Showing posts with label Scones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scones. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Strawberry Balsamic Scones

10:03 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post


It’s been a while since I’ve offered up a new scone flavor.  This one has been lingering in my mind for a while.  In reading recipes, I’ve seen strawberries and balsamic vinegar mixed in lots of ways.  I make an awesome salad with arugula, strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette among other things.  You can reduce the balsamic down to a syrup and pour it over vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries.  You can do the same but over French toast or pancakes.  Believe it or not, I haven’t made strawberries scones before and I thought I would amp them up right from the start by incorporating this popular flavor combination.

So how’d it go?  Uh yeah…it was hard to stop eating them.  Sweet and savory at the same time, they really just hit the spot whether you have them with some scrambled eggs for breakfast or just as an afternoon snack.­  My trusty taste testers were a little skeptical, vinegar in a scone?!  Until they tried one and were immediately sold.  The final verdict…really good warm without glaze, but even better at room temperature with glaze.  After all, you know how I feel about glazes.  When I mentioned this recipe to another one of my usual taste testers, he said he needed “a pool of balsamic”, well I didn’t deliver on a pool per se, but I think this glaze will satisfy what he’s looking for.

Get these while they’re hot – meaning make them now, while the strawberries are in season and full of flavor.  I might even push it and make these into the fall, they’re just that good.

Recipe adapted from Strawberry Scones on Annie’s Eats (www.annies-eats.com)

Ingredients

1 large egg
¼ cup plain or vanilla yogurt (I used nonfat vanilla)
½ cup milk (I used skim)
1 tsp. orange or lemon zest (I used and recommend lemon)
2 ¼ cups AP Flour (I used half AP flour and half Whole Wheat Pastry flour, hence the darker color – use what you like)
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups diced fresh strawberries
¼ cup balsamic vinegar

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
Balsamic Vinegar – add 1 tsp at a time

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375º.  In a 9”x13” pan, mix the strawberries and balsamic vinegar.


When the oven is hot, roast the strawberries for 10-15 minutes, stirring once after 5 min.  Let cool for about 15 minutes. 

In a small bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt, milk and zest until blended, then set aside.

In a large bowl, combined the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the butter pieces to the dry ingredients and cut it into the flour using a pastry blender or two forks (this can also be done in a food processor).

Using a slotted spoon, strain and transfer the strawberries to the flour mixture and gently toss to coat.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold until completely combined.

Transfer to a well-floured surface and gently pat into an 8 inch disc.  Cut into 8 wedges and carefully place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Or, if you have a scone pan, just fill each section evenly with dough – it filled my mini-scone pan perfectly (makes 16 small triangles).


Bake in a 425º oven for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool on wire rack. 

**Note** If the dough looks a little too wet, freeze the shaped scones on/in the pan for 30 minutes and move directly from freezer to oven. You will need to increase the baking time by a few minutes. 

For the glaze, mix all ingredients until desired consistency.  Drizzle over each scone with a spoon, fork, piping bag, or plastic squeeze bottle, whichever method you prefer.  Let set before serving. 



Labels: , , | 0 comments
Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Fig & Honey Scones

11:24 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post



Ahhh, a new year.  You know what that means….a new scone recipe, obviously.  It’s been quite a while since I made a new flavor so you had to know I was due.  I went on my first big shopping trip tonight since before the holidays, and before heading out to restock the cupboards, I did some inventory of what I needed to get rid of.  Figs!  I had totally forgotten about the couple bags of dried figs I had from when I made challah a few months back.  Well the beauty of dried fruit is that it lasts for-freaking-ever (if you store it properly), but it was definitely time to use them up.

You see where I’m going with this.  I got this recipe from the same blog where I found the challah – she too likes figs it seems.  This is a super simple recipe, though let me warn you – it is stiiiiccckky!  I thought I’d make my scones cute and truly single-portion sized by using a round biscuit cutter rather than just shaping and cutting the dough.  Well, the dough wasn’t stiff enough to stay in the biscuit cutter cut-outs, so I had to roll/pat them into shape.  I kind of ended up with what looks like large cookies, except they are still that amazing flaky scone consistency.  Regardless of their looks, they taste SO GOOD.  I really don’t think you can go wrong with figs and honey.  Give them a try.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup diced figs (fresh or dried)

NOTES: Since I can’t ever leave a recipe as is – I added ½ tsp vanilla extract to the wet ingredients.  Pretty much every sweet baked good needs vanilla.  Also, I substituted fat-free half and half for the heavy cream because that is what I had.  It worked fine and it can’t hurt to eliminate that extra fat.  Finally, I only used about 1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar.  Figs are pretty sweet, they don’t need much sugar.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and canola oil together. Add the honey and mix until combined. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula to combine. Add the cream and mix together (the dough will be a little wet). Cover the diced figs with the sugar and gently fold into the dough.
4. On a well-floured surface, and dusting the top of the dough with more flour, pat the dough out into a 7-inch circle. Cut into 8 triangles. Place on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container, but they are best the same day they are made.
Recipe adapted from www.browneyedbaker.com 
Labels: , , | 0 comments
Saturday, July 30, 2011

Nutella time.

5:06 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post

This morning I took on a little experiment.  I wanted to see if I could make my own “chocolate chips” from nutella, so I broke out the piping bag and got to work….here they are!


I was making nutella scones.  I know, I know – more scones?!?!  I promise, this is the last variation for a while….next time its back to regular recipes, and perhaps a restaurant review later this week (there’s a new place I’m checking out soon).

