How to Make Scottish Tattie Scones

Tattie scones (potato scones) are a very simple concoction, widely made in Scotland. They have only four ingredients (three, if you choose to omit the salt, as many now do in more health conscious times.) Tattie scones are often eaten as they are with butter and/or jam but are also very commonly re-heated as part of a full Scottish breakfast, along with the likes of Lorne sausage, bacon and egg.

This is a list of the ingredients for making tattie scones and is hardly one which will prove difficult to remember. The general rule is that five times the weight of mashed potatoes should be used in comparison to the flour. Note that this refers to the net weight of the mashed potatoes (after mashing) and not the gross weight of the unpeeled potatoes!

Ingredients (Makes eight tattie scones)

15oz cold mashed potatoes

3oz plain (all-purpose in USA) flour

1/2oz butter

1/2 tsp salt

Remember, the salt can be omitted if you desire but I always like any type of food to be properly seasoned.

Whenever a dough is required for a recipe, there are usually very precise instructions included regarding sifting the flour, adding the ingredients in a particular order and even adding certain ingredients on a gradual basis. Mixing the dough for tattie scones? Throw all the ingredients in to a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand until they are well combined and have formed a wet dough as shown right.

As the dough for making tattie scones is necessarily a very wet one, it can be a bit difficult to handle. Plenty of flour will be required on a flat, clean, dry surface and it is always a good idea to lightly dust your hands with same before handling the dough. As the dough is so soft, it will also be necessary to use a minimum of pressure with the rolling pin as the dough is rolled out to approximately 1/8" in thickness.

The dough should be rolled out in such a fashion that four 5" squares can be cut from it. Each of these squares should then be halved diagonally in order to form two, triangular tattie scones. It is possible of course to cut and cook the tattie scones in any shape you desire but triangular like this is the traditional form.

Tattie scones were originally cooked on a hot girdle (Scottish word for griddle - nothing to do with ladies' undergarments!) but more often today a non-stick frying pan will be used. The pan should be very lightly oiled and the scones cooked, two at a time as shown, over a medium heat for around three minutes each side until beautifully golden. When the scones are ready, they should be placed on a wire rack to cool.

As touched upon earlier, tattie scones are commonly eaten in a variety of ways. They can be very simply served with butter, they can be served with jam, or they can simply be eaten and enjoyed as they are, without any further cooking or additions.

Probably the most common way to eat tattie scones, however, is re-fried. As well as comprising part of a full Scottish breakfast in this fashion, there is a habit which so far as I am aware is largely confined to Glasgow, of putting tattie scones on a bread roll, along with a Lorne sausage. I say that it is largely confined to Glasgow - I may be wrong in this respect - but given that I was born and raised in the county to the immediate south-east of Glasgow and had never heard of a roll and sausage and tattie scone until I was in my early thirties, this is the logic of my thinking.

Just to be a little bit different, I thoroughly enjoyed a roll and bacon and tattie scone while taking the photographs for this page.