Lemony Christmas

I love that I can make scones without referring to a recipe, since I've made so many, but for those of you who don't like to take the chance, here's the scones I made up today. I'll eat one, the rest are going to my office tomorrow.


Lemon-almond-coriander scones
Heat oven to 375º (190C)

Mix in a large bowl:
• 1 1/2- 1/3/4 cups all purpose flour (adjust if the batter is too wet)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 Tablespoon fresh or dry lemon zest
• 1 T ground coriander

Add:
• 5 T frozen butter, grated (just mix it. When it's grated you don't need to crumble it much)

Whisk in a 1-2 cup liquid measuring cup:
• 1 egg
• 3T  lemon juice
• 1/4 cup or so almond milk
• 3+T honey (depending how sweet you like your scones)
(When you combine these you should end up with about a cup of liquid)

Add:
• 1/2 cup rolled or steel cut oats, soaked til soft

Batter should be fairly wet, but if it's too sloppy to handle add a little more flour.

Form into a 10" disk and cut into 8 wedges, or scoop into about 16 two inch balls with a large ice cream scoop.

Bake for 17-18 minutes. You can eat these plain, or do the glaze:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T almond milk
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
Pour over cooled scones (they don't have to be all the way cool), then top with toasted almond slivers.
To anchor the almonds, add some almond milk to whatever's left over of the glaze, so that it's very thin, then poor over the almonds.

Just dropping in with a Sunday morning treat

Hey, all you people who didn't even know this blog existed (it's mostly my recipe file. When the technology changes I'm screwed because I don't have any of these on paper).

I got a wild hair a couple of days ago about muffins made with preserved lemon as the flavoring. Preserved lemon is a miracle ingredient; I am pretty sure there is nothing that does not taste better with preserved lemon in it. I put it in sloppy joe the other (the homemade kind, what do you think I am?) and it was amazing. So here's a lemon-cranberry loaf, adapted from Queen Martha:

Cranberry-Orange Loaf

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour loaf pan. Soak 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries in very hot water for about 15 minutes.

Mix in separate bowl:

• 3 1/2+ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon fine salt

In mixer:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

• 3/4 c honey

• 1/2 preserved lemon, chopped fine

• 1/4 c sugar

then:

• 4 large eggs, one at a time

then:

• 3/4 cup half-half, alternating with flour mix

fold in:

• cranberries

• 1 cup blanched almonds slivers

This filled a loaf pan ¾ full, with enough left over for six muffins (hence the “20 servings” in the calorie chart)

Transfer batter to prepared pans and bake until a skewer inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, . Bake 15 minutes then turn temp down to 350. Bake for another 40 to 50 minutes, then knife test it. (Add time if the knife doesn't come out clean.) Let cool in pans on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet, 30 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

Glaze with honey/sugar/lemon syrup (make it up) if you like.

Ginger-lemon muffins

mix dry ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

mix wet ingredients:
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/3 cup prune or apricot butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 T honey
Juice of 1/2 lemon

mix and then add to wet ingredients:
1/2  cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped peeled fresh ginger
 grated rind of 2 lemons





Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Gently mix the wet ingredients in. Add a little buttermilk if the batter is too thick. Allow batter to rest for 10 minutes

make topping:
1 T sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 375°.

Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups coated; sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon mixture over each muffin. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately; let cool on a wire rack.

bsed on http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-ginger-and-lemon-muffins

Sweet potato scones

My sister and brother in law went on a 3 week trip, and gave me one sweet potato from their larder so it wouldn't go bad. What the heck do you do with one sweet potato!


Sweet potato scones
adapted from a recipe by Rebecca Rather in the book The Pastry Queen Christmas via Dawn's Recipes blog.

3 cups whole wheat flour
optional: 1 to 2 T evaporated ground cane sugar (depending how sweet you like your scones)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized slices

1/2 pound orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, cooked and pulped (1 large or 2 small sweet potatos)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream thinned with a little apple cider

 Line a baking sheet with parchment, or grease it lightly. Bake or microwave the sweet potatoes: (Bake: prick a few times with a fork and bake them at 350 about 30-40 minutes.  Remove from oven and let them cool to touch, about 10 minutes. Microwave- prick several times with a fork, and zap on high 6 minutes. Turn so other face is up, and zap on medium another 4-6 minutes, until easily pierced with a sharp knife.)  Cut cooked potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh, placing it in a medium mixing bowl, and lightly mashing with a fork.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate until cool, at least 20 minutes. (Warm potatoes will melt the cold butter, making the scones heavy and tough.

Increase the oven temperature to 425F.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Use your hands or a pastry cutter to mix in the butter until the dough is crumbly and contains lumps the size of small peas. Mix together the sweet potatoes, honey and cream;  lightly stir into the flour mixture.  Add the sour cream mixture and stir until just mixed. Do not overwork the dough.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface.  Form the dough into a 12" disk, and cut into 6 wedges of equal size (for smaller scones, form two 8" discs). Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden.

Sunday morning experiments

Haven't posted one of my experiments in a while, but this was just too delicious,

Coconut-mango drop scones

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t table salt

3/4 cup toasted shredded coconut

5 T unsalted butter

1 egg
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup honey
2 T lime marmalade
1/2 t vanilla

1 cup dried mango, cubed

Heat oven to 400ºF/204C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Toast the coconot in a dry pan until golden brown (keep it moving so it doesn't burn). Set aside until it cools. Whisk together first four ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate container (I use a two-cup pyrex measuring pitcher), mix together the egg through the vanilla.

When coconut is cool, mix it into the dry ingredients. Cube or grate butter and mix in, using a pastry cutter if needed. Add the drained mango. Don't overmix. Add the wet ingredients and mix until the entire batter is wet. Batter will be sticky.

Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, place scoops on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 15 medium scones.

You can freeze the unbaked batter for later baking. Place the scoops on a lined baking sheet and place in freezer. When fully frozen, put the scones in a plastic bag and bake just as many as you need. To bake frozen scones, heat oven to 400; when fully heated place the FROZEN scones on a parchment-lined pie plate or baking sheet and bake for about 17 minutes.

I also made mango-coconut coffee with the drained mango water and some coconut milk.

Applesauce oat scones

Making apple jelly, I ended up with a jar of very sweet, very smooth apple sauce from the milling process. These scones were just the trick to use some of that up.

Applesauce drop scones

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits (or grate frozen butter. Make sure the grater is also frozen)
¾ cup walnuts, crushed
1 cup raisins, plumped

2T honey
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
2/3 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 400F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Adjust a baking rack to the middle position. Beat together the liquid ingredients and set aside.

Mix the dry ingredients, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, knife or your hands until it resembles a coarse meal. Stir the nuts and raisins into the flour mixture. (I did half with just raisins, and half with nuts and raisins.) Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Dough will be very sticky.

Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop,  place scones onto a parchment-covered baking sheet about 1 inch apart on and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until pale golden. Transfer the scones to a cooling rack and let them cool slightly before serving. Makes 20 scones.

Serve with apple butter.

Blueberry scones

Just a quick post with a link to some nice blueberry scones, and some other wonderful blueberry recipes.

(Le petite brioche is just an excellent baking blog all around). I'll post a picture if I remember!