Welsh cakes

I made Welsh cakes for the first time ever yesterday, with my niece and nephew Casey and James.  I've always thought they wouldn't work without a proper iron griddle or hot stone, but I tried it in a heavy-based frying pan and it worked fine!  The trick is just to keep it on a medium heat as the Welsh cakes burn on the outsides quite quickly if the pan is too hot.  Now that I've realised how easy this is, I can't wait to try it with other variations - dried cranberries, cherries or apricots, vanilla sugar, ginger, white chocolate chips... Fantastic served warm straight from the pan with a big pot of tea on a chilly winter Sunday.

Ingredients

8 oz self-raising flour

4 oz salted butter, cubed

3oz caster sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

3 oz sultanas

1 egg, lightly beaten

Milk, if needed

Extra butter, for greasing

Method

1. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the cubed butter.  Rub with your fingertips to make breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar, cinnamon and sultanas, then the egg.  
3. Combine ingredients well, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough until it is 1cm thick and cut into rounds with a 2 inch fluted pastry cutter, re-rolling the trimmings until all the dough is used.
5. Rub an iron griddle or heavy based, non-stick frying pan with butter and wipe the excess away.  Heat the pan over a medium heat and cook the Welsh cakes for 2-3 minutes on each side. (If they look as if they're browning too quickly, turn the heat down a bit because it's important to cook them through – but they should be fairly brown and crisp on the outside.)
6. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm.