British Cookery
Kentish Huffkins Kent

1976

  • 1 lb. [454 gm] plain flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1/2 oz. [14 gm] fresh yeast
  • 1/2 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 pint [0.28 l] milk and water
  • 2 oz. [57 gm] lard
    Oven: 425 F; gas mark 7; 15-20 minutes

Sift the flour and salt; cream the yeast with the sugar and half the warmed milk and water. Rub the lard into the flour, add the yeast mixture and work in the flour, adding the remaining milk and water.
Knead the dough until smooth and elastic; leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Knock back and divide the dough into three oval cakes, 1/2 in thick; make a hole in the centre of each. Place on greased baking trays to prove.
Bake for 20 minutes and wrap the cakes in a warm cloth to cool, this will keep the crust soft.

Boyd, Lizzie. British cookery. Bromley : Christopher Helm, 1988 [1976].


1948

Rub 2 oz. [57 gm] of lard into 2 lbs. [907 gm] of ordinary bread dough; let it lie a little while to recover, then divide into pieces of three or four ounces and roll into balls under the hand.
Then roll out flat to about half an inch, stand by to prove, and when ready put into a hot oven, and turn over when half done. Similar to Scotch scones.
(An old baker said that huffkins were made, at a bread baking, to be used at once, so that the batch should not be started until it was a little stale. On sale in Maidstone and Headcorn. "Kin" is a Kentish diminutive i.e. huffkin).

National Federation of Women's Institutes Traditional fare of England and Wales. London : The National Federation of Women's Institutes, [1948].


Also found in:  Spicer (1948) (East Kent), Whitbread (1950), White (1932)

See: bibliography

Notes: This may be considered as one of the few genuine Kentish recipes although it is also known in Oxfordshire and Sussex.

OED has: A kind of tea-cake made chiefly in Kent. 1790 in Eng. Dial. Dict.
1869 N. & Q. 4th Ser. IV. 76/1 Most people know what muffins and crumpets are, but in East Kent the former..are known as uffkins.