Scones for St. Patty’s Day
You don’t have to be Irish to love scones — or save them for a special day
Scones! My Glaswegian mother pronounced them “scawns,” though I more often hear the word as “scoans.” As you may know from reading my blog, I’m obsessed with baking — cooking not so much. But, as today is St. Patrick’s Day, and most of us love scones, I thought I’d make a batch to hand around — though perhaps corned beef and cabbage, Irish coffee, and soda bread would be more to your taste. (Nothing says you can’t have them all!)
Have you discovered your Irish roots? Or is observing this day that celebrates all things Irish — but also commemorates the death of the patron saint of the Emerald Isle — not really your thing?
I have no Irish in me, except that I love a variety of Irish literature by the likes of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde — and admire a number of Americans with Irish roots, including our current president, Joe Biden. Scotland, my mother’s birthplace, is just a few miles journey across the Irish Sea from Ireland.
Another Irish connection (a bit weak, I admit) is through my maternal grandfather. My mother’s father, whom, sadly, I never met, was a Lithuanian Jew who fled to Edinburgh as a young man to avoid being drafted into the Czar Nicholas’ army and most likely sent to the front. He made his living selling Persian carpets in Ireland and returned home to his family in Glasgow each week in time for Friday night shabbat. As poor as the family was, he somehow managed to have a chauffeur and dressed immaculately, my mother said.
The scones my Aunt Hannah served me for her “proper English tea” when I visited her at her home in Sunderland, England, probably weren’t much different than the Irish version-small, round, a little sweet, but not overly so, and studded with dried fruit-currants, I think — possibly from the berry-studded bushes that grew in her garden.
I made my mine from a recipe for Irish scones I found online. I used whipping cream instead of double cream (a thicker British version of whipped cream) and subbed 3/4 cup mixed dried fruit — cranberries, cherries and blueberries — for currants. I couldn’t resist a sprinkling of coarse sugar on top because you can never have enough sugar!
Are we still in danger of getting pinched on this holiday if we aren’t attired in green? I’m wearing it today just in case-I have indelible childhood memories of being chased around the schoolyard and sustaining bruises from enthusiastic enforcers of the Wearin’ o’ the Green Rule. I’m also keeping my eye out for four-leaf clovers. We need all the luck we can get right now-even if we’re not Irish!
Thanks for reading Ruthtalksfood. If you’re not a subscriber, why not sign up? It just might bring you luck! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Originally published at https://ruthtalksfood.substack.com.
