Ginger Scones

I have been making these ginger scones a lot lately. They are easy and delicious. 

I use the basic biscuit recipe, but before crumbling in the butter and adding the milk, I add a scant half cup of powdered sugar, two teaspoons of powdered ginger, and some chopped crystallized ginger. That's it.

 Ginger Scones

1 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 scant cup powdered sugar (I use not quite 1/2 a cup for some odd reason)
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
Chopped crystallized ginger (as much as you like)
5 1/3 tablespoons butter (unsalted, I used salted during the blizzard, it was fine)
3/4 cup milk (I often use plain lowfat yogurt mixed with water)

Preheat oven 450°. Mix dry ingredients. Crumble in butter with fingertips. Add milk, a little at a time, until dough comes together. Turn onto floured surface. Knead eight or so times. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick or so. Cut into circles (I use a glass) and place on baking sheet. Bake 10 to 20 minutes. I usually turn the baking sheet after 5 minutes. Then check again after 5 more minutes. If you like your baked goods on the soft side, take these out as soon as they start to turn lightly golden. I prefer mine, or at least my ginger scones, to get a little crispy and almost caramelized, so I let them get pretty dark (see photographs).

Makes about a dozen. Serve with butter (or I bet cream cheese or creme fraiche would be delicious, too).

Peace.

Lavender Shortbread with Lemon Glaze and Sea Salt

(scroll down for recipe)

Lavender Shortbread with Lemon Glaze and Sea Salt
California Style

One of the big successes this summer in California was an idea Grandma suggested. A tea party. Grandma's idea was that we would each make some kind of sandwich and dessert for a party. We would dress up like fancy ladies. The girls would make place cards. She would make tea. Party!

Part of what made it a success was that it was in Grandma's kitchen. I confess that I have a tough time being loose in the kitchen at home with the girls. Always in the back of my mind is the clean up that follows any messes. With two adults and two kids this time, I felt like we had a chance.

So bring on the watermelon-marshmallow sandwiches, blueberry-onion-sour-cream sandwiches, egg salad on toast points, and brie on crackers with horseradish-cranberry relish. For dessert, lemon tartlettes with caramel sauce, chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream and raspberries, rice krispie treats, brownies, and lavender shortbread with lemon glaze and sea salt.



My original dessert idea was rosemary shortbread, but when I went out in the yard to cut some rosemary from my mom's plant that is so huge it's really a bush, I saw she also had a lot of lavender, so I chose that instead. Her lavender had very lovely flowers, so I topped the shortbread with the little petals. The glaze I made then was only semi-successful--I tried heating sugar and lemon juice in the microwave (Hey, what can I say? It was a last-minute inspiration). Since then, I have used powdered sugar for the glaze.

Lavender Shortbread

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 TBL chopped lavender (I used 2 TBLs in Cali--it was a little much, but 1 TBL isn't enough.)
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 TBL honey
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven 350°

In one bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and lavender. In a separate bowl, cream butter, honey, and powdered sugar. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, a little at a time. Gather up dough onto floured board. Roll. Cut. I've used a butter knife to cut rectangles and I've also used a small glass to cut circles. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake. For baking at home, I actually baked them on 350° for 5 minutes. Then turned the oven down to 300° and used the convection fan for another 5+ minutes, until lightly brown. Cool. Glaze. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Lemon Glaze

(+/-) 2/3 cup powdered sugar
(+/-) 2 TBL lemon juice
(+/-) 1 tsp lemon zest (I used the zest from one whole lemon)

Mix. Try not to eat all of it while waiting for the shortbread to cool.

I made a batch yesterday and there was a little dough leftover, so I rolled it in wax paper and stuck it in the fridge. This morning I just sliced it and baked it. Not very pretty, but oh-so-delicious!

Lavender Shortbread for Breakfast

Enjoy.

A Question From The Children That I Can Answer

Peace.

More Pie

Peach.

Peaches soaked in a bit of red wine, fresh grated ginger, brown sugar, dash of cinnamon, fresh ground black pepper. Then baked in a pie [full disclosure: flour & butter were added to filling before baking].





Yum.

This Morning's Experiment

I was gonna call them Blueberry Oddballs.
Then the almost-10 year old suggested Puffball Scones.

