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.