My friend Dianna brought me some of the 5 dozen Welsh Cakes that she made that day. The recipe comes from her friends’ husbands’ mother, or was it grandmother, something like that, I’ve never had the pleasure to try one of these tasty treats, but it wasn’t love at first sight. The first thing I asked her while looking at this little round unappetizing circle of whatever, ‘so what’s in these?’ I say. She gave me the lowdown on some of the ingredients she used, but I still couldn’t imagine what it might taste like, thinking I would have to wash this down my throat to be able to swallow it, I offered to make some tea first, I was stalling.
Well the inevitable finally happened, with my tea in one hand and the Welsh cake in the other I was about to take my first bite, the little voice in my head was telling me, just wash it down quickly with the tea, smile and tell her they’re good.
Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmm, was all I could say, they were delicious! It’s hard to describe the taste, maybe like a pastry or short crust kind of texture. This is a great example of the old saying, ‘looks can be deceiving’ I didn’t need the tea to wash these down but it was a nice accompaniment.
Welsh Cakes can be served with butter, jam or sprinkled with sugar.
Welsh Cakes
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ pound butter or margarine
- ½ pound shortening
- ½ pound dried currants
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ⅓ cup evaporated milk
Instructions
- Mix together all dry ingredients add butter and shortening, cut in with a pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in currants. Mix eggs lemon, and milk together, stir into dough like making a pie crust, add just enough to make dough workable. On a floured surface roll dough out to a ¼ inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch rounds and fry without fat in a flat pan over medium heat, until browned on both sides.
- Sprinkle with granulated sugar or icing sugar when cooled.
- Try some of these alternative additions:
- Cinnamon
- Chocolate chunks
- Lemon zest
- Coconut
- Dried cherries, cranberries, or blueberries
- Pistachio
- White chocolate
- Apricots, chopped
- Raisins
