hot cross buns

5 Comments

Gosh, it’s Easter again and who would have thought it would be the second one in lockdown. Our traditional family holiday in Inverness has been cancelled so we are not in the best of moods about that. Easter is a jolly time however. A bit like Christmas but with magic rabbits and chocolate eggs so much more believable. And, of course, that seasonal favourite, hot cross buns! We thought that, to get into the Easter spirit, we should have a go at making them … it’s not easy, in fact, it’s a right palaver!

In our naivety we thought it would be like making a scone. Not a bit of it! It’s much more akin to making bread. You mix up your flour with sugar, spices, yeast and the zest of a lemon but then you have to leave it for a hour or so to proof. And hopefully double in size!Hot cross buns in the making Then you have to knead it again, add sultanas and peel then leave it for another hour. What? Do they think we have nothing better to do? Oh, alright, we don’t!

Hot cross buns, piping the crossAfter that you form the dough into smaller balls and leave them for half an hour to increase in size. Then you have to pipe a cross on top with a mixture of flour and water. By the time we were finished Pat was definitely hot and definitely cross which is no doubt how they got their name. No it wasn’t. Unbelievably they got their name from the fact that they should be served hot and they have a cross on top … and they’re buns!

Breathalyser food
Hot cross buns being glazed with syrup
glazing with hot syrup

Originally they were a pagan thing to celebrate the Goddess Ēostre and in 1592, Queen Elizabeth I decreed that they were so good they should only be eaten  on Good Friday or at burials. Must be great to have that sort of power. Just think what you could do with it? Greedy folks should be careful, however. They can have a high alcohol content (all that yeast and fruit) and throw you over the legal limit.

We would like to report, after going to all that trouble, that our hot cross buns were a major success. But no. Flavour was good but unfortunately they were a wee bit on the firm side. Not the nice soft consistency we have come to expect of this type of bun. Interesting exercise but I don’t think Pat will be repeating it any time soon!Hot cross buns

Elections

In Scotland we have the mouth watering prospect of six weeks of electioneering leading up to polling day on May 6th. Lots of empty words and empty promises to look forward to. Alex Salmond has popped up again (hell hath no fury like a former First Minister scorned) with his new Alba party. He is less popular now in Scotland than Boris Johnson, an incredible feat in itself so we can only imagine it has more to do with his own deluded conceit than anything else.

Happy Easter everyone, the weather is scorchio today so enjoy it while you can. Fingers crossed,  this will be the last lockdown Easter.

 

Scones, Uncategorized

Aussie ramblings

1 Comment

Whenever we are finding it difficult to bring you fresh scone news we can always rely on our Bathurst correspondents to save the day. They have done it again! This diverse report covers phone boxes, jewellery, handbags and, lo and behold, girdle scones. You know how in the UK at the moment there’s nothing much going on well you’ll be glad to hear that there’s nothing much going on in Australia as well. So no need to fret that you are missing out. Therefore, in the absence of anything going on anywhere our. correspondents said “we’ll just rattle on about a few things … Aussie ramblings”.

“We have just had a week in Victor Harbour south of Adelaide, with our son and family who live in Alice Springs.  We do this every couple of years around Christmas time. They drive the 1500km down from Alice and we drive the 1100km across from Bathurst. Halfway between Victor Harbour and Cape Jervis we spotted this old telephone box at someone’s front gate. Not one of your cast iron jobs, just timber.

Aussie phone box at Victor Harbour
definitely not made in Falkirk

Our son, James, works in leather, making shoes, belts, wallets, handbags, and other bits and pieces, while Elliat, his partner, is a designer, working in jewelry, furniture, and anything else you can think of. 

Aussie girdle sconesToday Julie cooked a batch of girdle scones.  I seemed to have deleted your blog which may or may not have had the recipe. Not to worry, Julie looked them up on the internet, and, voila, with some butter and cheese we had a delicious lunch.

Morrisons

We are of course familiar with the food chain, having had many trips to Aberystwyth and St Andrews in the 10 years since Rebecca and family moved to the UK. However, you might not be as familiar with our Morrison, to wit, our prime minister, Scott.  Scomo to his mates, of which I don’t claim to be one.  He is currently in the poo over his misogynistic leanings, glossing over rape allegations, and general lack of statesmanship.

