Drop Scones/Scotch Pancakes

Of late I have spent a lot of time browsing at foods available in the stores and which I refuse to buy on the grounds of that I can get more for my money by making them myself.  The only time I deviate from this is if they are reduced to silly prices.  I went to the Coop yesterday and they had 6 scotch pancakes for £1.  Now on a realistic basis you would have to buy two packs of these at least for a family of four and more for larger families.  

The cheapest plain flour was £1.25 for a (approx 3lb) 1.5 kg bag of flour so you could effectively make an awful lot of these from just the one bag.Drop Scones/Scotch Pancakes are very easy to make and you get between 18 to 20 pancakes from one batch of the mixture. So why buy them they take very little time to make.

When the children were at home I regularly used to serve these to them for when they came home from school or for inclusion in their packups or for serving with fresh fruit and yogurt for pudding or serving golden syrup on.

Here is what you need:

8oz plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 large egg

1/2 pint of milk

They take approximately 4 minutes to cook

Method

Sieve the flour, baking powder salt and sugar.  Make a hollow or well in the centre of the dry ingredients add the egg and just over half of the milk mixing to a smooth batter. I use a balloon whisk to do this.  Gradually beat in the rest of the milk until you have a nice thickish batter.  I use a griddle but you can use a greased frying pan you only need a little fat or oil it does not want to be drenched. I was always taught to watch for a blue haze coming off the griddle or frying pan which was the indicator that the pan had come up to heat.  Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the pan forming circles and making sure that they are equally spaced out.  Cook for about two minutes by which time bubbles should have started appearing in the batter when the tops are covered in batter flip them over with a flat bladed palette knife and cook for a further couple of minutes and cook on the opposite side.  Keep the pancakes in a clean folded tea towel to keep warm until all the mixture is cooked then serve warm with butter and jam, honey or syrup or with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Will make about  18 to 20.

If you have any left over you can use the next day but I personally think these are best made fresh as required.  

Its saving pennies on little additions like this that will give your purse more flexibility and purchasing power for those food items you really do want.

As part of my 52 week challenge I want to make things like this rather than buying them and next time I am going to have a go at making my own tea cakes

Catch you soon

Pattypan

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