3 posts tagged “baking”
Wow, am I a good cook.
Cream scones, which were so amazing out of the oven I wanted to marry myself:
Cream Scones from Cook's Illustrated: The Quick Recipe
I doubled the recipe. Makes 8 good-sized scones for each batch, and of course they could be made smaller. Original recipe:
2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 T unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream
My mods:
- omitted the currants.
- when I made the double batch, I used 5 T sugar total, so maybe 2 1/2 T for a single batch
- added zest & juice of one lemon
- added some recently-dried rosemary. maybe 1/8 or 1/4 tsp total - made for a very (maybe TOO) subtle effect
- for next time, I will not use heavy cream. maybe whole milk?
To make: sift together the dry ingredients (incl the rosemary & zest)
Cut in the butter - it will still be very dry
Pour on the cream and stir til just mixed
Put onto a floured surface, gather into a cohesive lump, knead for just a few seconds to get it all together, flatten out a bit, and cut into ~8 scones (or even more! they're quite big!)
Bake in a 425 oven for 12-15 minutes
Then I made a strawberry-basil topping to smear on the scones. I knew I wanted some sort of basil topping to go with strawberries, and some Google searching led me to this recipe:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/06/strawberry_basil_pesto.php
Here are the original instructions:
Pesto Fraise Basilic
35 grams (1/3 cup) freshly grated Parmesan
35 grams (1/3 cup) whole blanched almonds, toasted
A small handful (about 1/3 cup) fresh basil leaves
5 small strawberries (or 3 large), hulled [be sure to use fragrant and
full-flavored strawberries: if they're a bit bland, I'm quite sure
they'll get lost in the battle]
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper
Makes about 1/2 cup (the recipe can be doubled).
Blend the Parmesan, almonds, and basil (I have a mini chopper, so I doubled the recipe, but did one batch at a time.)
Add strawberries and blend some more. Then add olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. I never got it perfectly smooth, but I liked it kinda chunky-looking.
- I made a double batch. After tasting, I then doubled the strawberries again - I wanted a big strawberry taste
- I added a splash of balsamic vinegar (2 tsp total, maybe - definitely to taste)
- I then stirred this into some mascarpone cheese - maybe half of a little 8-oz package
Finally, I made a strawberry topping: I sliced enough strawberries to fill a pint
jar. Added 2 T sugar and 1 T balsamic vinegar, and let it stew in its
juices.
Here's the yumminess ready to go:
And here's my breakfast this morning:
Insert self-satisfied belly rub here!
Here is the maple-walnut chiffon cake - it was a really light texture, the frosting was a bit too sweet for me, and my apartment smelled like maple for days. I want to do a chocolate-hazelnut one next. What's not to love about that?!
Here are the Nutella ravioli cookies. Basically you make sugar cookie dough, cut out circles, blip in a bit of the yummy, fold, pinch shut, and bake. They weren't bad.
This weekend has been super productive: making soup, getting my knives sharpened, and altering my Christmas flights. The hits keep rolling in: today I got a new belt for my vacuum AND successfully reassembled it (whew) - and it works like a charm. I also roasted butternut squash for Girly Mae's mac & cheese I'm making for my lunch group this week. AND (drum roll, please) I baked bread. It smells amazing and I'm dying to try it.
Oh, and I got to make not one but two two-mile-roundtrip walks to the hardware store, first for the vacuum belt, then for a bread pan. Coulda sworn I owned one, but apparently not, or not anymore! Between me and the hardware store lies a massive hill, and I managed to make it up the steepest eighth-mile segment without stopping, both times. I'm going to feel that tomorrow!