Welsh Cakes or Sausage Rolls

We have of course sampled Welsh Cakes many times when visiting Aberystwyth. However, they don’t hold a candle to the sausage rolls found there.  Five for 2 pounds, proper sausage meat, incased in delicious flaky pastry.  I am yet to find an equivalent in Australia”.

New health food

So it would seem that Australia’s politicians are not a whole lot different from many of our own. Well, blow me down! As always, many thanks to our Bathurst correspondents for keeping us in the loop and Julie’s girdle scones look fantastic. Shortly after their report came in, however, we got another from their buddy who rides shotgun – New South Welshman. He alerted us to this fantastic piece in ABC News on the wonderful health benefits of eating scones. Just look at this headline:

_______________________________________________________________________

BUNDABERG SCONE QUEEN DOROTHY COLLISHAW TURNS 100Dorothy Collishaw - ABC News

“Laughing, keeping busy and baking scones are the secret to a long and happy life, according to Bundaberg’s “Scone Queen” Dorothy Collishaw. Raised in a Maryborough bakery shop and winning her first baking prize more than 90 years ago, Mrs Collishaw has self-raising flour flowing in her veins and still actively bakes for QCWA meetings and functions.

In 2019, Mrs Collishaw was named an ABC Scone Master as part of a radio series celebrating Queensland’s most passionate scone makers.Dorothy Collishaw - ABC News

This led to the QCWA Bundaberg Branch hosting a highly successful “Scone Festival”, publishing a scone recipe book and even the annual national “Scone Day”on the day the organisation was formed.”

_______________________________________________________________________

They certainly know how to celebrate scones in Queensland. So there you have it! If you want to live to a fit and healthy 100 just  laugh, keep busy and eat scones. 

Portmasamba

After we cast nasturtiums in our previous post at the sanity of the good folk of Portmahomack, Lyn  got in touch to set us straight. “As a member of said Samba Band – PORTMASAMBA- and proud resident of The Port, I wish to reassure all other readers that we in The Port are of sound mind at all times; of wise stock; and welcome folk of all definitions to our beautiful village”. Well, of course, we knew that Lyn. The Port was very welcoming to us and we can’t wait to return.

Portmahomack Main Street
Portmahomack front overlooking the beach
Vivienne at Tarbet Ness
3. year old Vivienne at Tarbat Ness
 
Scones, Uncategorized

Laverbread

5 Comments

Following our previous post on Welsh Cakes you will all be pleased to hear that “Slightly Miffed of Portmahomack” is now “Delighted of Portmahomack.” Although “delighted” she felt that perhaps we should also cover Laverbread, a seaweed delicacy and the essence of a good Welsh breakfast. By now readers might be thinking that Portmahomack folk must all be slightly mad. The title photo is of some of them down by the harbour passing the time on a very wet afternoon. Reassured??

So, laverbread is made with seaweed, where on earth are we supposed to get that? Just pop down to the coast and pick some? No, no, no, laver is a special kind of seaweed and you can only get the good stuff on the coast of Wales … apparently! Oh, or  in a shop … an online shop, The Fish Society shop to be precise.  They will cater to all your seaweed needs! Don’t say that we don’t go that extra mile for our readers.

raw laver
as it comes from the Fish Society, out of the packet and mixed with oats
Dulse and all that?

Suffice to say we ordered some laver directly from Wales so that the ensuing laverbread would be as authentic as possible. The things we do to placate these Portmahomackians! You’d think they would be too busy watching whales and dolphins? The laver arrived in an alarmingly large box … we didn’t really want a whole load of seaweed so we were relieved when the large box contained only a very small sachet of frozen laver.  Frying laverbreadOnce, when I worked in Belfast someone (they shall remain nameless) gave me some dried dulse. It was revolting! I only had a little but I could still taste it three days later! And that pretty well sums up my seaweed eating career so far. Would this laverbread thing be a better experience?

