Unraveling the mysteries

Yesterday was nice--the year got off to a pretty good start.  I didn't stay up late to usher in the new year on Monday night.  Instead, I went to bed when I was tired (G was too), and woke up refreshed.  Over nine hours of sleep, yay!  I had some quiet time with G while B slept in.  (Unlike her mother, B did manage to stay awake until midnight, along with J.)  G and I decided to make breakfast.  B had suggested scones as a good way to start the new year, and of course we had to have chocolate chips in them.

I turned to one of my favorite sources of scone recipes, King Arthur Flour.  I started with their master scone recipe, and tweaked it a little bit.  I substituted some white whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose flour.  To adjust for that, I went with the higher amount of liquid since the www flour absorbs more.  I used a bit of half & half (30g) that I had in the fridge, and 1% milk for the rest.  I used brown sugar instead of white, since I like the taste of it with the www flour.  For the chocolate chips, we went with mini chips this time--and not too many (a scant cup--140g).  The scones ended up having a subtly nutty quality about them from the www flour, and the chocolate bits were nice but not overpowering (the way full-sized chocolate chips can be sometimes).  And of course we added glaze.

The rest of our day was good--low-key.  We all went to Book People, a local independent bookstore in Austin.  Then we got some hot chocolate for the ride home.  Dinner was low-key as well.  I went with simpler meals for both Christmas & New Year's this year.  Nothing special, but they were things that everyone would eat without much complaint, which counts for  a lot.  I finally got the rest of my Christmas cookies baked, so they were dessert.  Once the girls were in bed, I thought about writing this blog post, but instead opted to watch some Big Bang Theory with J, which never fails to put me in a good mood.  Bring on the rest of 2013. =)

(edited to add--if you look closely at my photo, you can see my ingredients list; if you go by it, also add 3/4 tsp salt; I forgot to write that down)

An apple a day

I like baking stuff for breakfast on the weekends.  It's partly because I have more time then, and also because if I make something on Sunday, we can generally eat the leftovers for breakfast for a few days, making weekday mornings a little less hectic.  The only problem is that I'm frequently indecisive about what to make.  I think that scones sound good, for instance, but then can't settle on a recipe.  Part of the problem is that I'm trying to find something that the girls will eat, too.  So when I saw the recent blog post from KAF, I was thrilled.  Fresh apple scones sounded delicious, and even better, didn't have anything in the ingredient list that seemed kid-unfriendly.  (Both girls complain about nuts, and B doesn't like dried fruit "in things.")  Plus I can't seem to help buying lots of apples every time I go to the store this time of year, so it's good to find new ways for us to consume them. 

The scones get a double dose of apple-y goodness--applesauce provides some of the moisture in the dough and there are pieces of chopped apple folded in.  Since the recipe calls for half a cup of (unsweetened) applesauce, I took the easy route and used one of G's single serving cups that she takes in her lunch.  (B likes the blueberry ones, but not the plain.)  There's also a nice amount of spice.  Since I don't have apple pie spice on hand, I used a mix of cinnamon, allspice and freshly grated nutmeg.  In addition to the ground spices, you add cinnamon chips to the dough as well.  I pretty much followed the recipe as written, which I'm not always very good about.  Sometimes it's just easier to make round drop scones, but I did the triangles this time.  The recipe calls for freezing the scones before baking, to keep the butter chilled. I can't fit one of my big sheet pans in my freezer, so I used two smaller quarter sheet (13"x9") pans and put one round of dough on each parchment-lined pan.  Since I like glaze on my scones, I skipped the cinnamon sugar topping.  Once the scones were out of the oven and had cooled for a few minutes, I mixed up a quick glaze flavored with boiled cider and drizzled it on top.

The verdict?  These are quite good.  This is the first time I've actually followed the instructions to freeze the scones before baking (which has come up in other KAF scone recipes), and I could tell a difference in the texture.  I'll be better about remembering to do it in the future, maybe even making the dough the night before & freezing them overnight.  The flavor combination was great.  G was skeptical at first ("I'm not eating those!"), but decided that she'd try one after she concluded that they smelled pretty good.  The glaze worked out well, giving just a little bit of extra apple-y flavor.  

