potato scones
-makes about 4 big ones
(be them square, round or triangular)
contents -
large spuds - two
plain flour - four or so heaped tablespoons
baking powder - wee teaspoon
s + p
butter - chilled cubes and some extra for frying
the continuing quest for a filling and tasty breakfast
This recipe seems almost too simple to write a blog post about. But I really have to share my love for tattie scones.
I've always been unsure if potato scones are a Scottish thing. I think they might be a bit Irish too though (blatant requirement of citation here). I love them. Be it with scrambled egg, on a roll with bacon and fried egg or just toasted with butter, I'll take them any way. But I've never thought of making my own before. One of those items that you think must not be worth trying to make yourself...like filo pastry or mini sausage rolls. But they are so surprisingly simple I cannot believe it took me this long to try making them.
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| with scrambled eggs and a brew |
Put simply, they have four ingredients: potato, flour, bicarb and butter. That's it, simple, job done.
Definitely four things I always have in my kitchen. And it's quite handy if you've had mashed potato for tea the night before, you can use the leftovers for tattie scones in the morning. Simple. There is something to be said about the potatoey flavour that is the same in home made and shop bought potato scones.Yet the shop bought ones are completely missing that texture and bite.
Boil the spuds like usual and mash them up. Once they are half-mashed add the flour, baking powder, cubes of butter and season well. Divide the mixture up and pat into shapes, flour these a little and fry them in a frying pan with more butter.
I have found it pretty handy to be able to use the residual heat in the frying pan to lightly cook some scrambled eggs to eat with the potato scones. Leave the potato scones to the side, drying on a bit of kitchen roll. Although, this is my new way of cooking scrambled eggs, really slowly, in a frying pan, not beating them too hard and only lightly whisking them before adding them to the pan. Might just need to redo a scrambled egg post. Have them with a full breakfast. Eat them dunked in a soup or stew. Yum.
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| brown lentil soup with a tattie scone |
They are really nice if you add some chives. You can also add a little bit of cheese to the potato mixture because we all know how well cheese and potatoes work together. Although you cannot beat them with scrambled egg and smoked salmon.
The texture of these would definitely be completely different, maybe even better, If I use a ricer instead of a masher. Might be next on my list of stuff to buy. But then again, I quite like it that they have a slightly rougher texture when mashed. Better bite. I want to look into sweet potato scones, but they might be too wet to use. I guess that's another experiment in the pipeline.
