The Spiced Life

Musings & Recipes From My Kitchen

  • Home
  • About Me
  • FAQ
  • Dishes By Region
  • Archive and Index
  • Creative Cookie Exchange
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / scones / Scottish Girdle Scones

Scottish Girdle Scones

October 26, 2020 By Laura 7 Comments

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Yummly
  • Twitter
  • Email
Jump to Recipe  ↓ Print Recipe  ❒
Scottish Girdle Scones

Scottish Girdle Scones are the perfect breakfast or teatime treat, light and fluffy, smothered in butter and honey. Amazon affiliate links have been used in this post to link to items I am discussing.

Scottish Girdle Scones

Hi. It’s me. I know I disappeared. Which is kind of ironic because except for doctors’ appointments and crossing our fingers and making a mad dash to a beach house in July, I have not left my house in eons. I feel like I should make some comment on what I have been doing or thinking about at home for the last six months but most of it is not fit for print. And I would like to keep my food blog a rage-free zone. Suffice to say like a lot of you I am angry. And having trouble focusing. And worrying, especially as a high risk person. Hopefully these scones will give you something happy to focus on for a few minutes.

Scottish Girdle Scones

A group of wonderful people that I have known online for eons now, dating back to the Cooking Light bulletin boards of all things, started a zoom book group during quarantine. We have ostensibly combined it with baking, but except for these scones I have not been very good at that. Anyway the first book we read was Jenny Colgan’s The Bookshop on the Corner: A Novel, and while having nothing to do with food, it was perfect pandemic reading. Light, fun, romantic, and most important nothing heavy. And it was set in Scotland, which is how I settled on making these scones.

Scottish Girdle Scones
At the same time, I had made friends with a new-ish neighbor. Which is weird during a pandemic I realize. We moved here around the same time but met each other because we were doing what everyone in quarantine was doing (who could), taking walks. Anyway, she was having a baby (that I never got to hold thank you very much Covid-19). What are the pandemic rules, I asked myself? Did I offer food, potentially offering our germs? Did I not offer food, ignoring a time in a family’s life when they most need the support of the community? Ack! I finally decided I would offer and leave it up to them, and they said yes. So in addition to an entree, I also doubled this recipe and sent over warm Scottish Girdle Scones, fresh from the oven.

People, I seriously miss feeding other people. Even if John was not Work From Home, I never send food into Google because Google already provides food. His job has seriously put a crimp in my baking especially! I miss feeding all those hungry college students.

Scottish Girdle Scones

At any rate, these Scottish Girdle Scones were amazing. The kind of amazing where you realize you should not make them often because not only are they amazing, but they taste best fresh from the cast iron pan, leading you to want to devour them all instantly. I recommend them for lazy Sunday brunches, company and sharing with neighbors. And if you just need something to distract you from the state of the world, I recommend them for that too. Thanks to Christina’s Cucina for the recipe I lightly adapted from.

Scottish Girdle Scones

Print
Scottish Girdle Scones

Girdle, which according to my reading online is what a griddle is called in Scotland, just means the scones are cooked on your cooktop, not baked in the oven. Adapted from Christina's Cucina.

Course: Breakfast, tea time
Cuisine: British, Scottish
Keyword: biscuits, buttermilk scones, griddle scones, quick bread
Servings: 9 scones
Ingredients
  • 8 oz AP flour, plus more for rolling out
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 1/8 t fine sea salt
  • 2 T sugar
  • 2 T (1/4 stick; 1 oz) unsalted butter, cold
  • 1/2 cup (4 oz) buttermilk (I prefer full fat for baking)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup currants*
Instructions
  1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

  2. Cube the cold butter and place in a mixer with the sugar. Use a flat beater to combine--don't worry about it being perfect. You are not creaming this until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour mixture and once again beat to combine.

  4. Mix in the currants

  5. Whisk together the buttermilk and egg until the egg is thoroughly emulsified into buttermilk. Then add the buttermilk mixture to the mixer bowl and beat until just combined.

  6. Remove about half of the dough and pat it into a circle--be sure not to over-handle. Roll to about 3/4 inch thickness, and then use a biscuit cutter to cut into circles. I used a 2-inch diameter circle. Set aside on a platter for cooking. Repeat with remaining dough and when you are down to scraps just make a scone or 2 shaped with your hands that will not be perfect circles. Think of them as the cook's treat!