If you'd like to give these a try, you can find the recipe here at King Arthur Flour.  The glaze recipe can be found on their site as well. (here--scroll down; I used milk instead of cream & added a pinch of cinnamon)  These scones are definitely going to be in our rotation a lot for the next few months.

One-sentence Wednesday - From the heart

For our Valentine's Day breakfast, I tweaked a scone recipe from King Arthur Flour--substituting cocoa powder for some of the flour (I used 42 grams of cocoa & 285 grams of flour) and adding a cup (170 grams) of chocolate chips--cut my scones into hearts, baked them for 18 minutes (skipping the freezing step), and added a simple glaze (milk & powdered sugar); the girls were impressed that I made them heart-shaped. =)

Wordless Wednesday - Everything's better with glaze

(Cream scones from Cook's Illustrated, with chips instead of currants)

Warm and toasty

So I said that more information would be coming on how I want to focus on my blog this year.  It took me a few days to come up with a plan that I think will work well.  My initial problem was that there are so many things I'd like to do.  I have a ton of cookbooks, and I don't use them nearly enough.  Ditto with the cooking magazines that I read regularly.  I have lots of baking pans these days, and don't use them enough either.  I have lots of great cooking tools, and interesting ingredients.  When I started to think about all the possibilities, I didn't know where to begin.  That's where the focus idea comes in.  I started to make a list of ideas, and here's what I came up with:

Cookbooks

Magazines

Friends (featuring a recipe from a friend's blog)

Kids (cooking with, or stuff they would like)

Ingredients (maybe seasonal?)

Pantry (using what I routinely have on hand)

Bread (I want to make at least one new one a month)

Pans (I have lots of interesting ones, and lots of different sizes)

Tools

I stopped there--nine is my favorite number, and nine seemed like a reasonable number to fit into a month's time.  Some recipes may fit into more than one category, but I'll post at least one for each separate category each month.  I'm not going to do them in any particular order, since I don't need that much pressure.  This idea appeals to me because it's sort of like a puzzle.  Some categories may be easy to cover in a given month.  Then I'll have to see what I can come up with to fill in the blanks.  For January, I've already done Tools (my balloon whisk) and Magazines (the fudge cake was from Fine Cooking, one of my favorites).  I've got ideas for all but Kids and Pantry, but it's fun to try to figure out what to make for those categories.  This post is going to take care of Cookbooks.

I thought I'd go with one of the new cookbooks I got for Christmas.  The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook is quite the tome, and contains all the best recipes from 20 years worth of magazine issues.  I love my website subscription to CI when I'm searching for something, but I really enjoy browsing through a physical cookbook--that way things can jump out at me that I might never think to search for.  In this case, I knew I wanted to make scones for breakfast because when I ask the girls what I should make, the answer is always "Scones! With chocolate chips, please!"  I wanted something a bit more interesting than a plain scone.  As for the chocolate chips, I'm not always in the mood the way they are, but it's pretty easy to divide the dough (usually two-thirds for them, one-third for me) and add in different things.  I settled on the Oatmeal Scones--never hurts to sneak in some fiber when the girls aren't paying attention. =)

The thing that intrigued me about this recipe is that you toast the oats before you start mixing things together.  I never would have thought to do that, but it makes sense that, like with nuts, it would add to the flavor.  There are several variations at the end of the basic oatmeal scone recipe.  I love maple scones, so I went with that option.  In place of the granulated sugar, you use maple syrup (I used grade B).  I also toasted some pecans to add to my part of the dough and I put a mix of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate chips in the rest so I wouldn't have to listen to B&G complain. =)  I think the substitution of the maple syrup made the dough stickier than usual, and I didn't think I could pat it out without having to use a lot of flour.  So I made drop scones instead.  I used my #16 disher and got an even dozen.  I baked them for 12 minutes, but could probably have left them in a minute or two longer to get a bit more browning on top.  Once the scones had cooled for a few minutes, I drizzled them with maple glaze (just some maple syrup & powdered sugar, with a bit of water to thin it out).

