Today we are going international. I got this recipe from a very cool Canadian friend who got it from her dad, who, I presume, got it from someone of Welsh descent. If it isn't actually Welsh, we can rest assured that there is at least a bit of Canada in it. And if nothing else, a bit of West Yellowstone, Montana, because that's where we were when my fabulously talented friend and roommate gave it to me. We were spending a summer at the Playmill Theater in a summer stock acting troupe, and Diane was our choreographer. You cannot imagine how much better our performances in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Joseph and the Amazing Blah Blah, and Pure as the Driven Snow were after having been fortified by these mighty little griddle scones.
*sniff* Now I feel all weepy and full of memories. Please. Continue without me whilst I collect myself.
Welsh Cakes
Ingredients:
3 cups flour (I like to sub in wheat flour for some of the white. Healthy, you know.)
1 cup sugar (I shake a little of this out. It makes me feel better. And it's less sweet. Who knew?)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (Not to be confused with baking soda)
1/2 tsp baking soda (Not to be confused with baking powder)
2 tsp nutmeg (I always think I'll try clove and orange sometime. But I like nutmeg so well, it's always going to be the next time.)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (Don't let this bother you. You'll live longer if using shortening doesn't bother you.)
1 cup raisins (Optional – especially in my little raisin-wuss family. I have tried craisins and chopped nuts and it is fabu. My family liked it. Then pretended they didn't. They have pride issues that way.)
2 eggs, beaten persuaded
6 Tbsp milk (You could add 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp milk instead, but look how much more space it took to type that.)
Process:
-Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
-Cut in shortening. Add raisins, if using. (Add them if you're not using, too.)
-Beat eggs and milk together. (Someday congress will pass a law against beating eggs, poor little things.) (The eggs. Not congress.)
-Add egg mixture to other ingredients. May chill dough at this point if rolling out.
-Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface and cut with round glass or cutter.
-Optionally: make golf ball-sized balls and flatten onto griddle with hands until about 1/4-inch thick. (This marvelous technique was discovered one day when Janiel was all "Are you freaking kidding me? I'm not rolling this dough out! I'm a busy woman! I got no time to roll dough!" And, voilá! The "griddle-smash" technique was born.)
-Cook slowly on pancake griddle–lower temp. (Too high and the outsides will brown up while leaving the insides uncooked. Too low . . . and they'll be fine. They'll jus take longer.)
-Eat plain, or with butter and powdered sugar, or jam, or whatever strikes you.
-Talk about how you should make these more often.
Illustrious Illustrations:
Ingredients. As you can see, completely fat-free. COMPLETELY.
Mixing up the dry ingredients. Love those little flecks of nutmeg.
Cutting in the shortening, with the little pastry blender. FEEEEL the power!
Thar she blows! All cut in.
This is the dough, pre-griddle. It isn't really that yellow. The light is just reflecting off of my ginormous tupperware bowl.
Welsh Cakes, en griddle, using the "Griddle-Smash" technique. Note the finger indentations.
This will take a while. Perhaps I'll go look out the window . . .
WHA? It's not . . . ! Is that . . . ? Wait. Let me look out the other window.
SNOW! AUUUUUGGGGHGHHHHH!!!! It's APRIL!! What the frawstbite is snow doing here in APRIL! I can't take it. I'm going back to the griddle.
Oooh. First flip, and don't they look fine?
Second flip, and onto the plate. My minions are lined up, off camera, waiting for me to get the shot so they can dig in. Patience, my children. Patience. Must get an aerial view.
TA-DA! Ain't they purty?
And here you have the various toppings we adore on the Cakes of Wales: you've got your butter (my way), your powdered sugar (my kidlets way, about a half inch thick), your raspberry and peach freezer jams (everyone's way. Don't have any? Well go befriend someone who makes it and snag some off of them.) and strawberry cream cheese (Ew. But kid3 loves it this way. Blech.)
Right. And now you are internationalized. Your cultural education is complete. Go. Make. Eat. Enjoy.
