Scottish Tatties - Traditional Potato Scones — Wee Scottish Diaries by Cate

Time to broaden your Scottish vocabulary once more (or refresh it).

We like to call our potatoes ‘tatties’.

Chances are you stumbled across the word when you had your haggis, which is usually served with tatties and neeps (turnip).

And because we love our tatties so much, we came up with our own scone version of it.

Ok, so now you might wonder how those crumbly scones dolloped with cream and jam go together with potatoes.

Is it just a savoury scone version maybe?

In fact, we do eat them with butter and jam.

But they’re also a must-have side dish for a full-on Scottish breakfast. The one with beans, sausages, mushrooms, haggis and black pudding, etc. ...

Aye, we are known as weirdos when it comes to food.

But I’ll stop you right there.

This is different.

Picture a pancake instead that is cut into triangle shapes.

By the way, they also go really well with a curry or stew! That’s how I like them most.

The recipe is based on three simple and humble ingredients: potatoes, butter and flour.

Sounds easy enough to make. Well, that’s what I thought …

However, they can get tough and chewy if cooked for too long.

Or worse. you end up with burned and undercooked scones. Been there, done that.

But with the right recipe to hand and a bit of practising, you’ll get the hang of it pretty soon.

Traditional recipes use leftover mash but they turn out much fluffier with fresh one.
Originally, you use a griddle pan but a large flat-bottomed frying pan will work just as fine.
You can either fry them as a whole and cut later or fry them in individual pieces, which I find much easier.
You don’t need to grease the pan, as this will only lead to burned butter.

Oh and of course, you can also find them in every supermarket, in the bread aisle …

For those who want to give them a try, here’s my go-to recipe from Scottish Scran.

500g floury potatoes

25g butter

125g plain flour, plus extra

pinch of salt

Boil the potatoes until cooked. Leave to air dry for a couple of minutes before you peel them.
Place the potatoes in a bowl and add the butter and salt.
Mash the potatoes.
Add in the flour, one spoon at a time until you get a stiff dough. You might not need all the flour.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide into 3 balls.
With your hand, flatten out each ball into a circle, about 5 mm thick.
Make sure to turn and flip the dough whilst doing so and use enough flour to prevent it from sticking.
Place a small plate on top to trimm of the rough edges into a circle shape.
Cut into 4 pieces and prick them all over with a fork.
Heat a griddle or frying pan until hot, then turn the temperature down to medium.
Place the scones into the pan and fry from each side for about 3-4 minutes. Keep flipping them to make sure they brown evenly.
If they’re browning too quickly, turn down the heat.

Makes 12 scones.

I prefer to eat them straight away whilst they’re warm. Too tempting not to.

But they’re also tasty when cold or reheated in your toaster.

Scottish Tatties - Traditional Potato Scones