Tag Archives: scones

looking back at bliss

10 Thursday Mar 2016

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I leave for work when it’s dark.  When I get home it’s almost dark.  Tonight it is raining so hard, we are all concerned about getting washed away.  So, going out to take pictures is not high on my priority list.

What does my bliss look like?! I really had to give this some thought.  I really had no idea until I started going back through my photo files and realized my bliss is creativity and making things.  Making drinks, making dinner, making a cake, making whipped cream, making people laugh, or making something in the community.

These photos are a stroll down the memory lane of my blog.  I giggle and smile thinking back on each one of these.  I hope you do too.

whipped cream-y goodness
Experiment.
double happiness
painting a mural
noodle bowl
thyme cocktail
hey you!
roasted asparagus
the perfect martini
a ray of scones
leaning tower of cheese
focaccia
Enjoy time with friends.
tomato soup love
the leon salad
another perfect martini
a tiki-tacular good time!
muffin magic
heavenly scones
cinnamon swirl coffee cake
marinating
fresh herbs make the difference
isn’t she lovely
just the right size
Laugh at yourself.
fresh pasta
a life raft
israeli couscous salad
drink up
my beloved pizza
good girl time

 

Do tell, what does your bliss look like?

compliments always make a girl feel good

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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This time of year is especially brutal at work. Customers are angry, coworkers are grumpy, and it hasn’t stopped raining in months.  I think I’ve mentioned before we don’t have a dress code at work. This leaves what folks show up in to great interpretation.  I usually dress business casual most days, the days I feel the shittiest are the days I dress the nicest. What makes a girl feel better than having folks compliment you all day?  Today a gal came up to me and said “why are you so dressed up?”  My response was “so you’ll say that!”  she laughed. she knew where I was coming from!

This year, even dressing for success isn’t helping my psyche. I realized I needed people tell me how fabulous I’ve done at something, even if it isn’t my job, so I decided to bake treats for my work peeps.

I made three different scones: bacon cheddar, toffee chocolate chip, and vanilla oat.  The bacon cheddar and the toffee chocolate chip are the same King Arthur recipe just with different add-ins. The vanilla oat scone has been running around in my head for about a year (Hi, I’m the world’s greatest over-thinker).  I cannot tell you how many scone recipes I have book marked, but I have a scone I’m trying to emulate. This morning, I finally pulled the trigger and I’m delighted with how it turned out.

In all of my baking exploration, I’ve learned what I like in a scone and I’ve learned how different ingredients make the final product. I know I like an egg in my scone (without the egg, it’s really just a biscuit.) Super cold butter is a must.  Mixing dry ingredients plus the butter in my food processor gives me a good, even distribution of ingredients and a tender, flaky crumb.

I started with a King Arthur recipe as my jumping off point, but made enough variations I’m calling this my own. It came out perfectly; simple and delicious, not too sweet. Hopefully some of the gals will give their thoughts here.

Here’s what I did:
Add the following dry ingredients plus butter to the food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup  brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter
then add
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats and pulse two more times

In another bowl, mix
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 egg
1 tablespoon (generous) vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined.  Dump out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a jelly roll pan with a silpat.  Using your hands work dough into one one disk then divide into two.  Shape into two rounds, about 3/4-1″ tall.  Using a bench scraper, cut each round into 8 wedges.  Separate the wedges from the circle, leaving about an inch between each wedge.

Bake at 400* for about 20-25 minutes, until scones are golden and edges appear done.  The centers will seem a little soft, but when it cools, they will be perfect and tender.

13458182214_30a48640a5_zThe picture ain’t pretty and I didn’t take pictures along the way, but they were tasty.  Even got me a marriage proposal.  I’ll call this a win, my psyche sure will!

snow day(s)

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

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Portland doesn’t see snow too often and when we do most folks just don’t know what to do.  The powers-that-be at work decided we needed to stick it out for far too long.  So by the time they decided we should go home the road were clogged and buses were way behind schedule.  I hopped on the first bus that would get me across the bridge then hoofed it 20 blocks in the snowy wind to a bar where I hoped the girls would catch up with me.  They weren’t too far behind and we had a good afternoon of beer and bar bites before snuggling in for a long winter’s weekend.

I woke early Friday to call the hotline to see if I had to go in.  First call said we had a late start – better than nothing.  What was even better was when the message updated and the office was CLOSED!

I had a day of nothing.  Not one single responsibility and no way to get out to visit anyone.  So what did I do?  Started baking… the day started with bacon cheddar scones and finished with an olive and parmesan focaccia.

I’ve mentioned before I’m on a quest for a good, reliable scone recipe.  I’ve narrowed down some of the things I like and the way certain ingredients react.  This day I used King Arthur’s basic scone recipe.  Instead of adding fruit or nuts, I added bacon crumbles and shredded sharp cheddar.  I reduced the sugar by half since it was savory.

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I like my scone to be a few bites instead of a meal.  So I shaped the dough into a ovalish rectangle then cut that into 4 strips.  From each strip I cut about 6 or 8 triangles.  I put these on my silpat and topped each with a few sprinkles of cheddar.

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This recipe suggests you put the entire baking sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking to solidify the fat and relax the gluten.  I did this, then baked for about 20 minutes.

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This is hands down, my favorite scone recipe so far.  The crumb was tender and flaky.  The recipe came together so easily and is quite versatile.

I had hoped this was going to be a snow day, so I had started the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Poolish Focaccia the night before.  Then midday I started the dough.

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I love this image.  This is the power of yeast at work.

Fast forward to dinner time.  I took half of my focaccia dough and instead of using the herb olive oil the recipe suggested, I folded in 3/4 cup olive salad and about a cup of freshly grated parmesan.  The only thing I’ll change next time, is add a little parchment under the dough.  I put the other half of the dough in the fridge for a focaccia pizza the next night.  That one didn’t turn out very pretty so you don’t get pictures of that.

