Irish Scones & A GIVEAWAY!

With many of us preparing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day next week, I thought it would be appropriate to share one of my favorite recipes for Irish Scones. This one is from Darina Allen. Darina is the founder of internationally known Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland.

Several years ago Ms. Allen recognized that the Irish culinary tradition was slipping away, actually in danger of being lost and she set out to research and record the history of food in Ireland. This recipe is from her book

"The Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking ~ Traditional and Wholesome Recipes from Ireland".

To learn more about Darina Allen and her books you can click Darina Allen's Amazon page to see or order her books.

~Fresh and warm from the oven, split and slathered~

The recipe yields a generous 18 to 20 scones (I always cut the recipe in half or thirds.) Darina writes that her mother would make a full batch of the scone dough, and cut it into squares or diamonds for their family of nine. Her mother would also sometimes serve them as after school snacks for her children and there was rarely a crumb left.

This recipe makes the tallest and most flaky scones I have ever tasted, whether it is due to the cutter I use, or Darina's recipe I don't know. I use the largest cutter from this set. (I'm giving a set of these cutters away ~ you can get the details below.)

See how tall and flaky they are? So buttery and tender, too.

Darina suggest serving them with jam or preserves and a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Who am I to argue with her suggestion? :D

She also suggests brushing them with an egg wash and sprinkling with granulated sugar before baking in a very hot oven. This helps them brown up so nicely and adds a slightly crunchy texture which I love.

I do believe they are my favorite scones, and very, very good !

If you would like a copy of Darina's recipe you can find it HERE on my recipe blog.

Now, for the GIVEAWAY!

I highly recommend these sturdy cutters ~ they work really well for cutting perfect shapes for cookies, biscuits, scones, puff pastry, etc.

(They are dishwasher safe.)

If you would like a chance to win a set of the~ RSVP 4 Square Rippled Biscuit Cookie Cutters (Stainless Steel) (click the link to learn more)

The rules to enter for a chance to win are simple:

You must:

1.) Be a follower in my side column

2.) Leave a comment on this post*

3.) One entry per household, please

* If you're not a follower, sign up in the side column, above

Note:

This time, there are no restrictions as to location ~

I'll send the cutters to virtually anywhere in the world!

Good Luck to all who enter!

The winner will be selected randomly and will be announced next Friday,

March 19th.

Please visit Michael's blog "Designs By Gollum" to see everyone who is participating in FOODIE FRIDAY this week. Thank you for hosting us Michael!!