Deans of Huntly - Shortbread

wildgarlic · Deans of Huntly - Shortbread

Ahhh I have such fond memories of the smell of cooking shortbread from the Dean's factory in Huntly. My 13 year old used to attend The Kindergarten at Huntly when he was young... and what a fine smell it was when they were baking. I used to have breakfast before leaving home and the delightful aroma just made me hungry again.

The factory shop is well worth a visit and now sells much more than just shortbread... lots of Scottish fare and friendly service...

www.deans.co.uk

pete_inthehills

oh yes! mmmmm shortbread.

you can get "seconds" which to me means you don't get them in fancy packets but other than that they look and taste great.

I go quite regularly.

wildgarlic

Yes - the seconds are great... and the bags of crumbs are even better

lor138

The bags of crumbs are sooo good for a crumble topping....Yum

ger

ooooh my mum's never out of there, she works in Gowdan Primiary sometimes and ends up in the factory shop

Great idea about the crumble topping will have to give it a try

wildgarlic

I think we'll need to pop in there sometime soon - not in Huntly that often though. Shame they are not open on Sunday as we'll be passing through Huntly then.

pete_inthehills

during the "summer" I'm sure they are open saturday and sunday. Its just the non tourist season that its saturday only.

I think.

Pete

lor138

If you want anything from there WG, let me know as I'm up there a lot visiting my mum

Babz

I was there on Saturday...got my rations but my daughter and grandson and I ate most of it in two days at the caravan

Did you know that they are adding a Tearoom...can't wait for that

PurpleDragon

Oh, yum! I love shortbread. I can never manage to get that same taste when I cook it at home.

We have a bakery in the village and some of the smells that come out of there certainly make my mouth water

ambyuk

Do they have seconds of the fancier shortbreads? H loves the apple crumble stuff!

Meg in the Mountains

I have a feeling they do have seconds of the fancy shortbread biscuits. But of course, now I've been asked - I can't remember for sure! :oops: However, we plan to visit this week so I'll check and report back.

We use the shortbread seconds on our B&B hospitality trays and they go down really well. To be honest, there are times when I don't understand why they've been relegated to seconds. They certainly look fine to me. DH made a fruit crumble with the shortbread crumbs once and it was yummy!

ambyuk

Mmm great. If hubby wasn't unemployed at the mo' I'd be out there like a shot. Yumm!

Meg in the Mountains

DH and I took a drive out today 'cos we don't have any guests right now and were also on a mission to do some Christmas shopping for MIL. She's practically housebound in sarf London and wanted us to get some nice boxes of shortbread for her home carers. So off we went to Dean's.

Wow, what a change. The cafe/bistro is complete and has been open for three weeks. It's very nice indeed, with seating upstairs and downstairs. Light and airy, clean and fresh. We just had coffee and cakes, but they were very reasonably priced. 8) Other folk were eating hot lunches which looked very tasty. Upstairs there's also a viewing gallery of the factory, but you only really get to see the end of the production line when the shortbread is boxed up.

The shop has changed beyond all recognition from what it was. There's also been a price hike. The fancy shortbreads are about £2.39 a box from £2.05 last time we were in there.

There's a lot of produce which isn't Dean's and it seems as though a fair amount of shelf space has been lost. There were seconds of the fancy shortbread and others besides. The bags of crumbs were still there too.

ambyuk

Thanks Meg. Any idea how much the seconds/crumbs were, roughly?

Meg in the Mountains

I think they were 70p a bag.

Diana

So how do you use the crumbs as crumble topping? On their own or mixed with something else?

lor138

Just on it's own is fantastic - doesn't need anything else IMO!

wildgarlic

We went into Deans on Saturday - bought some crumbs!! You are right Meg - 70p for a 500g bag. Says they may contain chocolate chips etc etc... I tried to make sure that they did LOL.

We went upstairs to see the viewing gallery. No photos allowed though so I was good and respected their rules.

The food was good and the service was excellent and the place looks great.

Diana

NER! I went to Deans on Friday and they didn't have any crumbs

wildgarlic

I've got a couple of bags that I can let you have if you want them next time you are here. I thought it wise to buy a couple extra just in case. Use by date isn't until Jan 08.

Diana

Thank you/yes please!!!

[Will stop having a paddy now]

Meg in the Mountains

Having been to Dean's to buy shortbread for MIL's home care ladies we also bought some for friends too. Of course DH forgot this and ended up giving all the boxes to MIL 'cos I wasn't with him to tell him not to! This necessitated a trip to the supermarket in Dover to buy something else to take to our friends in Holland.

Next time DH goes off to MIL's without me (I stayed behind to do some decorating and caught up with him later), I shall label all the bags which he takes with him!

Diana

Men eh!

Picta

I just made a pudding on Saturday night with Dean's oatcakes. I actually ground down the whole packet and placed the rest in the freezer for another time.

Put some in a glass and pour over a little apple juice until they are just moist. Slice a banana on top and make a toffee sauce. Using 50g butter, 100g honey bring to the boil then stir till thick and creamy, add 100ml of milk slowly, bringing it back to the boil, when cool, pour over the banana's then top with lightly whipped creme fraiche.

It's meant to be a slimline Banoffee pie - but depends how much of it you eat!

pete_inthehills

I'm off to Dean's this week to pick up three boxes of short bread. Its for the dance festival in Aberdeen so I don't have to eat it all!

pete
inthehills