Aberdeenshire Rowies

I'd not made these for many years and eventually remembered what they were called, found the recipe and made them for post-church breakfast this morning. Some people asked for the recipe...
this is my version of the one in Elizabeth David's English(!) Bread and Yeast Cookery:
Ingredients:

• 500g white bread flour
• 250g butter
• 20g yeast
• c300ml warm water
• 3tsp salt
• flour/cornflour for dusting

Cream the yeast and make dough with the flour, yeast, salt and water to make a soft dough.
Let rise for 30-45 minutes.
Cut the butter into cubes of around 6mm
Roll out dough thinly c 36x24cm
Place half the butter cubes evenly over the dough, fold up in thirds and turn.
Rest it in the fridge for c 15 mins.
Roll out again as before, scatter the remaining butter over it and again fold the dough.
Let rest for 15-30 mins in the fridge.
Roll out again and cut into around 50 pieces around 3cm square
Put on floured cooking trays - they won't expand much so don't need to be very widely spaced.
Let rise for 30mins.
Cook in 220C oven for 15-20 mins - the rowies will leak butter so the cooking trays will need a lip at the edge!
Cool on rack, I cooked them the day before and they re-warmed pretty well.

Recipes on the web suggest the authentic version is to have c 120g lard in addition to the butter and cream them together! This version is definitely tamer!

Raisin Spice Cookies

I did these for after church coffee this morning, as I commented at the foot of this post my recipe book has for method - ' rub in marg' and that's it! I've attempted to add a few more hints..

Ingredients

1. 8 oz self raising flour
2. 1 tsp cinnamon
3. 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4. 8 oz fine semoline
5. 8 oz marg
6. 8 oz caster sugar
7. 2 eggs
8. milk (!)
9. 3 oz raisins

Method

Mix dry ingredients, add (beaten) eggs and rub in marg, add milk if it's too dry - I hardly needed any when I made it yesterday.
Place in small balls (c. 1 raisin per ball) widely spaced on a baking tray and cook in 170deg C oven for c 15 minutes, let cool slightly before on a cooling rack otherwise the biscuits will sag! (Makes around 60)

Ginger shortbread

I cooked ginger shortbread yesterday for the during(!) morning service this morning and used a recipe from an old Scargill cookbook:

Ingredients

150g self raising flour
• 110g margarine
• 55g sugar
• 1/2 tsp ginger

For icing:
• 55g margarine
• 4 tblsp icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 dessertspoon syrup

Method

Melt margarine and sugar.

Work in flour and ginger.

Bake in swiss roll tin in mod. oven 20-30 min (yesterday I found it was around 20).

Melt ingredients of icing and pour on shortbread while it is hot.

Cut when cold.

The cookies that were also cooked - I'd provide a recipe but my notes have the following as the instructions:
Rub in marg
and the ingredients say 'milk' with no quantity - so we're lucky they turned out well!