eKASI / AMAKHEKHE SCONES

WORLD OF SCONES


Once a month while growing up, my parents would bundle us up in the bus or taxi and chart us off to our grandparents for lunch and afternoon tea,just for the day.




Afternoon tea was without fail, coconut donuts, scones and Hungarian jam tart.  You got a piece of each and you had to finish it all.  As I grew up it became my monthly torture.

It took years of my adult live to rediscover that I actually like scones again. But it was mostly because I discovered a world of different types of scones. Yes, there is, I kid you not.

There's sweet or savoury; filled or plain; round, square or triangle; Irish, British ......the list is endless.




I had only ever eaten the plain round ones filled with jam and here was a whole world of scones.



Some I tried were fantastic, others were best loved by their own creators .

But rushing to work in the early crisp winter mornings in Pretoria, I used to pass by an African mama who made the most wonderful eKasi (or Township) scones -that's what she called them.  I'ld pop a few into my handbag, hurry into work, grab a cup of coffee with my eKasi scone and breakfast done.

However it's really difficult to get a recipe that matches hers but here it is.


eKasi or Amakhekhe Recipe


2½ cups cake flour
200ml white sugar
15ml (1Tbsp) baking powder
100g baking margarine
200ml full cream milk
1 egg
5ml (1tsp) caramel essence
Glaze
30 ml (1Tbsp) apricot jam
60ml tap water

Sift dry ingredients together. Rub butter into flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix milk, egg and essence. Cut into the dry ingredient. Do not over mix. Turn out onto a floured surface and press lightly together. Cut with a big round cookie cutter. Place scones on a greased baking tray and bake at 190ºC for 15-20 minutes. Mix glaze ingredients and brush over the scones immediately after taking them out of the oven.

Enjoy as is with a cup of freshly brewed tea or coffee.


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