Dr Mobeus
Tattie Scones
The tattie scone is the quiet hero of the Scottish breakfast, the soft potato flatcake that sits beside the eggs and soaks up the brown sauce. It is one of those foods that costs almost nothing to make, because its main ingredient is yesterday’s mashed potato.
A batch of 8 costs about 50p even if you make the mash fresh from a value bag of spuds, which works out at roughly 6p each. If you are using up leftovers, they are close to free. The whole job takes 20 minutes from bowl to plate.
There is no oven involved. The scone in tattie scone means a griddle-baked round, not a floury thing with cream on top, and they are cooked in a dry pan the way drop scones and Welsh cakes are. Once you have a batch in the fridge, breakfast for the rest of the week is sorted.
Tattie Scones
Ingredients
Method
- Tip the cold mash into a bowl, add the melted butter, flour, baking powder and salt, and mix to a soft dough. It should be soft enough to shape but not sticky, so add another spoonful of flour if your mash was wet.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and roll to about 1.5cm thick. Cut into rounds with a 8-9cm cutter, then cut each round in half so you have triangles, which is the traditional shape. Re-roll the trimmings until you have used all the dough.
- Heat a flat pan or heavy frying pan over a medium heat with a wipe of oil, then fry the scones in batches for 3-4 minutes per side until they have brown patches on both sides and are hot right through.
- Keep the cooked ones warm in a low oven under a clean tea towel while you fry the rest, they stay lovely and soft this way.
- Serve hot with butter, or as part of a full Scottish breakfast alongside eggs, sausages and black pudding.
- Any that you do not eat will keep in the fridge for 2 days and toast beautifully.
Tips and Variations
Cold mash is important, warm mash makes a sticky dough that is hard to roll. If the mash was very buttery you can skip the extra melted butter. A wide spatula is better than tongs for flipping them. They freeze well between layers of baking paper, and toast straight from frozen in about 6 minutes.
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