Drop scones are also known as Scotch pancakes and pikelets. They are a cross between scones, crumpets and pancakes. I used to have these as a tea-time treat as a child.
Makes about 16-18, depending on the size of your tablespoon
Ingredients
- 120g plain flour
- 2 scant teaspoons baking powder
- (you can substitute 120g self raising flour for the above two items. My family very rarely has self raising flour on hand, so we mix our own)
- Small pinch salt
- 45g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 pint milk (I use skimmed)
- Vanilla - this can either be in the form of vanilla sugar in place of the sugar (my nanna's method), vanilla salt in place of the salt (my method), or a very small drop of real vanilla essence.
- Small amount of butter or other similar fat for frying (I use TREX, which is a white vegetable margarine that is great in making pastry)
Equipment
- Ideally a griddle, but any frying pan will do - the larger the pan, the more you can do at once!
- Non-stick pallette knife/fish slice etc
Method
- Put the butter/trex/etc into pan, and heat on a medium heat
- Put all dry ingredients in one bowl
- Beat the egg and the milk together and add to dry ingredients
- Beat all of it until you have a smooth, thick batter
- Drop a teaspoon of mixture into the pan - if the top starts going bubbly within a minute, it's the right temperature. If it takes longer, it needs to heat up a bit more. If it takes a lot quicker, turn the heat down!
- When the temperature is right, drop a tablespoon of batter in the pan.
- Leaving enough space for the batter to spread a bit, drop in as many more tablespoons as the pan will take
- Watch the batter - when the top is full of holes and looks like it's setting, flip it over. The underside should be a pale golden brown - if it's too pale, you can always flip it back over.
- Wait for a few seconds, then flip back over to check the underside - if both sides are golden enough, put on a plate and cover with a clean cloth whilst you cook the remainder.
- Eat warm with butter. Jam, honey and syrup all work well as toppings.