British Tea Time

Raspberry Scottish Oat Cakes*
(Makes 9 pieces)

This recipe lifts the ever-delicious but down-to-earth oatmeal cookie into the realm of the sublime. Ooooos-and-aaaaahs all around.

1 C oats (quick-cooking are fine)
1 C flour
1/3 C sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C shortening
2-3 T cold water
1/2 C raspberry jam
1/3 C confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add shortening, cutting in till dough is crumbly. Add cold water, 1 T at a time, working dough till it becomes stiff.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/2"- thickness. With a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter, cut dough into 9 rounds. With a 2 1/2" doughnut cutter, cut nine more rounds. Place all the rounds on a baking sheet (ungreased) and bake for 12-15 minutes—till oatcake rounds start to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

When cool, spread 9 biscuit-cut rounds with a thin layer of jam. Then place the doughnut shaped round on top. The red jam will show through the center hole. Fill the open centers with more jam and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

* You'll need 2 round cutters for this recipe: a biscuit cutter, and a doughnut cutter with a whole in the middle. Both should be 2 1/2" diameter.

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Tips & Glossary

Clotted Cream: a thick yellowish cream made from unpasturized cow's milk. You can make your own, although it's hard to find unpasturized cream in the U.S. Still, you'll find 3 recipes under Scones. All use pasturized cream; try to avoid "ultra" pasturized.

Ploughman's Lunch: sounds romantic, like a peasant dish from medieval times, but it's a marketing gimmick from the 1970's! It's become a popular lunch in Britain now: a piece of bread, hunk of cheese, with onion, gherkin, and an apple. Our Ploughman's Soup is a take-off on that name.

Roux: (“roo”), paste-like mixture of melted butter and flour, into which liquid is gradually added. Used as a thickening agent for soups and all classic French sauces. Basic Roux: melt 1 part butter and add 1 part flour. Stir continuously till it becomes paste-like. Slowly add whatever liquid your recipe calls for.

Tea Time: Afternoon tea became fashionable in the mid-1600's. A light snack with sandwiches and sweets, it's served from 3-5 in a sitting room. High tea, is a light meal served from 5-6 in a dining room. ("High" because the dining table is higher than the low ones in a sitting room.)

Yorkshire Pudding: from the northern county of Yorkshire, originating in the early 1700s when flour was more readily available. A pancake like batter is spooned into the drippings of a roast as it cooks. Eaten alongside the roast or as a separate course.