Folks who follow this blog know I make a lot of biscuits and scones. A lot. So they're pretty easy for me to make. Still, cutting all that butter and flour together is time consuming. And some mornings, especially when I've already poured the hot water in the pot to steep the garden peppermint, I want something quick. So I used the basic biscuit recipe I learned from Betty Crocker* and I substituted olive oil for the butter. I added a generous amount of cinnamon and some tumeric. And of course, blueberries. Then, instead of rolling the dough out onto a floured board and cutting shapes, I just dumped the dough onto the floured board, kneaded it very gently to fold in the blueberries, then formed loose shapes by hand.

Good morning.

Peace.


*Huh. I went looking online for the recipe to link to and the one I found was slightly different from the one in my cookbook. The basic recipe: Oven 450. 1 3/4 cup flour. 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder. 1/2 teaspoon salt. I mix it together with a fork. Cut in 1/3 cup shortening (I usually use unsalted butter). I use my fingers. Stir in 3/4 cup milk. Turn onto floured board. Knead 8 times. Roll. Cut into shapes (I use a small glass for circles or a heart-shaped cookie cutter). Bake approximately 18 minutes, until just beginning to brown.

Blueberry Picking Leads to Blueberry Pie

No lemon juice? Try some Lagunitas Maximus.

Yes, I am the worst crust maker in the history of the world.

And now, I get to go eat this!



Update: Yum! Delicious! I did all those freeze-this-freeze-that things, so the crust was very flaky. The problem, I guess, is my ratio, or something. I need more crust! So I end up having to roll what I've got so thin that I can't do anything with it. It just fell apart & laughed when I tried to lattice it. I got the last laugh, though.


Peace.

Mojito Scones?

Okay, not really.

I used my old standby recipe, except instead of ginger & lemon, I used mint & lime. And instead of buttermilk or a yogurt/milk blend, I used coconut milk.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt*
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces*
* 1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces*
* 1 large lemon, zest of*
* 2/3 cup buttermilk*

For the icing, I just used powdered sugar & lime juice. The girls like a little food coloring with their meals, what can I say?




Enjoy.



*I only had salted butter, so I used that & omitted the salt. I used 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (and cursed myself for not going out to the garden to get fresh mint to make a syrup or perhaps try shredded?). I used the zest of 3 limes. I used nearly 2/3 cup coconut milk & made up the rest with the juice of 1 lime.



Update: I just went to get another and the girls had eaten nearly all of them! They are a hit.


Peace.

Snickerdoodles

I made some cookies the other day. Yes, snickerdoodles, using this recipe, except the girls rolled half of them in the traditional sugar and cinnamon mixture, and half in a sugar and ground ginger mixture. Yum.

While I was making the dough, the 7yo begged me to let her eat some raw dough. I was extremely resistant because when I was little, my mother didn't want us to eat the dough. My memory is that she said the raw flour could give you worms. Since then, of course, there's been all kinds of raw egg prohibitions. I do seem to recall eating a little oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough with my roommates when I moved away from home. And I lived to tell the tale. I asked around (okay, I posted the question on facebook), and it was unanimous that I should, indeed, let the 7yo eat the dough. And so I did.

We also ate all the cookies.






Peace.

Lemon Pear Cake

I'm still going a little crazy baking, using up the lemons I bought.

I made this cake yesterday as a quick alternative to scones. As I've said many times here, I make biscuits a lot, and the scone recipe is pretty much a fancy biscuit recipe, so it's not hard. It's just messy.

For a quicker path to a coffee accompaniment, I followed the lemon scone recipe below, except instead of butter, I used a quarter cup olive oil and one egg. I mixed this in with the yogurt/milk mixture, before adding it to the dry ingredients. I also chopped up some pear to add to the dough. It looked like it could use a little more liquid, so I added the juice of half a lemon. I lowered the oven temperature to 375° for no real reason!

I melted a couple tablespoons of butter in the pan in the preheating oven, a la upside down cake. I did not add brown sugar to the butter, but you could. I assembled what few pear slices I had left in the bottom of the pan. Then I spread the dough on top of that. I baked it until it looked golden and it passed the toothpick test. Yum.

Lemon Ginger Scones, Part 2

I made lemon ginger scones last Thursday to say thanks to a friend for helping with my computer. They were so delicious, I made some more yesterday! I used this recipe, with slight modifications (surprise): I used about a tablespoon of fresh grated ginger instead of the crystallized ginger, and I used a yogurt/milk blend instead of buttermilk.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces
• 1 large lemon, zest of
• 2/3 cup buttermilk

I also didn't bother with the egg wash because I'm not a fan of that sort of thing and I'm lazy. When I made them yesterday, though, I did make a simple lemon icing (powdered sugar & lemon juice). Yum. I also used the zest from two lemons this time, instead of one, to make them extra lemony. And next time, I will either use a lot more ginger, too, or perhaps skip the ginger and try some sort of lemon lavender scone. Or lemon blueberry. Lemon almond. And on and on.

Baker's Fail

It still tasted delicious, though! I have to go pick up the girls, so I'll have to tell you the story later.




Peace.

Cornbread and Coffee

It is possible that my future may be gluten-free. Or perhaps I'll find a way to make moderation work for me. How could I live a life without the foods I love? Pie? Bread? Pasta? Pizza? As I struggle to find balance, I continue to experiment in the kitchen.

Cornbread with Chocolate

I used the basic cornbread recipe with slight modifications.

2 cups cornmeal (I used 1 cup corn flour & 1 cup cornmeal)
1 tsp salt (I used a little less than a teaspoon, 'cause that's how I roll)
2 tsp baking powder

1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt thinned with 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup veg oil or melted butter (I used melted butter, of course!)
______________________________________________

Preheat oven 400°. Grease 9x9 square pan. Combine dry ingredients. In separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry, mix. Pour into pan. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Melting the chocolate on top was a last minute inspiration. The girls had recently found in my studio a couple of old tins of dark chocolate wedges (with ancho & chipolte chiles & korintji cinnamon) that I had impulse-bought in the Trader Joe's checkout line and forgotten about.

I chopped up the wedges, sprinkled them on top the baked cornbread and stuck it back in the still-warm oven for a minute or so. Then I spread it around like frosting. Yum.







Peace.


Picture of chocolates found here.

Pan Cookies and Coffee Grinder

Since discovering that my oven was broken last Monday night, I've had a cookie sheet full of sugar cookies waiting on the back porch for something to happen. The repair folks aren't due until next Monday, so I decided to try cooking the cookies in an iron skillet on the stove. It worked out pretty well. I frosted them, then the girls and I gobbled them up.


In other news, my friend is looking for a manual coffee grinder. I love mine. It was a gift several years ago from my friend Kate. I haven't seen any like it online. One of the things that makes mine especially nice is it's easy to hold as I wander around the house in the morning grinding my coffee. Anyone know where to find one?










Peace.

Peppermint Pink

click image to enlarge

The girls and I finally made some sugar cookies tonight. I used the basic Betty Crocker recipe, except where it calls for 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, I used peppermint extract.

For the frosting, I'd forgotten we'd finished all the milk on this cocoa-est of weekends, so I just used water: butter, powdered sugar, peppermint extract, water, and a little too much red food coloring. I was going for tasteful ballet pink, but was dropping it into dry powdered sugar, so I had no clue how pink it would get!

The sprinkles are little peppermint flavored candy canes.




Enjoy.



P.S. This is my 300th post. A milestone of some sort, but I'm not sure what...

Biscuits and Cocoa

I managed to find enough snow pants, gloves, jackets, and boots to get the girls bundled up and outside in the snow this morning, then I turned my attention to treats.

First, I measured into a sauce pan enough milk for three cups of cocoa. I added two tablespoons cocoa, two tablespoons sugar, and a capful of vanilla. I set that to cooking on low.

Next, to bake. I make a lot of biscuits. I'd say it's the thing I bake the most. I start with the basic recipe that I got from my old Betty Crocker cookbook.

1/3 cup shortening (I use 5 1/3 tablespoons butter)
1 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
salt (I use 1/2 teaspoon, or less if I'm using salted butter--Betty says 3/4 teaspoon)
3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450F. Cut butter into dry ingredients -- I use my fingers, to make gravelly crumbles. Stir in milk so dough leaves side of bowl and rounds up into a ball. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead lightly. Roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut circles. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes.

Today, I altered the recipe by replacing one of the tablespoons of butter with a tablespoon of solid bacon grease (from the refrigerator). I replaced 1/2 cup of the flour with 1/4 cup coconut flour and 1/4 cup corn flour. In place of the milk, I used about half apple cider and half cream.

The dough was a little stiffer than usual, and kind of resembled sugar cookie dough.
I think I'm going to have to do some research on cooking with coconut flour!

They puffed up nicely, though perhaps not quite as high as all flour biscuits do.
(Yeah, my oven is dirty).

While the biscuits were baking, I gave the cocoa a stir.

The biscuits got just a little browner than I like,
as I was helping the girls out of their snow clothes.

Cocoa and biscuits with butter, honey, and raspberry jam

Peace.