The verdict?  Who would have thought that toasting oats would make such a bit difference in the taste? These are my new go-to scone.  Brianna and Gillian loved them with the chocolate chips; I thought they were terrific with the pecans.  They weren't at all dry; I'm sure the maple syrup helped with that, as did the high baking temp and shorter baking time.  

If you'd like to give these a try, you can, of course, find the recipe in the new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  It's also in Baking Illustrated, and can be found online here if you have a membership to the CI website.  

I'm excited about blogging again, so I think my focus idea is going in the right direction.  I've added a tab at the top of the blog where I can keep track of the different categories each month.  I'm also tagging the individual posts (e.g. this one is labeled with "cookbook focus" among other things) so they can be searched that way.  Next up, another new acquisition--my 6-cup Bundt pan!

Nuts about scones

Well, I made it.  The past week and a half at work have been draining; I've pretty much felt like I might as well live there with the number of hours I've worked.  But the worst is over--the rest of the week is pretty normal, and then I'm off this weekend.  I only had one day off this past weekend, and didn't manage to fit in much baking.  I ended up making these scones Monday morning so I could take some of them to work with me.  (I'm not the only one who's been working hard, so I thought some breakfast would be appreciated.)  I had enough energy Sunday night to do most of the mise en place, which really helps when I want to pull off some early morning baking.  

I'm tired enough that I just realized that I haven't yet mentioned that I was making the scones because they're one of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipes.  Yes, plural--we're almost done with the book, and are doubling up on recipes so we'll be finished by the end of the year.  I've really enjoyed the scones recipes in Baking, and was looking forward to trying this one, Honey Nut Scones.  Well, except for the fact that I'm not that fond of honey.  But then I had an idea--I could substitute maple syrup (grade B) for the honey.  I'm sure that walnuts would have been great with maple, but I had pecans in my freezer (thanks, Margaret!), so that's what I used.  The only other change I made was due to laziness and being a bit short on time--I used my 1/4 cup scoop to make drop scones, rather than patting the dough out and cutting it into triangles.  To bring out more maple flavor, I also drizzled my baked scones with a maple glaze (powdered sugar, maple syrup, a bit of milk and a pinch of salt).  

The verdict?  I love scones, and these were no exception.  They aren't very sweet, so I liked the addition of glaze.  The girls won't eat them because they don't like the pecans, but the ones I took to work disappeared pretty quickly.  I'll definitely make these again, even if it's just for me.

Jeannette has the scone recipe on her blog, and you can find everyone else's Links here.  I didn't get to the Far Breton, but be sure to check out those Links, too, and head over to Nicole's blog for that recipe. And be sure to come back here next week, when I get to be a host!

I can't resist leaving you with a picture of my trick-or-treaters from last night:

Tickled pink

I run into people all the time who tell me that they hate grocery shopping.  That's such a strange idea to me.  I don't like clothes shopping (don't even get me started on shoe shopping), but I love grocery shopping.  Even the online shopping I do is mostly for food and related stuff (cookbooks, bakeware).  I'm lucky to have such great local places to shop.  Occasionally, though, I'll need to order something that I just can't get here.  (Like the chestnut flour for next week's recipe--no sign of it anywhere around here.  And not enough time to order it.)  My go-to place for baking ingredients is definitely King Arthur Flour.  

I don't order from them all that often--I try to wait until they're offering free shipping or a discount on purchases over a certain amount.  I'll usually restock on some hard to find flours (like Durum) and buy some things in bulk (like yeast).  I usually get side-tracked by something pretty (like cupcake papers).  And sometimes things just jump into my little electronic shopping cart...like when I saw these raspberry jammy bits and bought them several months ago.