There is no way that laver could ever look appetising … a kind of dark green sludge. In fact it makes you wonder who thought it was a good idea to eat it in the first place? Anyway, in the interests of expanding our reader’s laverbread knowledge we set about making some. Couldn’t be more simple really … mix it with some oats and lightly fry. Laverbread with fry-upWe had it with some crispy bacon and a fried egg. Interesting in that there was no strong taste, just slightly salty perhaps. Some people compare the taste to oysters, or olives.  We ate it all, however … it’s good for you apparently!

djpaulkom.tv cialis cipla This is a great product; try to avoid thinking about it wrong. This causes filling of blood in the spongy penile muscles and increased testosterones within the scrotal sac.Women: Excitement is observable with vaginal lubrication through Bartholin gland secretion, swelling of the internal sildenafil rx vaginal lips and majorly there is erection in the clitoris and nipples. You generic cialis pill need to take appropriate medicine that can work perfectly for your body. Earlier, women buy cialis tablets were known to be concerned about their aged look and even internal aging.
Laver, laver everywhere!
Scallops with laver and pea puree
Scallops

To give it a fair crack of the whip, at night Pat made me scallops with a pea purree and laver sauce. This was fantastic! Hard to know what was actually going on but the laver seemed to give it a slight salty edge that went well with the rest of the dish. Huragh, a mini laver triumph!What else?Omelette with laverNext day we had an omelette with potatoes and laver. That was excellent as well though I suspect that the omelette would have been none the worse if there had been no laver in it. In Wales laver is sometimes referred to as Black Gold, or the Welshman’s Caviar. Apologies to all laverbread aficionados but we are not at all surprised it hasn’t caught on in Scotland.

Yesterday, the news that Nicola Sturgeon was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Alex Salmond affair has been greeted by the Tories with all the same good grace that Trump accepted his election defeat. Politics will always have divisions but there seems to be a lot more division elsewhere in the world today … skin colour, gender, ethnicity etc. The other day we got an note from singer songwriter, Carrington MacDuffie. It was a quote from Mohamad Safa. “Our world is not divided by race, colour, gender or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, colour, gender or religion”. Seemed kind of apt don’t you think? So how come it’s the fools that get to rule the world? Or is that being unduly unkind? All very well for us armchair critics … they are probably all doing their best, poor sods.

Me at Target Ness lighthouse
Me at Tarbat Ness lighthouse, Portmahomack looking towards Wales for more inspiration

 

Scones

Welsh Cakes

5 Comments

You’re all familiar with “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells”, a name used for someone with strongly conservative political views, who writes letters to newspapers in moral outrage. Well, recently we had a communication from “Slightly miffed of Portmahomack” saying that we had featured baked goods from Scotland and N.Ireland but had ignored Wales and its Welsh Cakes.

No idea

Obviously, having miffed readers is not on and history teaches us that ignoring discontent in the Highlands can be perilous. So, in an attempt to quell any hint of rebellion Pat has acted quickly and decisively to bake some Welsh Cakes. She previously had no idea such things existed but as always our best buddy, Google, rode to the rescue.

making Welsh cakes
Very similar recipe to fruit scones but cooked on a girdle or griddle

No one knows where scones originated … England, Scotland and Ireland all have claims. The first mention of a scone in writing, however, was back in 1513 by Scottish Poet, Gavin Douglas so perhaps Scotland has the greater claim.  Whatever, we are proud to continue Gavin’s good work. Anyway, no matter where they’re from originally we don’t think it’s Wales. They’ve got Welsh cakes for goodness sake so why would they?

Placated

Once the mixture is rolled out and cut into whatever shape you like they are placed on the hotplate.

making Welsh cakes
About 3-4 minutes on each side the dusted with caster sugar

The caster sugar is optional. Without caster sugar you can slice them through the middle and eat them with butter and jam, just like a scone. Alternatively, with the caster sugar you can eat them just as they are. eating Welsh cakesThey were delicious so we gave them the first and probably the last top Welsh Cake award. We thoroughly enjoyed this foray into the unknown. Who knows, Welsh Cakes might become a regular feature in Pat’s baking repertoire. The last time we were in lovely Portmahomack we had a topscone and hopefully, now that “slightly miffed” is placated it will be safe to return for another. Can’t wait!

