Irish Scones and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Paddys! I hate that this holiday always falls on a weekday, as that severely hampers any plans to drink lots (within a responsible parameter of course!.) But what I do love about it is that for one day in March, everybody is Irish. And happy. And very inebriated. And ready to sing.

*smile*

Half portion of dough

The Captain is part Irish but I don't think he really inherited much of the 'beer gene'. For one thing, he hates Guinness (I can almost feel the thud of fainting Irishmen). And like me, he is more interested in the food rather than the booze. Last year, we celebrated with Steak and Guinness Pot Pies, which were awesomely comforting. This year, I haven't had as much time to cook so the only thing I churned out on time were these Irish Scones.

I was in a lazy mood so instead of cutting rounds out of it and placing it on a baking tray, I flattened the dough to a square-ish shape, placed it in a small greased casserole dish and used a sharp knife to score through the dough. You could also flatten it out into a circle and cut it into wedges or you can actually fry these on the griddle for about 7-8 minutes on each side. As you can see, these Irish scones aren't your usual well-risen, bready, light and fluffy English variety. These are denser and heavier, flatter and crispier on the outside but still sports the unmistakable taste.

Oh and in case, you wondering, yes there is one scone missing in the photos. Burning your fingers and mouth by eating a freshly baked scone slathered with melty butter is one of life's greatest pleasures.

Now the only question I have is, how do you pronounce scone? Do you say it as 'scon' (as in 'John) or 'scoan' (as in cone)?

Ingredients

(makes 12 scones)

2 C (500ml capacity) of plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
120g caster sugar
pinch of salt
225g unsalted butter, slightly softened and chopped
120ml milk
1 small egg, lightly beaten
1/2 C raisins (optional)
Eggwash (1 small egg, beaten with a dash of milk)

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. You could use a food processor but the manual method will yield softer scones (in my opinion anyway).

Make a well in the centre and add the milk, egg and raisins. Lightly mix until it just comes together to a slightly sticky dough. Add more flour if it gets too sticky (especially on humid, hot days).

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead about 5 times (don't overmix or overknead as this will make them tough).

Pat out into a 2cm thickness and use a round cutter to cut out rounds and place on a lightly greased baking tray. Alternatively, pat into a 2cm thick rectangle and transfer into a baking dish (one big enough to fit it cosily). Use a knife to score into 12 portions.

Or you could shape a 2cm thick circle and cut 12 wedges. Place wedges onto baking tray.

Brush with eggwash and bake for 25-30 minutes until the outside is golden.

*Note that Irish Scones don't rise as high as English scones and are more heavier and denser on the inside and crispier on the outside.*

Recipe adapted from here