Then, as sometimes happens, the jammy bits disappeared into my pantry and kind of got lost in there.  If you saw my pantry (even after I organized it) you would understand. =)  I'm still not exactly sure what reminded me they were in there.  I was trying to think of something other than currants to add to this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, and they popped into my head.  Lynne of Café Lynnylu picked Cream Scones for us to make this week.  My girls--especially Gillian--love scones for breakfast.  But Brianna complains any time I put dried fruit in them.  So I decided that I'd split the dough and put the jammy bits in one half and chocolate chips in the other half, just in case.   

Another change I made was to use half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat pastry flour.  (That was a case of something jumping into my grocery cart when I was in the bulk department at Central Market last week.)  And of course, we had to have glaze.  For the chocolate chip scones, I just drizzled them with a simple glaze made with powdered sugar and milk.  I got a bit more fancy with my raspberry scones, though.  I whisked some raspberry sauce into the basic glaze, which made it a lovely pink.  I made the raspberry scones a bit smaller than the recipe indicated, and dunked them in the glaze to completely coat them.  

The verdict?  Well, I thought these were quite yummy.  Gillian ate one and said she liked it, while Brianna was content to eat only the chocolate chips ones.  (G had one of those, too.)  I'll probably stick with drizzling the glaze most of the time, but the raspberry scones were good with the full coating, since the scones themselves weren't all that sweet.  

If you'd like the basic recipe for the Cream Scones, head over to Lynne's blog.  And to see what everyone else did with this week's recipe, check out the Links!

Evolution

I was really excited to see this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick!  Patricia of Life with a Whisk chose one of my favorite recipes in the book--Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones.  This recipe is a good example of why I love to bake and why I love Dorie's books.  One of the best things about her books is that she gives so much more than just recipes.  I love reading all of the stories and tips that she puts in the headnotes.  And almost every recipe includes one or more variations to "play around" with.  I love playing around. =)

The first time I made this recipe was not long after I got my copy of Baking From My Home to Yours and joined the group.  While unofficial, it appears to have been the sixth recipe I made from the book.  My first attempt is shown here, from way back in March 2008.  That was the first time, but there have been many more since.  My girls especially like it when I make them with chocolate chips.  My favorite variation has probably been the cinnamon chip ones.  Besides the chips, I also used white whole wheat flour in place of some of the all-purpose.  There have been times when I didn't have buttermilk, so I substituted yogurt.  And while the version in the book is plain, we almost always top our scones with something, either coarse sugar or most often glaze.  

The glaze came in handy when I made the scones this morning.  I decided that I was going to make them again just for this post, and was going to go back to the original recipe.  It wasn't until I was looking at some of the comments on the Leave Your Links page that I realized that I'd never tried the Playing Around idea for this recipe.  My girls love "dried plums" so that sounded like a great addition.  But I was so busy snipping up prunes with my kitchen shears and supervising Gillian as she mixed the dry ingredients that I totally forgot to add the nutmeg!  Glaze to the rescue--I grated the nutmeg into some powdered sugar, added a bit of vanilla, and added enough milk for a thick glaze.  

One more thing--besides the variations in ingredients, I found it interesting that I've changed one other thing over time as I've played with this recipe.  In the first post mentioned above, I used volume measurements for the ingredients, same as in the book.  By the second post, I'd switched to using weights, in ounces.  Here's the latest incarnation of the ingredient list...

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

1 large egg

115 grams cold buttermilk

225 grams all-purpose flour

135 grams rolled oats

70 grams vanilla sugar (or just regular)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (unless you forget)

140 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

dried plums (I forgot to weigh them)

Oh, and the verdict?  I really enjoyed these with the prunes.  Gillian did as well, after she got over her disappointment at the lack of chocolate chips. =)  They were well-received at work, too.  I'm sure I'll make these many more times, and who knows what other variations we'll try.

If you'd like to make these for yourself, you can find the recipe on Patricia's blog.  And to see what everyone else did with these scones, check out the Links!

