Plain scones

Well, technically I guess they're raisin scones.

Plain scones (with raisins)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon orange zest

optional:
1/4 to 1/3 cup golden raisins
1/4 to 1/3 cup raisins

1/2 cup half and half
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or one vanilla bean, scraped
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheets with parchment.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, orange zest and salt into large bowl. Add butter and cut in with a knife, pastry blender or your fingers until it resembles a coarse meal. Plump the raisins in a half cup of water (1 minutes in the microwave). Drain and stir into flour mixture.

Whisk cream, egg, vanilla, and honey in a small bowl until thoroughly blended. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Gather dough into ball and knead lightly. Roll out dough on floured surface to 3/4-inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out scones. Gather scraps; reroll and cut out additional scones. Place scones on prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. (Or, divide dough into two, roll out into discs and cut into wedges.)

Bake scones until golden, about 20 minutes. Makes about 16 to 20 small scones. Serve warm with butter and honey.

I've been baking them! I've just been using old recipes! Here's an new one:

Cherry-vanilla scones
based on almond-glazed cherry scones from Loving My Domestic Life

2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cold butter

1 egg, beaten
3 Tbsp brown sugar syrup* (more if you like your scones sweeter, but not more than 4 1/2 T)
3 T plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla or seeds from 2-3 fresh vanilla beans, (depending on how much you want to increase your mortgage so you can afford the beans)

3/4- 1 cup fresh cherries; stemmed, pitted, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients and cut butter into dry mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives. Mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl, beat the liquid ingredients until well mixed and fold into dry ingredients. You may need to knead it lightly to moisten it entirely.

Divide the dough into two equal portions, and form them into discs, about 8" x 1/2". Press the cherries onto one disc, and then lay the other on top, gently pressing them together with your fingers. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll this "sandwich" into a 10-12 inch disc, turning once, and being careful not to push the cherries through the dough.

Cut into 8 equal wedges (a pizza cutter works brilliantly for this).

Bake for approximately 15 minutes

* to make the sugar syrup, put 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of brown or evaporated cane sugar, plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar (to keep it from recrystalizing) in a small sauce pan. Bring to a light boil then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. You may need to put it on intermittent heat, or on a burner ring to keep it from burning. Do NOT walk away from it. Boil it down to 1/2 cup. Will keep in a closed jar for months, as it is essentially molasses.

Not that crazy about baking with peanut butter, but what the heck

This made me think of trying scones with all sorts of tropical flavors-- coconut, coffee, passionfruit, mango. Hmmm.

Peanut butter scones

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 cup butter, cold

1/2 cup peanut butter, softened

1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons yogurt

1 egg

5-6 pieces crystalized ginger, chopped fine

small handful salted peanuts, crushed

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment

In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and ginger. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the nuts and ginger pieces.

In a separate bowl, combine the peanut butter, yogurt and egg until smooth. Stir into the flour mixture until just blended. Do not overwork. Transfer to a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten dough to 1/2-inch disc. Cut the dough into 3-inch triangles and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool slightly. Serve warm.

Oh yeah. These are good.

Of COURSE there's already a recipe

This rule must have a number: "if you can think of it, it's already on line." Found this first time I looked. Since I don't like to use refined sugar, I tried this recipe with honey, but it really needs the intensity of sweetness that sugar offers. (The honey version was nasty.)

This is not a "sweet." It really is a breakfast-like cornbread. I had some with aronia jam; yum.

Chocolate cornbread
Adapted from a recipe on the Just a pinch website

1/3 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup fine cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 T baking powder

1 large egg
1/3 cup nut oil
2/3 cup yogurt
1/3 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl (I use a pyrex measuring pitcher) mix all wet ingredients together. Combine wet and dry until just mixed, and pour into a greased 8x8 inch baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25-35 minutes or til center of bread springs back when light pressed.

Experimental baking

For someone who just started baking a year ago, I don't have a lot of respect.

Not following recipes is the reason I never baked much in the first place. I'm one of those cooks who puts in "about this much" of any given ingredient, and knows that it's ready when it for heaven's sake looks ready.

Pulled out my favorite 1943 Woman's Home Companion Cook Book, and didn't really think the muffins looked that interesting, plus I had some cream cheese, orange zest and maple syrup, so what the hell. Call them

Stone soup muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cake flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
2 T dried orange zest

3 T cream cheese
2 T butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 egg
±1/2 cup milk (enough to bring liquid ingredients up to 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 to 3/4 cup raisins, plumped

Heat oven to 400F/200C

Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate container (I use a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup), melt the butter and cream cheese (less than 1 minute in the microwave on default setting). Add the maple syrup and whisk smooth. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in the egg. Add enough milk to increase liquid to 1 1/2 cups total. Mix into the dry ingredients. Do no beat. Plump the raisins by heating them in enough water to just cover, again, a minute or two in the microwave. Drain and mix into the batter.

Fill greased muffin pan 2/3 full and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Made 11 muffins.

Earth Day Scone

It's a semi-traditional holiday, so I made semi-traditional scones

Semi-traditional scones
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup yogurt
1/3 cup milk or half-and-half
1/3 cup honey

Optional: fresh or dried fruit

Preheat the oven to 450F/230C. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
Sift the dry ingredients, then cut the butter into it until it resembles a coarse corn meal. If you are adding dried fruit or nuts, mix them into the flour mixture now. Whisk the liquid ingredients together, than add them to the flour mixture. Dough should be malleable and slightly wet. Knead the dough on a floured board. Shape it into a disk or a rectangle about 3/4" thick and cut into desired shape (wedges, squares or rounds).

If you are adding a soft fruit like berries or diced peaches, roll it out slightly thinner, place the fruit on half of it; fold it over then reshape it before cutting it into the final shape. Soft fruits are easier to handle if they are frozen. They'll defrost just fine during the baking process.

Place the scones onto the cookie sheet and bake them for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Yields 12. When cooled, store in an airtight container.

This is not a sweet scone, especially if you haven't added fruit, so serve hot with butter and honey!

Apricot carrot scones

The uncle from Hungary was back, this time with apricot compote. My husband says they are so flavorless that sometimes you have to eat 3 or 4 of them to get the full impact.

Apricot-carrot scones
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup corn meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large carrot, grated

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup fresh orange juice, with zest
1/4 cup apricot compote
2T honey
1/4 cup sour cream, or plain or vanilla yogurt

Heat oven to 425F/218C

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or by rubbing between your fingers until it has the consistency of corn meal. Mix in the grated carrot. Whisk together honey, juice, and sour cream in a measuring cup. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently until well blended.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop batter by generous spoonfuls. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are golden brown, not deep brown.