Oprah

The fallout from the Meghan and Harry interview is incredible. For an inconsequential family rift to dominate almost every news channel for a week just beggars belief. With Meghan, the monarchy has missed a golden opportunity to drag itself into the modern technological world. The traditional fairytale secretive monarchy no longer cuts the mustard for many. And just so that you know, its a few years since we last chatted with the Queen but we can confirm that she never mentioned Meghan once … if that’s anything to go by … just saying!

It’s a while since we brought you a telephone box. This one is at the new Falkirk Distillery which hasn’t opened yet but has distilled its first spirit. By 2024 it’ll be actual whisky. What with this and the old Rosebank Distillery reopening, Falkirk is starting to rival Islay as a whisky lover’s heaven. Okay, slight exaggeration.

Lion Foundry K6 at Falkirk Distillery

It’s a pity the phone box was made at the Lion foundry in Kirkintilloch, it would have been nice if it had been a Falkirk one. 

Scones, Uncategorized

Morrison’s afternoon tea box

4 Comments

Morrison’s afternoon tea box, okay, maybe this is the actual bottom of the sconology barrel? We have, of course, been here before. About eighteen months ago we were at Morrison’s Café and not only that, we had two mini-Vikings with us. We were buying costumes for Halloween so that we could go round our neighbourhood scaring everyone half to death. Remember … we were once able to do that! Before COVID and Brexit that was called ‘normal’. Anyway, the mini-Vikings abandoned us on Saturday so that they could go back to school in London.  Pat is, once again, flying solo on the baking front.

Surprise

Coronavirus restrictions mean that we are still not allowed to go anywhere. Mind you, everything is closed so there’s nowhere to actually go anyway. In these circumstances we thought it might be worth trying Morrison’s Afternoon Tea Box. The advert looked quite good (see title picture) and it was only £20 or £25 if we wanted to upgrade it with prosecco. And it would be delivered to our door at no extra cost. Predictably perhaps we upgraded … why not? It arrived bang on time and we were excited to see what it would actually be like. We  were more than a little surprised, however, when we opened the box and saw what we had bought.Contents of Morrisons afternoon tea box

DIY

It wasn’t so much an afternoon tea as an afternoon tea kit. More a box of groceries from which it would be possible to make an afternoon tea if you were so inclined.  A whole loaf, a jar of pickle, two boxes of cakes, a large chunk of cheese, a packet of ham, tea bags, carton of milk, big pot of jam and a large (burst) packet of lightly salted crips. Enough to make afternoon teas for a small army. Crickey, we could have just gone to the shop and bought all this stuff.

Morrisons shopping listWe decided to look it all up online and see how much it would have cost if we had done that. Sad, we know but we had nothing better to do! You will see from the results that we would also have been cheaper. We would have saved £0.48. To a tight-fisted Scotsman that’s equivalent to at least two mouthfuls of beer. We really don’t know what Morrisons is thinking about with this product. To be fair, when we went back and checked the advert it did list everything underneath the picture. We should have looked more carefully.

Morrisons all butter sconesAnyway, once we had recovered from the realisation that there was nothing else for it but to knuckle down and make our own afternoon tea. We duly set about making the sandwiches, decanting the cakes and unpacking the scones. Eventually we sat down to relax in front of the fire with the fruits of our labours. 

Experience

It wasn’t like any other afternoon tea we have ever had but all in all it wasn’t that bad. Maybe it was the fact that we had been more involved or maybe it was just that we were nice and cozy and catching up with missed episodes of Coronation Street. Who knows? The scones were okay but nowhere near a topscone. finished product of Morrisons afternoon teaOf course, there was enough in the box to make several more of these afternoon teas but I don’t think we’ll bother. Putting it all down to experience … read the ads carefully!

mini-Vikings back to schoolSo the mini-Vikings are delighted to be back in school with their friends, a huge relief for the home-working parents. Meanwhile Boris Johnson is reportedly building a £9m bunker beneath the Cabinet Office for use in emergencies. Is he thinking of when he refuses another independence referendum for  Scotland. He might need it.

Scones, Uncategorized

Girdle scones

9 Comments

If you are wondering where the girdle scones are in the title photo, they are in the tummies of the two mini-Vikings. We went the short distance to Blackness Castle for a picnic and they had girdle scones filled with ham and cheese. It was definitely a top girdle scone award according to them. 