Flat

I was chatting online with a friend a week or two ago and she started out asking how everything was going--she commented that I'd been sounding kind of "flat" lately.  I hadn't thought about it in quite that way, but she's right.  I do feel flat, the kind of flat you get when you have way too many things weighing on you.  Most of it stems from work, which has been very stressful for most of this year so far.  I've been working way more hours than I usually do, which is really starting to wear me out.  

I've hit a point where I just feel overwhelmed most of the time.  There's so much to do, I don't even know where to start.  And everyone wants a piece of me.  I'm tired of being the one responsible for everything, to the point where I don't want to be a part of anything.  My friend said it sounded like I was in an "oxygen mask" situation--you know, like on an airplane, when they tell you that you need to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.  You're not going to be any help to anyone if you don't take care of yourself first.  Problem is, I'm bad at doing that.  I'm bad at admitting that I need help, and bad at asking for it.  But I'm at the point where all the stress is affecting me physically, and I'm forced to admit that I can't do everything myself.  

So what do you do to deal with stress?  How do you keep from getting totally overwhelmed?  How do you convince yourself to put yourself first once in a while?  

Many people might think that I'm crazy to still be baking when I'm complaining that I'm stressed and don't have enough time for everything.  But while it does take time, it's actually one of the things that helps.  I like the process, and having something concrete to show for it at the end of the day.  One thing I did recently was finally spend the King Arthur gift card that my sister Kate sent me for my birthday.  One of the things I've been wanting to get is some of their Baker's Cinnamon Filling mix.  I've had my eye on a couple of scone recipes that use it, and today I was finally able to make the Cinnamon Schmear Scones.  

Making these scones isn't that different from other recipes I've made.  To start, you prepare the cinnamon filling by adding water to the dry mix.  After setting that aside, you mix up the rest of the dry ingredients--flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Butter is cut into the dry ingredients (I rubbed it in with my fingers).  Then the wet ingredients are added.  The recipe calls for egg, vanilla and half & half.  To cut back on the fat a bit, I used part half & half and part whole milk.  Once the dough is combined, it's turned out onto a floured surface and patted into a square, and the cinnamon filling is spread on top.  To incorporate the filling, I did a couple of letter folds, then patted the dough back out into a big square.  I cut 18 scones by cutting 9 squares, then cutting them in half to make smaller triangles.

I skipped the sugar topping since I was planning to add a glaze instead.  I baked the scones for 16 minutes.  Once the scones were done, I let them rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transferred them to a cooling rack.  To make clean-up easier, I put the parchment that the scones were baked on under the rack to catch drips.  I made a glaze from some powdered sugar, a big dash of cinnamon, a bit of vanilla and some milk.  I drizzled the glaze over the warm scones and waited a few minutes for it to set.

The verdict?  Oh, these will definitely be making many more appearances around here!  I can see myself keeping the cinnamon filling mix on hand just for these.  Though I have to admit, I'm tempted to see what kind of substitute I can come up with if I run out.  I think I'll also experiment with some whole wheat flour next time, too.  The girls & Jamie were all quite happy with the scones, and the recipe makes plenty, so I can take some to work tomorrow.  

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, you can find it here on the King Arthur website.  A lot of the King Arthur recipes have weights available in addition to the volume measurements, but this one doesn't.  So here's what I used:

Cinnamon Schmear Scones

(adapted from King Arthur Flour)

115 grams Baker's Cinnamon Filling mix

30 grams water

380 grams all-purpose flour

70 grams granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

115 grams (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

115 grams whole milk

110 grams half & half

You can find the recipe instructions here. 

Drop in for breakfast

I don't use maple syrup very much.  When I was growing up, my dad was the only one in the house who used real maple syrup on his pancakes, etc.  The rest of us used pancake syrup (not the same thing at all).  Dad got the real butter, too, rather than margarine.  It wasn't until I was much older that I realized what a good thing he had going. =)  To be honest, my kids eat Log Cabin and like it just fine, but I don't know how much of that is just because they haven't had the real thing.  I'm kind of afraid to find out.  

