Just-Sweet-Enough Welsh Cakes
 |
| Fresh from the griddle dusted in sugar |
A Matter of National Pride...
Sometimes a dish is so unique that it becomes a national icon. Amongst other things, Welsh cakes (or picau ar y maen) are just that. These little round treats are not too sweet and not too savoury and can only be described as being between a scone and a shortbread.
In fact, they have nearly identical ingredients as you will see if you take a look at my delicious scone recipe here.
They share a similar origin story to the scone and also things like the pasty. Starting out life as a treat made to go in lunchboxes by the wives of miners and are simple to make but so delicious. I realised when coming to this recipe for the blog that I didn't really have any idea how old these cakes were in terms of tradition so I did a little research and surprisingly was not helped at all. I could not seem to find any solid info on an origin date for these. If you can shed some light on it, then please email me!
Anyway, they are buttery little flat cakes with currants in and are cooked on a griddle, not an oven.
Most of the modern recipes I tried were too sweet and I know from the stories from my family that they should be "just a little bit sweet". Kind of like a scone I guess.
I did some experimenting and adjusting and this is my recipe for delicious Welsh cakes. It is a 50/50 mix of lard and butter used here but you can sub out the lard for the same amount of butter if you wish to make it vegetarian.
In fact, they have nearly identical ingredients as you will see if you take a look at my delicious scone recipe here.
They share a similar origin story to the scone and also things like the pasty. Starting out life as a treat made to go in lunchboxes by the wives of miners and are simple to make but so delicious. I realised when coming to this recipe for the blog that I didn't really have any idea how old these cakes were in terms of tradition so I did a little research and surprisingly was not helped at all. I could not seem to find any solid info on an origin date for these. If you can shed some light on it, then please email me!
Anyway, they are buttery little flat cakes with currants in and are cooked on a griddle, not an oven.
Most of the modern recipes I tried were too sweet and I know from the stories from my family that they should be "just a little bit sweet". Kind of like a scone I guess.
I did some experimenting and adjusting and this is my recipe for delicious Welsh cakes. It is a 50/50 mix of lard and butter used here but you can sub out the lard for the same amount of butter if you wish to make it vegetarian.
- Makes around 15 cakes
- Prep - 15 mins
- Cooking - 10 mins
Let's Get The Ingredients...
- 450g Plain Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (Powder not soda)
- 100g Salted Butter (Cut into small fingers or cubes and at room temp)
- 100g Lard (Can be subbed out for 100g extra of butter instead)
- 125g Caster Sugar
- 2 Medium Eggs, Beaten
- 100g Sultanas
- Pinch of Salt
- Splash of Milk
Now To Cook...
Put the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together. Toss in the room temp butter and lard and, using your hands (really important), rub the dry flour and bicarb mix into the butter. You need to keep doing this until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs or soil.
(See, I told you it's like scones... even copied and pasted that first step 😉)
(See, I told you it's like scones... even copied and pasted that first step 😉)
Add in your sultanas, salt and 100g of the sugar and mix through with your hands. Now add the beaten eggs and mix together thoroughly. It should be like a nice firm dough. If it's a little dry and floury still, add that splash of milk.
Once it's all mixed together simply roll out to about 5-10mm thick. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter and re-roll the trimmings and keep cutting until you have used all the dough.
Take a heavy frying pan or a griddle and get on medium heat. You can either grease lightly with lard or butter, or keep the pan totally dry. Place the cut out circles of dough in the pan, fitting as many in as possible.
After about 3 minutes, they should be lovely and golden on that side so you can now flip them over and repeat.
Once golden on both sides, remove from the pan and let cool on a plate. Sprinkle them with the extra sugar left over.
You can store them in a tin for around a week or so, you can eat them cold and plain or warmed up with some butter or some butter and jam.
Whatever floats your boat.
YUM!
Once it's all mixed together simply roll out to about 5-10mm thick. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter and re-roll the trimmings and keep cutting until you have used all the dough.
Take a heavy frying pan or a griddle and get on medium heat. You can either grease lightly with lard or butter, or keep the pan totally dry. Place the cut out circles of dough in the pan, fitting as many in as possible.
After about 3 minutes, they should be lovely and golden on that side so you can now flip them over and repeat.
Once golden on both sides, remove from the pan and let cool on a plate. Sprinkle them with the extra sugar left over.
You can store them in a tin for around a week or so, you can eat them cold and plain or warmed up with some butter or some butter and jam.
Whatever floats your boat.
YUM!
Comments
Post a Comment