Cooking with Jonny69: Aberdeen butteries

[Jonny69]

Here's one for all you crash dieters: the Aberdeen buttery. The story goes that Scottish fishermen were fed up eating ships biscuits. They got a baker to come up with something else that would keep at sea but be a bit more palatable. The solution was the buttery, a bread dough with huge amounts of salt, butter and fat folded into it to make it keep :D

http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/aberdeen_buttery/IMG_7407.JPG

I'm always up for some artery-stretching food and these are guaranteed to shorten your life significantly, even if you only eat one. I adapted this recipe (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/aberdeenbutteriesrow_92370) down to 300g of flour and didn't use the lard, so that she could eat them (veggie). It's essentially a conventional white bread dough, rolled out with butter spread over it, folded, then repeated until you have about the same amount of butter folded in as weight of flour. You get a golden brown buttery, crispy-edged, layered bread item like a manly version of a croissant. I prefer it to a croissant - absolutely delicious.

The 300g recipe made 6 quite large butteries which keep for about a week. They work better if you can wake them up again in the toaster or oven.

http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/aberdeen_buttery/IMG_7410.JPG

Eating is hard work. You need to be hungry and expect to feel a bit overloaded afterwards :p

[Stan_Lite]

I love Butteries (aka Rowies). Will definitely give this recipe a try as they are tricky to find in South Shields for some odd reason. Nothing better than a hot Rowie with even more butter lathered on to it and melting all over your fingers (also very good with jam).

[Jonny69]

I knew you'd know what they were Stan :D

I'd never even heard of them until a few weeks ago. You can't get them down south :(

[Tak]

They sounds lovely!

[Stan_Lite]

They are very very scrumptious but very very naughty :D

[Muban]

The ones you have made look lovely :) However, coming from a family of Aberdonians, I've never heard them called butteries by anyone in Aberdeen :p Rowies are amazing, especially if you have them the morning after a night before.

I like mine with either a good dark thick cut marmalade or more butter (because there isn't enough in them already!!). I have to say there is definitely a difference between rowies made in Aberdeen and butteries made elsewhere. Still they're all good. I'm not going to have to do a rowie/buttery postal service am I? :D

[lostkat]

Oh yum, they look fantastic!