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To go with my focaccia, I made Ina Garten’s easy tomato soup.  I made a few modifications to her recipe since I was snowed in.  I’ll make it again with a little better preparation.

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Bare in mind, this baking was all just Friday.  We ended up closing the still all weekend.  Its a rare day that I do nothing and rarer still, that I have 3 days of solitude and laziness.  I didn’t bake another thing.  I’d baked myself out on day one.  I did finish the weekend with pulling a nice steak out of the freezer and making myself a decadent dinner.

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Lemony Lemon Ginger Scones

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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Baking for a Cause: The Trilogy…

If it hadn’t been decided earlier (which I am sure it had) Lula’s Kitchen will never be a breakfast joint.  A) I’m not a huge fan of eating breakfast and B) I don’t like making breakfast.  And these past few weeks of baking for my big day of Rebuilding Together has confirmed, I don’t think I’m a fan of scones.  I’ve tried several recipes, some of which aren’t even worth a mention I was so disappointed.

Then I had the girls over for snacks and mimosas on Sunday and Megan summed it up best.  Scones are crispy pucks of dough.  I think that’s why I want such big flavors.  Because otherwise I’m eating the grown-up equivalent of kindergarten paste.  Boring and bad.  I’ll pass, thank you very much.

I did come up with a variation of Lemon Ginger Scone that is worth a word or two.  The girls seemed to approve, so I’ll share this little ditty.  I started with King Arthur’s Guaranteed Scone recipe.  It calls for 1-2 cups of add-ins so I added 1 cup of my candied lemon peel, which I diced nice and tiny.  I also added 1 cup of tiny candied ginger pieces.  I told you, I’m after BIG flavors.

I liked them best right out of the oven.  The instructions called for placing the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking for a better rise.  I did half that way and half the batch right into the oven.  I had NO difference what so ever.  It may be that I started with frozen butter that I grated with my cheese grater instead of their cold butter cut in with a kitchenaid (which I don’t have).

With this recipe, I finally got moderately even shaped scones.  I patted my dough into a circle and cut pie wedges.  I also made my scones slightly smaller than all the recipes called for.  Most are just too big.

So, if you are looking for a good scone recipe, I’d say give this one a shot.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.  Especially if you like a bite that bites back!

Pass over the scones

16 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in baking, recipes

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One of my favorite things about Passover is the charoset.  and truth be told, my charoset is the only reason I get invited to the Seders I do. 😉   I will admit, my charoset rocks!  I live off of it for a week.  It’s so easy to make, every year I think, why don’t I make this more often?

With my Baking for a Cause series, I thought about the flavors I love so much during Passover.  That, and I always buy too many apples.  I came up with the Cinnamon Apple Scone.

1/2 cup sugar
2 C. flour
2 t. (teaspoon) baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
4 T (tablespoons) frozen butter, grated
1-2 red del grated, about a cup
1 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
dusting of flour for kneading

Glaze:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
7T water
2t cinnamon

1. Preheat 425. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg in small bowl, and add buttermilk. Beat until well blended. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stir until soft dough forms.

2. Turn out dough onto well floured surface, knead 10 times. Roll out dough into 9 x 6 rectangle with lightly floured rolling pin. Cut dough into 6 (3″) squares with lightly floured knife. Cut each square diagonally in half, making 12 triangles. Place triangles 2″ apart on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 12-15 minuntes or until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

3. I took the icing technique and recipe(ish) from King Arthur.  Pour some of icing onto a parchment (I used my silpat) and plce the scone in the icing, swirling around to cover the bottom.  Then pour remaining icing over the top and use a baking brush to cover the scones with icing.

Enjoy!

Life gave me lemons so I made candied lemon peels

13 Friday Apr 2012

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I make no bones about working 2 jobs and going 90mph through life.  As the saying goes, a rolling stone gathers no moss, but I figure that also holds true to germs and cooties as well.  I stay healthy by getting 8 winks a night, a good diet, and lots of walking.

Well, the cosmos tried to throw me under a bus this week by tearing a muscle in my leg.  I am naturally a very brisk walker and I was just handed a speeding ticket.  This week I’m getting lapped by old ladies with walkers.

Doctor said no crutches needed, just go slow and take it easy, but this sucks.  It took me the full cycle of the cross walk to cross the street.  I don’t even have a good story to tell.  I wasn’t dancing naked on a bar or even skipping through a field of daisies.  I stepped off a ladder.  I’m glad I have a sense of humor about life.

I can’t walk, but I can still stand in the kitchen and make something yummy.  One of the things I’ve been finding as I’ve been experimenting with scone and muffin recipes is the flavors aren’t very strong.  As a cook, I can look at a recipe and know I need to add more, but deciphering that in a baking recipe is taking me a bit of learning.

I’ve tried a lemon ginger scone a few times with not much success.  But I think I’m almost there.  In my next attempt I’m adding both candied ginger and candied lemon peel.  I want to know I’m eating lemon and ginger.

Again I sought google’s vast offering of recipes and found many, but the one that struck my eye was another local gal, Luna Cafe.  Sounded like she had experimented and read the same recipes I had found, so why reinvent the wheel.  I chose well.

While the recipe seems a bit step-heavy (blanch 3 times?!), it was well worth it. The result is a bright lemon flavor with no bitterness.   The one thing I did differently from her is that I used a vegetable peeler to remove the peel and I got very little pith.

We go through a lot of lemons at the still and I’ll be making a more concerted effort to save the peels because this will now be a staple in my kitchen.  Stay tuned for my Lemon Ginger Scones.

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