These potato cakes make a hearty breakfast, buttered along with some crispy bacon. I compared two receipes - one for Scottish "tattie scones" and another for Irish "potato farls" and they're exactly the same, except the Scottish version are cut out in little rounds like regular scones. If you don't feel like springing out of bed and peeling potatoes (who does?), make the mash the night before (or use whatever's left over from last night's dinner) and heat it for about a minute in the microwave before you start.
Ingredients
- 550g of potatoes
- 25g of salted butter
- 100g of plain flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Method
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into small pieces.
- Put the potato pieces into a microwavable bowl with a small splash of water. Put a plate on top and stick in the microwave on full power until they're cooked and soft (with my microwave (800 watts) it takes about ten minutes, with a stir at five minutes - of course you can cook the potatoes in any way you like).
- Add the butter to the potatoes and mash until smooth.
- Mix the flour and salt together.
- Add the flour mixture to the mashed potatoes, one spoonful at a time. Mix into a light dough. Add more flour if it's too wet and sticky, or some milk if it's too dry to take all the flour.
- Dust a surface with flour and roll out the dough into a disc about 1 cm thick, or slightly thicker.
- Cut the disc into wedges (these are the "farls") or use a cookie cutter to create round scones.
- Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add the farls / scones.
- Cook for three to four minutes on each side so that they're browned and crisp, but not burnt.
