Scottish Potato Scones and British Breakfasts: a Tutorial

If you've gone to Britain, you will surely have experienced "the full British breakfast."

It's often called a "fry-up" because of the fact that almost everything is fried. It may also be called "heart attack on a plate," but as long as you are not having this on a regular basis, it's just too delicious to pass up once in a while! (The photo above is NOT indicative of a full British breakfast-this is more like a 1/3 British breakfast!)

In Great Britain, breakfast will consist of several common items, such as eggs, bacon, tomato, toast and beans, but then the rest of the plate will be filled with different items, depending on the part of the country in which you are located.

Northern Ireland has their Ulster Fry with local sausages and soda scones.

At a Bed & Breakfast in Northern Ireland

an Irish sheep in the countryside

England offers their regional sausages and usually adds mushrooms to the plate.

The Priory in Scorton

English llama and sheep in the Lake District

 

 And last, but certainly not least, Scotland serves potato scones, local sausages,

and black and/or white puddings. I'm showing my bias here and saying that I 

think Scottish breakfasts are the best in Britain (although, I've never had a Welsh 

breakfast, but I'd still bet that Scotland's are better!)

 The Royal Hotel in Ullapool

a Highland Cow, or a Heilan' Coo, near Balmaha

So now that we've decided on a Scottish breakfast (and that the Highland cow is the cutest!) I'm going to show you how to make delicious potato scones. Like so many of the recipes I make, they are quite simple to make and freeze well, so I usually make a double batch and freeze* most of them, so I can cook some whenever we want them. 

As far as the black and white puddings go, I'll leave that for you to decide if you want to try it (if you can find it where you live) as I ABSOLUTELY adore black pudding, but I understand if someone has not grown up with it, why they might have a less than positive feeling about it.  (I was going to link to Wikipedia's page on black pudding, but the first photo of black pudding makes me feel ill just to look at it, so that can't be good for everyone else!)

ready for a Scottish breakfast

Back to potato scones-you may hear them called "tattie scones" or "tottie scones" in Scotland, but they are one and the same, and here's how to make them...

SCOTTISH POTATO SCONES

from the Lofty Peak Recipe Book

• 1 lb boiled Russet potatoes (weighed after cooking - about 4 large potatoes, cooked in salted water)  -preferably cooked with the skin 

• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (2 1/2 oz) flour, sifted

• 1/4 stick butter (1 oz) softened

• 1/2 tsp salt

First, peel the boiled potatoes. If you absolutely refuse to peel boiled potatoes,
you can make your children do it peel them before boiling.

If you have a ricer, use it to rice the potatoes, if not, just mash them, but what makes

better potato scones is light, dry potatoes, and ricing them gives them more air.

Add the butter and salt. Taste the potatoes at this point, add more salt if needed,

then very lightly mix in the sifted flour.

It will come together into a dough very quickly and easily.
Turn out onto a floured workspace...

and gently fold over until smooth.

Divide into 4 or 5 equal portions and form each into a ball.

 Roll one ball out to about 1/4" thick, then prick with a fork
and cut into quarters or sixths, whichever you prefer, with a large knife.

Repeat with the rest of the balls of dough.

Heat a pan or griddle to (almost) high heat (between med. high and high.)

I love my scraper for picking up the scones to put into the pan.

When the pan is hot, cook the scones until brown on each side.

(You can cut them into round shapes with a cookie cutter, 

but this takes more time to rework the scraps of dough.)

 Place on a clean dish towel, then cover with the other half  to cool.

These are fully cooked and may be eaten as is, but traditionally, they are fried in the same pan as the bacon was fried in, for a Scottish breakfast.

You can also toast them to heat them up, or even fry them 

with a tiny bit of light olive oil for a crispy, yet less artery-clogging breakfast :)

You can just have eggs, bacon and toast with potato scones, 

as I've done in the photo below.

Or you can do it "right" and serve the potato scones with eggs, bacon, toast, grilled tomato halves, sausages, Heinz Beans, HP Sauce a piping hot cup of tea, and any of the other delicious items you see in the photos above:  DELICIOUS beyond words!

Oh, and did I mention you won't be eating lunch or dinner that day? ;)

Leave a comment below if you agree that 

Scottish breakfasts are the BEST!! 

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*If you are going to freeze these, place them on a floured tray in the freezer until frozen, then place in a freezer bag, this way they won't stick to each other. Alternately, you can put them in a container with pieces of wax paper in between them.