The more than occasional baker: mixed dried fruit

Monday, 13 January 2014

Yorkshire Tea Biscuit or Fat Rascal

This month's AlphaBakes which I am hosting is the letter Y. I looked through my cookbooks as usual to look for inspiration. Yoghurt was the only choice in most books until I came upon Yorkshire tea biscuit otherwise known as a fat rascal. It originated in Yorkshire and is similar to a scone in taste and ingredients. The Fat Rascal is a bestseller at the ever popular Bettys Tea Room in Yorkshire, a place I've never visited but would love to particularly for the food!

I used a recipe from the Hairy Bikers in the end instead of the recipe in my book as I wanted to use ingredients I had to hand. Most recipes call for a mix of currants, raisins and sultanas but this recipe asks for mixed dried fruit. It's also the perfect recipe to use up leftovers from Christmas. The recipe was simple and straight forward and was fairly quick and easy to make. It expanded a lot in the oven and I wonder if this is the reason it's called a Fat Rascal!

I was really surprised at how tasty these were. I'm not a huge fan of fruit cake and I have to say I wasn't sure how these would taste but it was delicious. It tasted like a light fruit scone and I loved the hint of citrus and spice as well as the crunch of the almonds. The tin was empty at the end of the day so I'd say that everyone else enjoyed it too!

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which is hosted by myself and Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is "Y". You can use the letter Y as the name of the bake/dish or as the main ingredient.

It also fits in nicely with a few other blog challenges this month. The Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme this month is spices and this recipe contains ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cooking With Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. She has chosen the theme citrus this month and this contains the zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon.

Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is Virtuous Food and I'd say all the fruit and nut in here makes it virtuous. Plus it's not terribly sweet.

Tea Time Treats guest hosted by Jane from The HedgeCombers and run by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is eggs, eggs, eggs! I have to send it to them as Karen has a fat rascal in the logo picture below and has a delicious recipe on her blog.