Posts tagged ‘scones’

Feb 8

Guest Post- Cherry Chocolate Scones

I was thrilled when Mollie, The Frugal Hausfrau agreed to do a guest post. I am a big fan, she is a wonderfully talented cook, take a look at her creations on her blog, you will see why I am so in love with her recipes. Down home and elegant, budget conscience, approachable, ok I’ll stop now, thank you Mollie for sharing these incredible scones they look so delicious! Take it away Mollie….

When Suzanne said she might like a guest post or two, I was all over it – and knew exactly what I wanted to make. I just had it in my head that Scones with Dried Cherries & Dark Chocolate might cheer her up a bit. They’d be great with coffee or black tea and such a fun treat for a weekend breakfast.

I started out with one recipe and I don’t know if it was the recipe or me, but it was pretty mediocre. Then I tried another and it was too cakey. A scone is a scone is a scone, and cake? That’s just not a scone. A scone should be good, but have a certain sensibility about it.

I remembered that King Arthur had a scone recipe I have been meaning to try. (They mentioned a scone pan, too, that I ordered and I love it and used it – that’s how long it took me to make these scones!) So on to the King Arthur recipe.

The first time I forgot the baking powder. It was like a Shortbread Scone. A Shrone? There might be some possibilities in that idea, lol!

So finally, the final rendition. And I learned a few things along my journey! I used two chocolates because I ran out of the chocolate I was initially using and it the scones were so much better.

You can stick with one kind of chocolate if you’d like, but I’d highly recommend chopping some good chocolate and combining it with Nestle’s Chocolate Chunks or at least with their dark chocolate chips. I was thinking of striping these scones with a little glaze, but they’re just so good as is!

The two chocolates melted and acted differently and it was like a perfect alchemy with the soft and chewy dried cherries. So at long last, here’s the recipe as I made it. Check with King Arthur for all their suggested variations and many tips. This recipe is excellent and Suzanne, I hope you love these!

King Arthur’s Scones

2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup roughly chopped dried cherries

1/2 cup Nestle’s chocolate chunks

3 to 4 ounces good dark chocolate, roughly chunked

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract or the flavoring of your choice

1/2 cup to 2/3 cup half and half (see note)

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated.

Stir in the dried cherries and chocolate.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and half and half.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until mixture starts to hold together. Dump out and carefully pinch and pull the dough until all is incorporated.

Sprinkle a bit of flour atop a baking sheet.

Divide dough in half and place each half on the baking sheet. Form each into a five to six-inch circle about 3/4’s of an inch high. If using a scone pan, see note, below.

Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with coarse white sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired.

Using a knife or bench knife that you’ve run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges.

Carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2″ space between them, at their outer edges.

For best texture and highest rise, place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Chilling the scones relaxes the gluten in the flour, which makes the scones more tender and allows them to rise higher. It also chills the fat, which will make the scones a bit flakier. While the scones are chilling, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Bake the scones for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. When you pull one away from the others, it should look baked all the way through; the edge shouldn’t look wet or unbaked.

Remove the scones from the oven, and cool briefly on the pan. Serve warm. They’re delicious as is, but add butter and/or jam, if you like.

When the scones are completely cool, wrap them in plastic and store at room temperature for up to several days. To reheat room-temperature scones, place on a baking sheet, tent lightly with foil, and warm in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.

Notes:

Since the scones I baked were baked in January, when the humidity is low and flour is dry, these scones used the full amount of liquid.

If using a scone pan, the full amount of dough will fit into the pan. I found 1/2 cup scoop worked well to distribute the dough in the eight slots. There’s no need to freeze the dough. For these particular scones, I did not brush with butter or sprinkle with sugar.

Aug 5

47 Comments

Some Jam, Scones And Sour Cherry Hand Pies

When I saw the baskets of sour cherries and gooseberries at the farmers market I had to buy them. Both are delicious but really not great eaten fresh/raw. They are very sour on their own and I thought they would be best made into jam or preserves and a small jar of sour cherry pie filling. They are very tedious to prep, the sour cherries are small and soft and juicy and hard to pit, (please don’t eat cherry pits you can actually get sick when eaten in large enough quantities, saw this article on food52) and the gooseberries need to have the ends pinched off, both ends. Luckily I did not buy a huge amount of the fruit so although tedious it didn’t take me all day to prep them. I have been working on recipes for Teagan’s wonderful Thistledown episodes, I absolutely love this story and am inspired by the magickal world of faeries.

Refrigerator jam is a wonderful thing, no muss no fuss, no canning or preserving, it’s stored in the refrigerator rather than sealed properly and stored in the pantry. I still use sterilized jars and it does seal somewhat but not enough to make me comfortable storing unrefrigerated. It really lasts a long time in the fridge and if you haven’t ever made your own jam or preserves you must give it a go, it really is delicious.

I had 3 pints of sour cherries and 2 pint of gooseberries which was enough to make 2 16 ounce jars and 8 ounces of cherry pie filling. The scones are my favorite recipe from my friend on Food52 Liz Larkin aka @sconeladylarkin on Instagram. The recipe for scones IMHO is the best scone recipe ever, they are tender and light and delicious.

