Welsh Cakes - Llech Cymreig

It is believed that this recipe can be traced back to the 1830's and 1850's Wales and that it came to America about that time with the Welsh who immigrated to work in mines. We whipped these up this afternoon in about 20 minutes. The cakes would be great alone for breakfast or snack time. They would also work wonderfully as a roll at lunch or dinner.

Welsh Cakes

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. mace - we omitted this

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter

1 cup currants or raisins

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients. Cut butter into 10 or 12 pieces and cut into flour mixture with pastry blender until it looks like pie crust. Add raisins or currants. Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and stir until just mixed, it will be sticky.

On well floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick.

Cut out circles with biscuit cutter, or in our case a Bob and Larry glass. Heat electric griddle or fry pan to 325 degrees. Oil the griddle lightly once for all the cakes.

Fry the cakes about 5 minutes on each side or until they are deep brown color.

These were so good the kids want to have them again tomorrow. They can be served plain or with butter or syrup. Slathered with jam in the middle like a sandwich would also be a tasty variation. The cakes were just as delicious reheated for Dad. The only hard part was knowing they were in the fridge and not eating them before he was able to.