Friday, December 20, 2013

Lovely And Tasty Welsh Cookies

By Eugenia Dickerson


Welsh cookies are quite popular lately, thanks to presidential candidate Romney. This traditional Welsh recipe can be found in numerous variations, but the one thing it is so special about it is the fact it is baked on the pan, not in the oven. It really looks as a combination of a small pancake and a regular cookie. Taste great for breakfast, hot or cold.

A temperature controlled griddle can be very useful for baking these lovely snacks, but your thick pancake pan or a nonstick skillet are also quite good. The temperature should be around one hundred and sixty degrees, and your lovely little snacks need to become beautifully golden brown.

Basic ingredients for preparing this dessert are flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, raisins, currants, eggs, salt, milk, butter and lard. Of course, you don't have to use lard if you don't want to. You can easily replace it with butter. More baking powder means fluffier cakes. You should also add different spices in the mixture, especially nutmeg.

Round Welsh cakes are traditional, but all other shapes are good as well. The dough should be one half of an inch up to one inch thick. Don't make it too thin, because you might burn it, or too thick, because they won't be baked as they should. They should become golden brown.

Traditionally, people put raisins and currants in the mixture. You can also add grated apples or pears, your favorite berries or some other fresh fruits, finely chopped. Fresh fruits will add moisture, and your cakes will stay longer fresh. Besides, they will be even tastier this way. Dried fruits, for example apricots, can also be added.

Traditional recipe contains 400 grams of flour, mixed with baking powder and baking soda, 120 grams of butter and the same amount of lard, 175 grams of sugar, one egg, nutmeg, some salt, some milk and 100 grams of currants. Today, people rarely use lard in their recipes, and you can replace it with butter instead, your cakes will be equally tasty.

Prepare your dough the way you would prepare a dough for your pie. So, mix flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt and nutmeg with butter and lard, until it forms crumbs. Add sugar and other ingredients, and enough milk to make the perfect dough, a little bit moister than your pie dough would be. You can save it in your refrigerator.

Frozen dough can be used just as it is fresh, once it gets near room temperature. You just have to roll it down to one inch or thinner, and cut it into rounds, or some other shapes. It is easiest to bake them on a temperature controlled griddle, but your pancake pan will be good enough. It is better to use thicker pan for this purpose, or a nonstick skillet.

Welsh cookies are so easy to make, you need just a little more time than for making small pancakes, and you will really enjoy them. They taste like cookies and look like small pancakes. Serve them simply dusted with sugar, or with butter, jam and your favorite creams, they are just great.




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