One of our mini-Vikings was born in Norway and is super proud of that. The other minnier-Viking was born in England and is super proud of that. As they read the information boards the miniest-Viking became troubled by the realisation that this castle, which she loved, had spent a lot of time under attack by the English. She is half Scottish but we could see that she was seriously conflicted. Quite tricky for a five year old. Mind you, us older ones weren’t too happy about Oliver Cromwell wrecking it in 1650 either. All that was completely forgotten, however, when the picnic was produced.

Fussy pigeons

Anyway lets go back to the beginning. Since we have been expanding reader’s sconological education with traditional oven scones and more recently drop scones and tattie scones, Pat thought she should have a go at girdle scones. The last time she tried them was when we were first married and living in a first floor flat in Edinburgh. We always put our stale bread out on the window sill for the birds. When the girdle scones didn’t turn out too well we put them out as well. Not even the pigeons would take them. This memory was still vivid as she launched into this second attempt. making girdle scones

Happily, years of baking experience meant there was a much happier outcome this time around. If they look a bit like tatties scones that’s because they are quite similar except, of course, there are no potatoes in girdle scones and there is a little baking powder to make them rise.

ways to eat girdle scones
girdle scone with ham and cheese and next day with fry up … yum

Many years ago, when I was a mere sapling of a student, I worked as a labourer in the oil refinery at Grangemouth during college holidays. Every morning a truck would pick me up in Falkirk High Street. It had a tin hut thing on the back. There was no door but inside there were wooden benches running down each side. A little bit later the truck would stop at a model lodging house where a squad of Irish navvies would climb on board and join me in the hut. These guys regarded puny students as fair game so I probably got more than my fair share of ragging but really, they were the salt of the earth.

A singular woman

I tell you this simply because the lodging house had a woman who came in and made the men their packed lunches. I’ll never forget it because every day it was exactly the same. They all had a full girdle scone filled with great slabs of red cheddar cheese. For all the months I worked there I never saw them eat anything else. Suffice to say that Pat’s second attempt at girdle scones was much much better than the first.

A mystery 

In spite of the delicate nature of Anglo/Scot relations our visit to Blackness was great fun. But it highlighted an ongoing problem that we were totally unable to resolve. How to get the miniest-Viking to wear a jacket in a way that covered more than just her forearms?Jacket mystery at Blackness Castle

If anyone has any suggestions we would be delighted to hear them.

Just as Scotland enters a phase where it has its best ever chance of achieving the same respect that all independent nations take for granted, it is beset by a scandal. It revolves around personalities and technicalities of who said what to who, where and when. No bearing whatsoever on Scotland’s case for independence but with the media in a feeding frenzy, it undoubtedly will.  Fingers crossed good sense prevails.

the beach at Blackness Castle
Jacket problem final solution … removed it
Scones, Uncategorized

Tattie scones

3 Comments

.Okay, we’ve been eagerly awaiting Nicola Sturgeon announcing that we can all go as one big family on holiday to Inverness. Unfortunately she is being super cautious so we will just have to carry on crossing our fingers and hoping that the vaccination programme makes it all possible by Easter. Children went back to school yesterday in Scotland and in England on 8th March, so overall there are increasing reasons for optimism.  In blog terms, however, it means that we are descending ever closer to the bottom of the sconology barrel.  This post is all about tattie scones.

A potato scone or tattie scone as it’s known in Scotland, is fairly far removed from the oven scones that form the already rather feeble excuse for this blog’s existence. They are, however, scones so we have to give them their due. They’re just not what we are accustomed to. Our readers in the nether regions and far flung crevices of the world will probably be wondering what on earth we are on about. But what else are we supposed to do when we still can’t leave home.

Canny Scot

Anyway, one day the two mini-Vikings who helped us make drop scones in the previous post were having dinner at our house. Pat had made them mince and tatties, an ever popular dish that never usually  fails. Suddenly, one of them (as five year olds tend to do) announced loudly that she didn’t like potatoes any more. Rather than go through the rigmarole of explaining about starving children in Africa, we decide to give her bread instead. That was fine but, of course, it meant that we still had some left over mashed potatoes. Pat, canny Scot that she is, put them in a bowl in the fridge. 

