Welsh Cakes - Wales
Stop# 5
We left England and are now headed over to Wales for stop #5 on our global food trip.
Welsh Cakes
Despite how they might look, these are not breakfast pancakes as you may know them, they are a bit more like a hearty, lightly sweet dessert than anything. You can still have them with breakfast, just don't expect buttermilk pancakes to drown with maple syrup. I was a little excited to make this because I seem to really be partial to dark fruit and berries like blackberries or currants. Currants are an awesome accent (I love the flavor in a good strong black tea) and they aren't difficult to find.
Again, I referenced two recipes that took different approaches. One was pretty much straight-forward batter, and the other called for caster sugar and lard...so of course I went with the lardy one. I didn't have any caster sugar, so I made some. The process is very simple, dump granulated sugar in the blender, set to medium high, pulse until powdery. Do not confuse this with powdered sugar!
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup caster sugar (not powdered)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 oz chilled lard
2 oz chilled butter
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup dried currants
cold milk - a couple Tbsp
granulated sugar for coatingNotes
Sources of inspiration: Most of the process and planning comes from The Daring Gourmet, but I also referenced King Arthur flour.
Some recipes use Nutmeg, but Mace is traditional. I might have used a hint more.
Currants can be found with the raisins at your supermarket. Sun-Maid makes some that I have seen fairly frequently, but I bought mine in bulk at Whole Foods.
Chill the lard first for sure. It makes it way easier to mix into the flour.
Process
Mix the flour, caster sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and mace in a bowl.
Mix in chilled butter and lard until it is a coarse, crumbly texture.
Stir in currants.
Add egg, and enough milk to mix and make a soft, smooth dough.
Welsh Cake Dough Wrap dough, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out chilled dough to 1/4 in. thick.
Cut into 3-4 in. rounds.
Hot buttered pan.
Welsh Cakes Frying Fry for a few minutes per side til golden brown.
Coat with granulated sugar.
Cool and eat.
Finished Welsh Cakes
Results and Adjustments
These little cakes were amazing. It was surprised how many of them I wanted to eat right out of the pan. A few notes to make them better. Don't roll out the dough too thinly, you want enough for a nice thick cake. Cook over a slightly cooler burner. It is a bit easy to burn these guys because of the fine sugar in the mix. I cooked them a bit higher than medium, so my net result was a quickly cooked crust...close to burning...then the inside was every so slightly under-done. The cakes that I cooked slower had a far better consistency and looked incredible.
Don't be stingy with the granulated sugar coating, it makes them look great and gives them a fun extra crunch. Cook them in butter...not oil, just because it is better. Spice mix was pretty good, and the mace gives them an interesting flavor. If anything I would probably bump up the cinnamon a little bit, but only slightly. Maybe a drop of vanilla.
How to eat them? Plain is great! I tried a couple different things and think that melted butter is good, but trying with fruit jam seemed to be my favorite way to enjoy them. We had a nice blueberry jam that turned out the best.
So, what's next? I have another dish to try from Wales; cheese and leeks, what could go wrong?