Cattern Cakes

If you're going to have a celebration, you're going to need a tasty treat. Try these simple Cattern Cakes brought to us by our British Isles friends. Cattern Cakes were traditionally made on the lace-maker's holiday, St. Catherine's Day. This feast day happens to fall on my birthday, so I'm particularly fond of making Cattern Cakes. Something like a scone crossed with a biscuit, these a simple to make and well-suited to breakfast or dessert. This recipe is adapted from one my favorite traditional recipe books, The Festive Table, by Jane Pettigrew.

Course Breakfast

Keyword breakfast cookie, holiday, traditional

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time-ish 15 minutes

Total Time-ish 35 minutes

Serving Suggestion 6

Ingredients

3/4 Cup butter softened
1 Cup sugar - rapadura sucanat, raw
2 Cups flour - I usually use Bob's Red Mill Organic flour so that I can get it unenriched and unbleached
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 Cup almond meal
1 egg beaten
2/3 Cup currants or raisins - if you don't use currants try to make your own raisins - I'm not sure why homemade tastes better in this recipe, they just do

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C.
Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy in your stand mixer (or by hand).
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices and almond meal.
Add the dry mixture to the creamed butter and begin to mix slowly.
Add enough egg (usually one will do the trick) to form a stiff dough.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 3/8 inch thick.
Sprinkle currants over the dough and roll up the dough, pinching the ends. If you've ever made cinnamon rolls, this part is similar.
Cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick and lay them flat on a buttered baking pan.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden.
Let the tray of cakes cool for a few minutes before you move them too cooling racks. This allows the almond meal to set up and you'll get less breakage.
Butter and serve warm; though, they're equally good cold!