  7. As with pancakes, it may take 1 or 2 scones the first time you make these to get the heat just right for your particular cooktop. Cast iron or enameled cast iron works best. If you are concerned use a little butter to grease the pan (if you use stainless steel, which I do not recommend, you may need a lot of butter which will change the final result). On my induction cooktop medium to slightly below medium heat worked best, although I started at a higher temperature. You will know it is ready when a little flour sprinkled on the surface turns light brown immediately.

  8. Cook on the first side until the scone is raised and light brown on the bottom. Flip to cook until light brown on the other side and cooked all the way through. As with pancakes, you may need to slice into your first one to make sure you are getting it right, but after that it will go fast. And after that first one, you can cook more than one at a time, but do not overcrowd them or they will not rise properly or brown.

  9. These scones in dough form felt quite heavy and then when they were done they were quite light. My best guess is from water evaporating.

  10. Smother in butter and honey and devour immediately. Or take some to the neighbor wrapped in a towel.

Recipe Notes

*You can leave the currants out if you are going for more of a plain biscuit, but I love dried fruit in scones.

 

Looking for scones you bake in the oven? Check here!

Filed Under: breakfast, British, buttermilk, Currants, dried fruit, quick breads, scones Tagged With: British, scones, Scottish, tea time

« Shelled Wheat with Mushrooms and Feta: Cooking from the Pantry
Masala Chili »

Comments

  1. Crystal Chorney says

    January 3, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    I haven’t tried this yet, but they look and sound AMAZING.

    A couple questions.

    1) what is AP flour??

    2) am I able to use just regular baking flour, if not what do u recommend??

    Reply
    • Laura says

      January 3, 2021 at 8:03 pm

      AP flour is All Purpose flour–if you are in the US and cannot get AP flour I would recommend using about 2/3 bread flour and 1/3 cake flour. If you are not in the US, I guess it depends on what regular baking flour is! What matters the most is protein content–all purpose flour has less protein than bread flour but I think it is considered to have more protein than basic baking flour in Europe–although once again this can vary wildly by region and country. If you do have to use a higher protein flour, like bread flour, you will want to barely work the dough to avoid it becoming tough from gluten. I suspect a lower protein flour such as cake flour would work fine although if you try I would love it if you came back and let us know how it went.

      Reply
  2. Sarah Reid says

    January 9, 2021 at 10:29 am

    A griddle in Scotland is called a griddle. A girdle is a piece of underwear that acts like ‘hold-me-in’ pants.

    Reply
    • Laura says

      January 9, 2021 at 11:53 pm

      Hi: As someone interested in international food I am always open to learning new things. However, without knowing where you are from it is hard to know how to address this. For example, it is possible that in Edinburgh the more commonplace English griddle has overtaken the Scots girdle, but maybe not in the Highlands. I can tell you I found countless Girdle Scones online as well as a Scots Dictionary confirming that a girdle was indeed another word for a griddle. https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/girdle

      Reply
    • Gordon says

      December 22, 2022 at 2:48 pm

      Sorry Sarah, you are quite wrong. Griddle is a recent English import

      Reply
  3. Kim says

    February 17, 2021 at 8:14 am

    8 ounces of flour makes 9 scones?????

    Reply
    • Laura says

      February 18, 2021 at 12:49 am

      It did for me, although I am sure this is affected by how thin you roll them and the diameter of your biscuit cutter. I do wish my recipe plug in would allow me to list a range, like 9-12, depending on size. Christina’s Cucina got 12 from the recipe I think.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

Twitter Facebook Pinterest Instagram
Enter your email here and never miss a post!

Popular Posts

  • Restaurant Style Beef Vindaloo
  • Taralli Dolci di Pasqua (Southern Italian Easter Cookies): #CreativeCookieExchange
  • Mexican Ramen Bowl
  • Grandma’s Beef and Noodles
  • New Orleans Style Pain Perdu (French Toast)
  • Moroccan Inspired Couscous Bowl with Ground Beef, Veggies and Caramelized Onions (redux)
  • Saag Gosht (Beef in Fragrant Spinach Sauce)
  • Middle Eastern Scrambled Eggs with Meat and Onion: Review of An Edible Mosaic
  • North Indian Baked Eggs: Review of Seven Spoons
  • Goan Influenced Goat Stew in the Slow Cooker

Copyright © 2008–2023 The Spiced Life