Scottish Imitations

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery...

 My first imitation was Millionaire Shortbread (top: mise-en-scene for the Compilation; bottom: one of several goodies on a dessert plate), but since I brought it to a party and for some reason didn't have my good blogger hat on (cell phone camera), it has gone largely uncatalogued, except in the memory of my tastebuds (and those of the party guests). But I will definitely try making it again for a gathering, just include more chocolate (the top layer swam a bit because it was too skimpy)!

For this second attempt, I went to the next favorite thing on my list of foods tried in Scotland for the first time: tattie scones. Now, I've linked both of these to the internet recipes I used for reference, but I sort of cross-referenced those with the versions in this book, which I got while I was in Inverness, but ... it has its own limitations. So I ended up doing a hybridized, as well as scaled-down, version of both these attempts, and they both came out all right: the caramel shortbread off on  some proportions, but tasting fantastic anyway, and the tattie scones lacking in shape, but tasting marvelously Scottish for a' that.

So anyway, how do ya make 'em? Basically, you boil potatoes, mash 'em up, let 'em cool, add some flour so it'll stick together, and then roll 'em out and play patty-cake. Since I am hopeless with a rolling pin, I gave it one 'old college try' then resorted to my hands and this nifty new kitchen tool that you see above: one of those slicer/scooper-up thingies. A name, anyone? I know I'm showing myself as the amateur I am, but Oh Well. I figure this tool will come in handy when another wave of bread-baking comes upon me, since dough and I have been through some interesting times...

Even with the dough slicer, the triangles I formed were less than happy to remain uniformly sized, and so it became a bit of a hodge-podge. It also took longer than the expected 5 minutes on each side to brown them up. Perhaps I should have added more flour? Or even, sacre bleu, an egg?

But here we are, with the finished product, a proper genealogy of tattie scones (you can trace it from the paleozoic era to the pliocene epoch, kids!), as, from left to right, top to bottom, I 'progressed.'

I put half away for later, stuffed myself with the other half (this girl is not used to eating a whole potato in one sitting), and happily fell asleep.