These were inspired by some friends of mine.  A local coffee shop sells them and apparently runs out frequently, so I thought I would make my friends their own batch.  The only issue was how to deal with the nutella.  Do you just mix it in the batter?  Do you put down a layer of batter, then a blob of nutella then more batter so it’s layered?  I wasn’t sure what to do….until I had what I thought was a moment of brilliance – freeze it!  If I could make my own chips then I could just stir them into the batter as you normally would.  It all seemed to be working well.  They froze into chips and I tossed them with the dry ingredients.  It was when I added the wet ingredients that my brilliant plan fell apart.  The chips instantly started melting, so what choice did I have but to just stir it all together.  I made sure not to overmix it as I thought it would be better to have streaks of nutella rather than it all being completely blended.

It ended up working out just fine.  The scones were as fluffy as always and the nutella flavor really came through.  Of course I made some icing for these too – just a quick glaze of powdered sugar, cocoa powder and some milk, and look – they look great and are quite delicious!  Perhaps I’ll start peddling my goods outside the coffee shop….my baked goods that is.­­­­  J




Adapted from Strawberry Scone recipe on Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 large egg
¼ cup vanilla yogurt
½ cup milk
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces


Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, yogurt and milk until blended; set aside.  In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Stir to blend.  Add the butter pieces to the bowl with the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender, until the largest butter pieces are the size of small peas.
Add the nutella chips to the flour mixture and toss to coat.  Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a spatula until a sticky dough has formed and all ingredients are incorporated.  If necessary, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time to hydrate the remaining dry ingredients.
Transfer the dough to a well floured work surface and pat into a disc about 7-8 inches in diameter.  Slice the disc into 8 wedges.  Or use your super convenient mini scone pan as I do and dole out the batter into 16 scones.
To bake, preheat the oven to 425˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the shaped scones on the prepared baking sheet and bake until lightly browned on top, about 15 minutes.  If using the mini scone pan, bake for about 10-12 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes before serving.  If adding glaze, wait until completely cooled before doing so.  Enjoy!!

Labels: , , | 0 comments
Sunday, July 17, 2011

Lemon Blueberry Scones

8:02 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post

Pre-Glaze

I hope at least some of you made it out to the bake sale this morning – it was a gorgeous day for it, and thankfully my scones came out really well!  I thought nothing could beat the cinnamon ones, but wow – these lemon blueberry give them a tough run for first place.  They tasted so fresh and summery, perfect for a warm sunny day.

I got the recipe from another food blog I read regularly, Annie’s Eats- http://annies-eats.com/.  It was actually for strawberry scones which also sound amazing, but I was worried they’d get soggy sitting out in the sun.  I followed her recipe and just swapped out blueberries for the strawberries.  I also added a lemon glaze, because really, what isn’t better with a sugary glaze?!

Now, time to start thinking about what I’ll enter in the baking contest this year…I need something new and creative.  Ideas??

Post-Glaze

Packed and ready for the sale!

Labels: , | 0 comments
Thursday, July 22, 2010

And the Chocolate Chip version....

7:19 AM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post


Round 2 - the original chocolate chip recipe (see previous post).  Second set of scones, second office that got to enjoy them.  At this point its conclusive....these scones kick ass.  I still think the cinnamon version is better, but its all a matter of taste.  Enjoy!
Labels: , , | 0 comments
Thursday, July 15, 2010

Cinnamon Scones - KAF does it again!

6:47 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post
 Has everyone heard of King Arthur Flour?  If not - here ya go:  www.kingarthurflour.com   You're welcome and I'm sorry.

For anyone who loves to bake, this website will be your new BFF.  This is the second scone recipe I have tried from them and both were amazing.  Light, fluffy, not too dry and just the right amount of sweetness.  And if you're in a pinch, their bagged mixes are also delicious.  While I always advocate for making things from scratch, sometimes there is just not time....in those cases, go for the sour cream blueberry!

But seriously, KAF is the best.  They have hundreds of products you never knew you needed but now will feel you can't live without (hence my earlier apology for the strain you're about to have on your wallet!).  You can email them with all sorts of baking or even cooking questions and they will do their best to answer.  I wrote once asking about substituting one herb for another and I got a very friendly response back from someone named Irene in less than 24 hours.  Perhaps its time I just quit my day job, move to Vermont and work for them - god that would be awesome!!  But alas, I'll hang out here for now and continue fawning over them from afar.

OK - on to the recipe:

Ingredients
Adapted from King Arthur Flour magazine

Scones:
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour  (I used 1 ¾ cup AP and 1 cup white whole wheat)
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pats
1-2 cups mini chocolate chips  (I used about ¾ cup of mini cinnamon chips and it was plenty)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ to ⅔ cup half & half or milk  (I used 1% milk)

Glaze:
3 ½ cups confectioners sugar
7 tablespoons water or enough to make a thin glaze
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground cinnamon  (My addition since I was making cinnamon rather than choc chip)

Instructions

Whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly.  Stir in the chips.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and ½ cup half & half (or milk).  Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry adding more half & half if the dough seems dry (you want it to be a little sticky).

Scrape the dough onto a well-floured work surface and pat it into an 8" square, about ¾" thick.  Cut the square into 16 2" squares then cut each square in half diagonally to make 32 small triangles.  Transfer the scones to a parchment-lined or well-greased baking sheet.  Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered.

Preheat the oven to 425º.  Bake the scones for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and cool completely on rack. *The recipe says you can then cut them in half again to make 64 tiny triangles - personal opinion is that they are already small enough, but do as you will.

Stir together the glaze ingredients.  Coat each scone with glaze and place on a rack to set.
**I happen to have one of the cute little mini-scone pans (yes, sold at KAF) so I skipped this whole shaping and cutting part.  My pan holds 16 mini-scones and I had just enough dough to fill it.  I baked them in the pan for 13-14 minutes and they were perfect.  Enjoy the raves from your co-workers, I have been!
Labels: , , , | 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)