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Welsh cakes

Welsh cakes (picau ar y maen)

A lovely mildly sweet biscuit
Prep Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, cold and diced
  • 1/4 cup lard cold and diced, plus more for cooking
  • 3/4 cup currants
  • 2 large eggs slightly beaten
  • 2-3 tablespoons buttermilk I've used regular milk too
  • Lard for cooking

Instructions

  1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the butter and lard with your fingertips until the mixture looks sandy. Stir in the currants. Beat the eggs and 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk together. Stir into dry ingredients to make a shaggy dough, adding more buttermilk if dough is dry. Gather dough into a flattened ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
  2. Roll the dough on a floured counter into a piece about 1/4" think. Cut into 2 to 3" rounds. You can also separate small balls and roll out into small 2 to 3" flat rounds by hand individually.
  3. Heat a griddle or cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Brush the pan with lard. Cook the cakes until a pale golden brown and cooked through, about 4 or 5 minutes on each side. Low, slow and steady wins the race with these. Move to a cooling rack, dust with sugar and cool.

Recipe Notes

Cooking time is for the entire batch using a medium sized cast iron skillet. A larger griddle means a shorter cooking time because you could do more at once.