I definitely associate maple syrup with breakfast, but hadn't thought past drizzling it on top of things.  Sure, I've encountered recipes that used it, but nothing that really grabbed my attention.  Nothing, that is, until I got my copy of Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook.  The very first recipe in the book is for Oatmeal-Maple Scones.  Yum.  I don't like to eat oatmeal as hot cereal (can't stand the texture), but I love it in baked goods like scones.  And these scones are really easy to make, even when you aren't quite awake yet.

These are drop scones, meaning that you scoop them out onto the baking sheet, rather than patting out dough and cutting it into shapes.  So the dough is rather sticky.  The only sweetener is the maple syrup; it also provides moisture in the dough, along with cream and an egg.  For the dry ingredients, there's a mix of all-purpose flour and rolled oats, along with baking powder, baking soda and salt.  The recipe calls for nuts, but they aren't very popular in baked goods around here, so I left them out.  I've used raisins in these a couple times, but for the most recent batch, I went with cinnamon chips.

I was a bit surprised by the baking temperature of 350ºF, since most of the other recipes I've made call for baking scones at a higher temperature (usually 400ºF).  To go with the lower temp, the baking time is longer.  I didn't bake mine for quite as long as the recipe said, only 25 minutes instead of 40.  That was partly because I made mine smaller, but if I'd made them the size in the recipe, I still don't thing they would have taken that long.  

We had to have the glaze, of course.  To be honest, I usually kind of wing it on the glaze.  I put some powdered sugar in a bowl and whisked in a couple tablespoons of maple syrup along with just enough water to make thick glaze.  Rather than brushing it all over the scones, I drizzled it on top--I prefer how it looks that way.  

The verdict?  Well, I've made these scones three times already, so that should give you an idea of how much I love them!  I liked them just fine with raisins, and so did Gillian.   But Brianna was very happy that I finally made a batch without dried fruit.  (She liked to eat it straight up, but not in baked goods.)  These scones also went over well at work.  

If you'd like to try these for yourself, I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of Flour.  But in the in meantime, you can find the recipe for these yummy scones online here.  Unfortunately, the article only gives the volume measurements, which frustrates me to no end.  One of the things I love so much about this book is that every recipe includes weights in grams in addition to the volume measurements.  So I'm listing the weights of ingredients for you here.

Oatmeal-Maple Scones

(adapted from Flour, by Joanne Chang)

210 grams all-purpose flour

125 grams rolled oats

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

80 grams cinnamon chips (or raisins)

113 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

80 grams cold heavy cream

160 grams Grade B maple syrup

1 cold egg

115 grams powdered sugar

2 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup

up to 1 tablespoon water

I used my #16 disher (which holds 2 ounces, or 1/4 cup) to scoop out my scones.  I got 12, rather than the yield of 8 in the recipe.  I baked them for 25 minutes at 350ºF.

A peachy start to the month

I was awake entirely too early this morning. 6:20am, which is just wrong for a day when I don't have to go anywhere. But I decided to make the best of it and just get up.  At least it's nice and quiet at that time of day (and Gillian didn't make an appearance until about 7:15).  I sat in the recliner with my laptop, reading stuff online and trying to decide what to bake for breakfast.

I was pretty sure I wanted to make scones.  They're always a big hit around here.  But I'm a bit tired of my usual recipes, so wanted to find something new.  I didn't really want to get up to look through cookbooks.  I started by searching through my Google Reader, but nothing caught my eye.  My next stop was one of my favorite online baking resources, the King Arthur Flour website.  I typed "scones" into the search box, and waited to see what would come up.  I thought about making savory ones, like these scallion cheddar scones, but decided to save those for another day.  But a couple recipes down the page I hit pay dirt.  Peach Nutmeg Scones.  I love nutmeg.  I love peaches, and had some that I needed to use up.  I almost always have vanilla yogurt in the fridge--I buy the 32 oz container, and Brianna and Gillian often eat it with whatever fruit we have around.  I was set!

