Warm, pillowy homemade potato scones are the perfect snack slathered in warm, melted butter! A traditional Scottish breakfast item that everyone loves.
Whether you eat them as a snack, with your breakfast or on a roll – you’re lucky if there is any left from this batch once your family tries them.
The real question is … what do YOU call them?
Potato scones, potato cake, potato farl, fadge or tattie scone?
What Do You Eat Them With?
In Scotland, we call them potato scones and we generally eat them for breakfast on a roll, on a full Scottish-style breakfast or I love giving them as a tasty snack to my 3 year old toddler and 8 month old baby. So they’re also a great weaning food too.
Although I’m giving you the recipe from ‘scratch’, you can absolutely use whatever leftovers you have – just make sure that you season it appropriately with salt and pepper and add some extra butter for good measure! Nothing worse than bland tattie scones!
Suitable For The Whole Family
I feel comfortable giving these to my children, who follow Baby Led Weaning BLW) from around 6 months old. The only element I would consider modifying in the salt content. And because they freeze well, you can make a batch, freeze and use as necessary for your baby or toddler.
Photo below of my baby (9 months old) enjoying her potato scones with goats cheese romesco sauce.
Ingredients
Potato: I have only used approx. 250g of raw potato (1 peeled potato).
I filled a whole Tupperware tub with this portion, which meant some went into my freezer too. So feel free to scale up or down as required, as they do freeze really well.
Butter: I’m using salted butter in my recipe, as I like to season from within. But if you intend to use them for children (when weaning) then I’d recommend using unsalted butter. You can always add salted butter to them after toasting when eating it.
Cream: I use double cream, which is totally optional and not a necessary element.
Flour: I use self raising flour, but you can use plain (all purpose) flour and add 1 teaspoon baking powder instead
Salt
Pepper: I prefer to use white pepper as it doesn’t result in little chunks of black peppercorns in the dough.
How To Make Homemade Potato Scones
Peel potato and cook in salted water until soft (enough that you can pass a knife through them), then mash (or rice) cooked potato until smooth.
Add salted butter and stir through then pour in double cream.
Add flour and white pepper and form into a ball of dough.
Roll out ball of dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes (triangle, square etc.), approx. 3/4mm thick.
Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and wipe away the excess with kitchen paper. Fry the potato scones until golden brown – approx. 4/5mins on each side.
How To Make Potato Scones Using Leftover Mash
Leftover Mash: as general guidance – add approx. half the weight of the potato of flour to the mixture.
A ratio of 2:1 i.e. if you have 500g raw potato, use 250g SR flour OR if you have 100g raw potato, use 50g SR flour then gradually add a little extra flour if you think it needs it. You’re looking for the dough to be light and fluffy, but not sticky.
FAQs
Check out my featured video where you’ll see the consistency of the dough once I add flour to it – this is what you’re aiming for. And once you’ve made them a few times, you will build your confidence up.
No one makes their mashed potatoes the exact same every time – as potatoes comes in all shapes and sizes. So you’ll have different volumes of butter, potato and cream/milk in each batch usually.
So unless you set out to make homemade potato scones from scratch, it’s likely you’ll be making them from leftover mash. Therefore, aiming for the right consistency is what’s important.
Yes you can – add a little to the frying pan and wipe round the pan with kitchen paper to remove excess.
Yes – just add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to the mix too.
You can substitute the SR flour for gluten free flour and add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Absolutely – simply substitute full-cream butter for dairy-free or a plant alternative and dairy-free cream if desired (but this isn’t an essential element).
Storage
Once cooked, the potato scones will stay fresh in an airtight container for approx. 4 days.
Re-Heating: you can reheat in the oven or toaster for a few minutes.
Can you freeze potato scones?
Potato scones can easily be frozen; preferably once fully cooked. They will last approximately 3 months in the freezer in an airtight or sealed container (sealable sandwich bags are perfect).
I specifically state that you want to ensure they are fully cooked before freezing, as if you leave the mixture for any period of time without frying, they can go slightly grey looking.
Then when you take them out of the freezer and defrost them, just toast them to enjoy.
And finally…
Whether it’s your first time trying potato scones, or you’re a tattle scone connoisseur, I hope you enjoy them.
Why not try some of my other Traditional Scottish recipes like Stewed Sausages, Scotch Broth or Lentil Soup?
If you have any other questions, or want to tell me what you think of my recipe, then please leave a comment below!
Homemade Potato Scones Recipe
Ingredients
- 270 g raw potato unpeeled weight
- 50 g salted butter
- 30 ml double cream
- 135 g self raising flour plus more for dusting and shaping
- ¼ tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Peel 270 g raw potato and cook in salted water until soft
- Mash (or rice) potato, then add 50 g salted butter and 30 ml double cream and stir through to combine
- Mix through 135 g self raising flour and 1/4 tsp white pepper using your hands, and form into a ball of dough
- Roll out ball of dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shape, approx. 3/4mm thick
- Fry in a knob of butter (ideally wipe off the excess with kitchen paper before cooking) or dry fry on a good non-stick pan – 4 minutes on each side until golden brown
4 responses
Made these for my little girls and they loved them! Had to sub in plant butter as one of my girls has dairy allergy and still worked well. Will be making with proper butter for myself soon! 😂
Thanks so much, so glad your girls loved them!
Delicious! Best potato scone recipe I’ve tried. Thank you for sharing this recipe! 😋
thanks so much for your comment, it’s appreciated!