…and he runs out into
the field where his mother is making welsh-cakes in the
snow…

– Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood.

That’s pronounced Abber-frow because it’s Welsh, don’t you know. But you’ve binge-watched The Great British Bake Off so you already knew that, didn’t you? Speaking of GBBO, that’s where I first saw these beautiful little shell-shaped shortbread cookies. They apparently also go by Aberffraw biscuits, or ‘Teisen ‘Berffro’ with the ‘teisen’ meaning cake in Welsh, and ‘Berffro being a shorted version of the village name Aberffro, or Aberffraw, on the coast of the isle of Anglesey (northern Wales). Legend has it that these shortbread cookies date back to a time in the 13th century when royalty took up residence in Aberffraw. A Welsh queen was walking on the beach and found a pretty shell and subsequently asked to have cakes baked in that shape.

A more likely, if less romantic, source for the biscuit are the shell souvenirs pilgrims would bring home from their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and the shrine of St. James in Spain. While it’s still not clear why scallop shells are associated with St. James, this would at least explain why Aberffraw biscuits have yet another name in ‘James cakes.’

Reality Bakes

Modern versions of Aberffraw biscuits seem to be a basic shortbread 3:2:1 formula: 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat (butter) to 1 part sugar. Historically, as sugar was dear, these biscuits were probably made with honey as the sweetener, and either wholemeal flour or semolina, allegedly to imitate the texture of a sandy beach.

I made this batch as a basic shortbread with the addition of ginger. I was having a little trouble pressing them out on the shells so I popped them in the fridge for about ten minutes which did the trick. 

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Ginger Aberffraw Cakes

Pretty Welsh shell-shaped cookies with a legend behind them.

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 8 cookies

Author Jen Leigh

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup (150 g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) (100 g) butter, cubed, plus more for greasing
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger*

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with butter.
• Put flour and sugar into a large bowl. Cut in the cubed butter with your hands, rubbing it into the flour/sugar mixture. Add the ginger and continue rubbing just until the mixture is starting to bind together.
• Knead gently until you have a smooth dough that can be formed into a ball. (If dough is too dry to come together, add a bit more butter or a small squirt of lemon juice.)
• Roll the dough into 8 to 10 smaller balls of equal size, depending on the size of the scallop shell you'll be using. (I used a large 4" scallop shell and got 8 large cookies). 
• Lightly dust the scallop shell with flour and sugar. Starting roughly in the lower middle, start pressing out a ball of dough against the shell to impress it, evening the thickness and shaping the edges as you go.
• Carefully prise the cookie off the shell and place on a greased baking sheet, then repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Bake at 375°F for 10-15 minutes, or just until a pale golden brown.

Notes

*I find this to be just the right amount of ginger but if you want your cookies really spicy, add another 1/2 teaspoon of the fresh ginger.

*Some people roll out the dough, cut it into round cookies, and then impress them with the shell, but I don't think these end up nearly as pretty or shell-like. Besides, it's fun to press out the cookies on the shells, and I'm borrowing this method from the charming Tilley, featured in this video from The Recipe Hunters.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Welsh

Keyword biscuits, GBBO, Welsh cookies