Next day she announced that she was going to attempt something she had never done before – making tattie scones. Wow! Not sure that tattie scones could be classed as a Scottish delicacy but they are certainly very popular as part of a breakfast fry up. A packet of tattie scones does not cost a lot but they are simple to make. 

tattle scone preparationYou can get a recipe here but Pat simply added added a pinch of salt, a little butter and some milk to the left over mashed potato before finally adding a little flour. She then just patted the mixture out until it was roughly round in shape before dividing into quarters. Then they were transferred to a hot lightly buttered griddle (large frying pan would do) where they cooked until ready.cooking tattie scones

Ulstermen

Some people like them hot with just a little butter. Others actually prefer them cold with butter and jam. When we lived in Northern Ireland they were known as potato farls and formed an essential part of an Ulster fry. That’s something that Ulstermen have every morning but which would keep any ordinary mortal going for about a week.

Finished tattle scones
The finished article
A first

Next morning, we decide to have our own fry up. It was an altogether puny affair compared to an Ulster fry. But at least we could sample Pat’s first homemade tattie scones. The scones were heated in the frying pan along with everything else. Tattie scone fry up

We regard fry ups as a relatively rare treat. So needless to say the whole plateful was consumed with more than a little relish. Tattie scones were superb. Well done Pat and thanks to one over fussy mini-Viking without whom we would never have made them.

Scones

Drop scones

5 Comments

Pancakes for Pancake DayOkay this might be a wee bit tenuous in terms of sconology. This post is actually about pancakes, Scotch pancakes to be precise or as they are sometimes known in Scotland ‘drop scones’. That, together with the fact that we are all still incarcerated in our homes and cannot get out for proper scones is our excuse for this post. Tuesday last was Shrove Tuesday and traditionally that is Pancake Day. For most of England and indeed the rest of the world this involves a celebration where large thin pancakes are made in a frying pan and tossed to prevent them burning. Some places even have pancake races whereby a number of competitors run along a street tossing their hot pancakes as they go. In Scotland, of course, we don’t indulge in that sort of nonsense. Scotch pancakes are an altogether different animal.

  • 220 g Self Raising Flour • Pinch Salt •50 g Caster Sugar
  • 2 Free-range Eggs •280 ml Milk •1 tsp golden syrup
Making pancakes for Pancake Day
Preparing the ingredients including the all important golden syrup

Making pancakes for Pancake DayIn the past, Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up fats and eggs before the start of Lent. Hardly necessary for us but we decided to celebrate anyway by making some pancakes of our own. There was more than little encouragement from the two mini Vikings who helped us in the skillingsboller post. They love granny’s pancakes!

Making pancakes for Pancake Day
Starting the serious business

Indeed, Granny’s pancakes are something of a phenomena. She creates enough pancake mixture to make at least twenty to thirty pancakes but by the time she’s finished there is not a trace. Every single last panake has vanished. All that’s left is dirty dishes. It’s one of life’s great mysteries.Pancakes for Pancake Day

Betrayal

My mother was great at making pancakes and when we lived in Ireland she gave Pat her recipe. It never worked in spite of multiple efforts. They were always pale insipid affairs. It wasn’t until we were at my mother’s house here in Falkirk that Pat noticed her adding a teaspoon of syrup. “What’s that?” she cried. “That’s the syrup” said mum, “You can’t make pancakes without a little syrup!” “But that’s not in the recipe you gave me”, Pat exclaimed. To her dying day mum protested her innocence but was never allowed to forget it.

Anyway, the mini-Vikings made me this one. It was fabby dab!my pancake

Perseverance

The wonders of pancake making are only matched, perhaps, by the wonders of landing a spacecraft on Mars. A journey of seven months across thirty eight million miles and managing to land this thing with pinpoint accuracy has to be some sort of miracle. Our mini-Vikings assumed that there had to be someone steering it and were completely mystified when told that it was unmanned. It did, however, allow me to explain all the mathematical formulae involved in such a project. Joking, of course, but I think they did come to realise that maths can be quite important. One small step for mankind! Mind you, the success of NASA’s Perseverance mission does make you wonder if there are not some more pressing problems back here on Earth.

Pat and I have both had our vaccinations as have all our friends so we are hoping it won’t be too long now before scone adventures can resume. Fingers crossed!