Organic Boxes

It’s St Andrews Day, snow is on the ground and my thrifty Scots background means it’s a good day for baking and for left overs. This combines the two. Tattie (potato) scones are not like any other scone you’ve ever had and organic tatty scones are the best kind of all. Make these in a matter of minutes and you can eat them warm, cold or fried the next day with an egg and sausage (or sosmix if you prefer!)
Once you’ve made tattie scones you’ll find yourself cooking more mashed potatoes than you need just so you’ll have some left-overs and an excuse!
The variety of potato will change the texture, and sometimes the colour, of the finished scone. Classic tattie scones are made with very white, floury varieties but you can use whatever you’ve got so long as they’ve a good flavour. I quite like using a yellow potato, this gives a more golden result than the classic but I think tastes even more delicious.

My Nana in her best hat

Now this is not a recipe like those you get in books. This is my ancient Scots Nana’s receipt (yes, she would have called it that). She’d be 115 if she was still around and she baked these scones for her large family where ever she found herself from Dumfries to Detriot and back again by way of Vancouver and all before the First War!
My Nana never weighed anything. She used her hand, her eye and her judgment. So that’s how I make them too.
Don’t be scared. Trust yourself. “It a eats” as my Nana used to say.You mustn’t be too precious about the results. How ever they turn out they will be good to eat. If they are a wee bit burnt just scrape it off.
You will need:
You are going to use your hands for this so extra clean please!

• Heat a heavy based frying pan or ideally a girdle (griddle if you are English) or even a bakestone if you are Welsh!
• A floured wooden board – just use your work surface if not.
• A rolling pin. I use a wooden one.

1. About 1/2 a pound, 2 tea cups, or 3 large potatoes worth, fairly moist left-over mashed potatoes (ideally mashed with a little butter & milk but I’ve done this with soya milk before and it works fine!)
2. Start with a handful of flour (organic white but you can use spelt, wholemeal or even buckwheat). You might need a little more.
3. Optional – a teaspoon of baking powder. It will make them lighter but it’s not easy to get organic.
4. 2 tablespoons melted butter or organic sunflower marg. DO NOT USE REDUCED FAT Sorry to shout but it has too high a water content for baking and even it it claims to be organic is full of things you really don’t want to eat.

That is all. Simples

What you do
I learned to make these by sitting in a corner of the kitchen with a book! My Nana had 10 children and she couldn’t stand them under her feet when she was baking. I’m not sure how many of them learned her secrets but she’d mellowed a bit by the time I, the youngest female grandchild, came along. So long as I was quiet she’d let me stay. One too many daft questions and I was chased out to play.
Make sure your girdle is hot and throw a small amount of flour over it. Spread it round with a wad of kitchen paper or a pastry brush. (Use an old one as it might singe!) The girdle is ready when the flour turns golden brown. Turn the heat down to keep it at the right temperature.
Take the left over potato and place in a china mixing bowl. Squash and squeeze it gently through your fingers to make sure it is totally smooth. Don’t be too rough with it. It should feel quite moist and a little sticky.

In another bowl sieve the flour with the baking powder, if used. Sieve it anyway to add air. My Nana hadn’t the patience to hold it high and bash the side of the sieve with her hand so often shed get a metal tablespoon and whizz it around the sieve.

Once you add liquids the baking powder starts to act so move fairly quickly now.
Take a small amount of flour and mix into the potato along with a dribble of butter. Use you hand to mix it round. Now keep adding flour and butter a little at a time and mixing. You will find that the dough stops being sticky and starts to become smooth and pliable. Catch it at this point. Don’t over handle it or be tempted to knead it. It’s not bread.

Flour your board, rolling pin and your hands. Pop the dough onto the floured wooden board and roll it out to a circle. Not too much rolling, and don’t lean on it, keep it about as thick as your pinkie (little finger). I cheat and use a round board. It helps me to get the shape right.
This dough is fragile but it shouldn’t be too crumbly. If it is you might have added too much flour. Use less next time. You should still be able to pat it into rough triangles.
If the dough seems too sticky use your hands to gradually work in a bit more flour.
I usually use a flat bladed knife to gently cut it into quarters and a fish slice to lift them onto the waiting girdle.

Watch them and turn them once they’ve browned. This will involve a bit of guess work and gently lifting the edge with your flat bladed knife or fish slice.

They smell good and in my Nana’s house they were often buttered and devoured by hungry grandchildren almost at once. She’d fight us off and threaten to ‘pin yer lugs tae the merket cross’ for being theives and scoundrals.

Lift them off the girdle onto a metal cooling grid and leave to go cold.

I liked mine rolled up cold with butter and homemade rhubarb and ginger jam She made much larger quantities than we have here and there were always enough kept back to have fried the next day with a cooked breakfast.

They don’t keep so use the same day or fry them up for breakfast.