Welsh cakes

THESE aren’t so much cakes as gently fried, scone-like batter discs that are very light, with a crisp outside. You can serve them with butter and/or honey or jam, but when fresh, they’re lovely as is.

I cook mine on a Welsh bake-stone, forged at Coegnant Colliery in 1932. It was a wedding present from the local blacksmith to Dorothy and Edgar Evans, whose grandson, Peter (no relation), gifted it to me. It is quite prized in our household, but a decent heavy-based frying pan works well too.

MAKES: About 10 individual cakes

Ingredients

240g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

90g caster sugar

120g butter, chilled and diced

1 free-range egg, lightly beaten

100g (⅔ cup) currants, sultanas, mixed peel

1 tbsp full-cream milk

2–3 tbsp vegetable oil and butter, for frying

Method

1. Rub the flour, sugar and butter together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and gently combine.

2. Add the currant mix and milk and form into a ball.

3. Roll out the dough on a floured bench to about 1cm thick and cut into 3cm rounds with a cutter (some people use a fluted cutter).

4. Heat the vegetable oil and butter in a frying pan over a medium–low heat. Fry the Welsh cakes until browned on one side, then turn gently and fry the other side. Take care that they cook in the middle – about 3–4 minutes each side should do it. Allow to cool a bit before serving.

TIP: Welsh cakes are at their best just cooked, but the next day they’re good with cream.

This is an edited extract from The Commons by Matthew Evans, published by Hardie Grant Books, $60, and available where all good books are sold. Photographer: © Alan Benson 2019