subject: How To Make Traditional Scottish Biscuits [print this page] There is no better accompaniment to Scotch tea than a plate of warm, soft traditional Abernethy biscuits to dip in and enjoy. Funnily enough, these biscuits are not actually named from the small Perthshire village, but are, in fact, named after a Scottish doctor who came across the recipe almost by accident (in as much as the same way many great things are discovered). If you"re fortunate enough to stay in one of the hotels near Edinburgh castle, you"ll find it very difficult to avoid these sweet biscuits, as they have become something of a sensation in that area over the last century. Here"s how to make them:
What you"ll need:
One white egg
Semi-skimmed milk, one tablespoon-full
Caraway seeds, half a tablespoon-full
Baking powder, half a tablespoon-full
Three ounces of standard butter
Three ounces of caster sugar, preferably granules
Eight ounces of plain flour
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and butter until the mixture is smooth and consistent. Once the mixture is thick and beaten free of lumps, beat in the egg and milk and whisk the resulting mixture until it"s a thick dough.
On a chopping board covered in flour, roll the resulting dough finely in your fingers, gently thickening it to the desired thickness. It"s recommended that you use your own judgement in order to gauge just how long to bake the mixture for without burning, or undercooking it. Remember that raw dough can cause stomach upsets, so it"s recommended that you serve the biscuits when you know that they are ready for certain. I would suggest rolling the dough at a thickness slightly below the "standard biscuit thickness", if that makes any sense, as you need to compensate for the dough rising in the oven.
Once you"ve achieved your desired biscuit thickness and shape, you can now cut the biscuits out of the dough using a cookie-cutter. Don"t waste the trimmings; rework them until you can make more biscuits, even if they"re smaller than the original cuts. Prick the surfaces of all of the biscuits with a fork and place them on a baking tray, having greased the tray first.
Bake the biscuit batch in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for approximately ten minutes, checking them every two minutes until they are golden brown. Cool them, and if you"re not ready to serve them, store them away in a cool, dry place. Before you know it, you"ll be enjoying the best biscuits that are no different from the ones served in any good luxury Edinburgh hotel.
