Girdle Scones
Scones have a long history in Scotland. James Boswell ate scones as he toured the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson in 1773. (He thought them very good, but couldn't understand how the Highlanders could eat them with cheese for breakfast.) In Kidnapped, David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart, fleeing the redcoats, “lay upon the bare top of a rock like scones upon a girdle” (girdle is Scottish for griddle). And the poet Robert Burns, described “souple scones” as “the wale of food” (wale meaning simply “the best”).
Scones are simply cakes of flour baked with butter, originally triangular in shape. Freshly baked scones should taste good even without the layers of butter, thick cream and jam or marmalade the Scots like to heap on them.
Here’s a recipe Martha McBride might have used for the Stephens’ breakfast in A Secret Scottish Christmas:
¾ pint buttermilk
1 teas. bicarbonate soda
½ teas. baking powder
1 ½ Tbs. caster (superfine) sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup thick cream
sifted flour (perhaps a cup)
Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl. Stir in the soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, cream and as much flour as needed to make a very thick batter, almost a dough.
Heat a griddle. Lift the batter quickly with a tablespoon onto a floured board. Roll into a round ½ inch thick. Cut into wedges.
Sprinkle the griddle with flour and cook the scones for 7-8 minutes on each side (turn carefully with a spatula when bubbles appear on the top). They should be lightly browned and cooked through. Makes about six scones.
You can also add dried or fresh fruit or cinnamon and more sugar for a tasty treat.
Scones are simply cakes of flour baked with butter, originally triangular in shape. Freshly baked scones should taste good even without the layers of butter, thick cream and jam or marmalade the Scots like to heap on them.
Here’s a recipe Martha McBride might have used for the Stephens’ breakfast in A Secret Scottish Christmas:
¾ pint buttermilk
1 teas. bicarbonate soda
½ teas. baking powder
1 ½ Tbs. caster (superfine) sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup thick cream
sifted flour (perhaps a cup)
Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl. Stir in the soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, cream and as much flour as needed to make a very thick batter, almost a dough.
Heat a griddle. Lift the batter quickly with a tablespoon onto a floured board. Roll into a round ½ inch thick. Cut into wedges.
Sprinkle the griddle with flour and cook the scones for 7-8 minutes on each side (turn carefully with a spatula when bubbles appear on the top). They should be lightly browned and cooked through. Makes about six scones.
You can also add dried or fresh fruit or cinnamon and more sugar for a tasty treat.