Okay from the sublime to the rediculous, I did the healthy start to the year last week so now you have my Scottish Snowballs, the sweet stuff that ticks none of the healthy living boxes at all. Wait of course it does, it is healthy to enjoy yourself and have some fun and these traditional Scottish Snowballs will bring a smile to your face, so I’m not going to go into a decline for sharing this one.
Scottish Baking
I remember as a little girl going shopping in Musselburgh with my Mum and always stopping at the bakery for a wee treat. A vanilla slice for Dad, fruit slice (flies cemetery!) for Mum and Scottish snowballs for my brother and me.
They just make us think of Christmas and snow no matter what time of year it was. I do remember my brother being a complete prat once (no, he was often a prat, but that’s what brothers are there for isn’t it) and chicking his at me full force just as he would a real snowball, only this one was cake and smacked me right between the eye, made me cry (come on I was only about eight at the time) and the jam inside got stuck all over my jersey.
Scottish snowballs to me are almost like a cross between shortbread and a scone, they aren’t out and out cake, with a jammy filling (there are plenty of jam recipes on this blog, so no excuses there) and icing with that all-important coconut ‘snow’ all over. What’s not to like about that.
Get Messy
A word of warning, this is a messy recipe when it comes to coating the wee cakes in icing glaze and then the coconut. This would be a good time to call in any children you have to hand as they enjoy getting all sticky and messy. If you have to do this yourself then remove all rings first and for goodness sake do not answer your phone or you will be stuck to the damn thing forever and cursing me for giving you this recipe in the first place.
This recipe is from my book Simply Scottish Cakes & Bakes which is available in both hardback and Kindle format.
Once you’ve made your Scottish snowballs they will keep for a few days in a sealed container, but I bet they won’t last that long…..
K x
Scottish Snowballs
Ingredients
- 225 g/8oz self raising flour
- 90 g/3oz caster sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 90 g/3oz unsalted butter
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 180 g/6 oz icing sugar
- jar of jam
- 50 g/2 oz desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 and grease and line a large baking tray.
- Sift flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl and rub in the butter till you get a crumb like mixture.
- Whisk together the whole egg and the extra yolk in a cup and add this to the mixture and mix thoroughly to form a dough.
- Break the dough in half and then half again. Now pull off pieces of the dough to make five little balls from each batch of dough. This will give you 20 balls about half the size of golf balls.
- Place these on the prepared baking tray about 3cm apart as they will spread as they bake.
- Bake for approximately 15 minutes until golden.
- Set aside on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Spread jam on one flat side and sandwich another cake on top, do this will all and you will have 10 snowballs.
- In one bowl mix a little water with the icing sugar and mix till it is a glaze and in another bowl have the desiccated coconut.
- Dip the cakes into the icing and roll around to cover completely and then dip and roll in the coconut.
- Set aside to dry completely.
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