Like most scone recipes, these are easy to mix up.  First I whisked together the dry ingredients (AP flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, nutmeg) in a large bowl.  In a 2-cup measuring cup, I whisked together the eggs, vanilla yogurt and extracts.  The recipe calls for half a teaspoon of almond extract, but I don't like it that much, so I used a couple drops and made up the difference with vanilla extract.  Then I diced the peach into small pieces.  (I didn't bother to peel it, since I hate peeling peaches and avoid it whenever possible.)  I cut the cold butter into small pieces, then rubbed it into the flour mixture with my fingers.  I poured the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture and mixed everything together with a spatula.  Then I folded in the peach pieces.  I had a really hard time getting them mixed in, so next time I think I'll try mixing the peaches into the flour first, then adding the wet ingredients.  

Rather than mess with forming the dough into triangles, I just used my #16 disher (1/4 cup capacity) and scooped the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  I still got 10 scones.  I used wet fingers to flatten the dough a bit.  Since I knew I wanted to add glaze after baking (Gillian had asked if she could do the glaze), I skipped the melted butter and sugar on top.  I can't tell you exactly how long I baked them for, because I forgot to set the timer.  Fortunately, I realized it midway through baking, and just watched them closely, pulling them out when they were nicely browned on top.  I let the scones cool on the pan for about 5 minutes while I mixed up a glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and a bit of vanilla.  I transferred the scones to a rack and put the parchment paper from the baking sheet on the counter under the rack to catch drips.  Then Gillian and I took turns drizzling the glaze on top.

The verdict? Mmm, these are delicious!  B & G agreed.  I'll definitely be making these again.  While I pretty much stuck to the recipe this time, next time I'd like to try them with part white whole wheat flour (in which case I'd increase the amount of yogurt slightly).  If you'd like to try these for yourself, the recipe can be found here on the King Arthur Flour website.  And here's my ingredient list--I converted most of it to grams.  Enjoy!

Peach Nutmeg Scones

(full recipe from King Arthur Flour here)

250 g unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur, of course)

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

50 g vanilla sugar (because the container was sitting on the counter)

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I didn't measure, just grated until it looked like enough)

1 teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons (85 g) cold unsalted butter

2 large eggs

75 g whole milk vanilla yogurt (Brown Cow whole milk)

scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 drops almond extract

1 peach, cut into small dice (sorry, forgot to weigh it)

TWD: Apple Cheddar Scones

This week's recipe is Apple Cheddar Scones, chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron.  I'm not usually this down to the wire with my TWD recipes.  But last week was kind of crazy, and I worked Saturday.  Well, and the main problem was that I didn't get a chance to buy the dried apples until we went to Central Market on Sunday.  A number of people were saying that they had trouble finding dried apples, but I'm lucky enough to have a store with a fantastic bulk department.  

Anyway, I ended up making the scones this morning.  I love it when I have the time to bake something fresh for breakfast.  I usually end up doing that on Sundays (which occasionally means that we end up eating closer to lunch time...), and Brianna likes to help.  She loves to crack eggs; not sure why exactly.  But it's also nice to be able to bake when I have a day off during the week and I have the house to myself.  

Unlike some scone recipes I've tried, this dough was pretty sticky.  That seemed to make it a bit easier to incorporate the dried apples and the cheese.  I think I'm getting better at rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients without overdoing it.  Rather than introduce more flour by trying to pat out the dough and cut it, I scooped the dough onto the baking sheet.  I used my handy #16 disher for that.  (Besides good places to buy ingredients, I also have access to good places to buy kitchen tools, including a great restaurant supply store.)  I ended up with 11 scones instead of 12, but that's okay.

The verdict?  I really liked these, but that's not really surprising, since  I love anything with cheese.  I used sharp cheddar, but I also bought some gouda last weekend, and I think that might be good with the apples as well.  The apples add some bits of sweetness, and I like the bit of crunch on the outsides from the cornmeal.  I'll have to see what Brianna and Gillian think, but if they don't like them, I'll just have to suffer through eating them all myself... =)

Want to give them a try?  Then get a copy of Baking From My Home to Yours or head on over to Karina's blog.