The hand pies were an after thought. There was leftover galette dough after making the tomato tart, and the small jar of cherry pie filling. Cherry pie has always been one of my favorites especially warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Royal Wedding Scones

Recipe by Liz Larkin on Food52

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbs baking powder

6 tbs cold unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Pulse the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder a couple of times in the food processor, add the butter and pulse about 10 times until the butter is broken up in the flour mixture don’t worry if there are some larger pieces butter it doesn’t have to be uniform crumbs. Dump the mixture into a large bowl and add the frozen blueberries. Mix the egg, cream and vanilla together and add to the flour mixture. Mix with a fork until just combined, be careful not to over mix.

The dough will be a bit shaggy, place on floured work surface and press gently into a circle that is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut in half, in half again and then each quarter into two wedges you will have 8 scones. Place on parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until completely frozen about 1 hour. You can then bake them or store in freezer bags until ready to use, I like to wrap each frozen scone individually in either plastic wrap or parchment. Before baking brush the scones with some heavy cream and sprinkle some sugar on them. Bake in a 420 degree oven until golden brown, when touched with finger they will feel solid. Don’t over bake, because they are frozen it can take a little longer than usual approximately 20-25 minutes.

Sour Cherry Jam and Gooseberry jam

Makes 2 16 oz jars

2 pint sour cherries pitted, in separate pot 2 pint gooseberries trimmed

1 1/2 cup sugar each

pinch of salt

Cook on medium high heat until thickened. Test to see if its ready by spooning some of the jam on a very cold spoon, if it thickens it’s ready because it was not a lot of jam it only took a little less than 30 minutes to cook. Pour into sterilized jar, let cool to room temperature and refrigerate. Note: The longer you cook the thicker your jam will be, I like mine on the loose side so for my taste about 30 minutes was perfect.

Sour cherry pie filling

Makes 8 ounces

1 pint sour cherries pitted

2/3 cup sugar

4 tsp corn starch

pinch of salt

pinch of cinnamon (optional)

place everything in a medium non reactive pot and cook on medium high heat until thickened. Pour into clean or sterilized jar and refrigerate after it’s cooled to room temperature.

To make the hand pies use your favorite recipe for pie dough or pre made dough works great as well, using a biscuit or something round cut out circles, you will need 2 for each pie. Spoon a little filling in the middle, brush some egg was on the edge of the circle place the other round on top, seal, cut a vent in the top, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar and bake in 375 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Jan 15

150 Comments

Cranberry Orange Scones

For years I was challenged when it came to making biscuits or scones then I found this recipe on Food52. These scones are absolutely delicious, no one and I mean no one makes scones like my friend Liz Larkin, the Scone Lady of Pound Ridge. I adapted her brilliant recipe for Royal Wedding Scones, using cranberry and orange rather than blueberries. These scone are light, fluffy, moist and delicious and were perfect with some homemade devon cream (because I can’t find it anywhere I made it) and some of the mixed citrus curd. Some of these scones are for my British (Welsh) friend David Prosser/Barsetshire Diaries, who never fails to entertain and amuse with his lovely blog posts every week. I hope you like scones David because I made some for you.

As long as I was making scones, for the Tea Room and for David, I thought it would be nice to bring some to Fiesta Friday as well. Angie is hosting party number 102 and her co hosts this week are Elaine @ foodbod and Julie @ Hostess at Heart, this will be a great party, join in, bring a dish and have fun!!

Cranberry Orange Scones

Adapted from a recipe by Liz Larkin, aka Mrs Larkin, aka the Scone Lady

1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbs cold unsalted butter cut into tbs size pieces

1 large egg

1 cup cold heavy cream

zest of one small orange or tangerine

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the cranberries and brown sugar to the food processer and pulse until some of the berries are broken up and mixed with the sugar. Remove and set aside, clean and dry the bowl of the processor.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder and pulse 2 or 3 times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles crumbs. Pour into a mixing bowl. In measuring cup add the cream, beat in the egg, vanilla and orange zest. Pour into the mixing bowl and stir to combine with a fork, the dough will be shaggy, don’t over mix it, it’s ok if it’s not cohesive. Add the cranberry sugar mixture and gently stir with a fork just to combine.

Prepare your work surface by scattering some flour and dump the dough onto it. Bring it together gently with your hands lightly patting it into a circle. Cut into 6-8 slices depending on how large you like your scones. Line a sheet pan with parchment and put the scones on about an inch apart. Place in the freezer and keep them there at least an hour you want the scones to be completely frozen. When they are frozen, you can either bake all or some. Store in ziplock bags separated by parchment until ready to bake.

To Bake:

Pre heat oven to 425 Degree’s. Remove the scones from the freezer and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with cream and sprinkle sugar on them. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy with butter, cream, jam or curd and a nice cup of tea.

To make the Devon Cream I simply combined, cream cheese, sour cream or creme fraiche and heavy cream until it’s soft and spreadable.

So good!!

Jan 14

127 Comments

Guest Post And 4 Year Blogging Anniversary

Four years ago today I hit the publish button and posted my first blog post. It was scary and exciting and honestly I had no idea what would come of it. I am so thrilled to still be blogging and very happy to have met all of you amazing and wonderful people and I want to thank you for reading my posts, offering your kindness and support and inspiring me. This post on the anniversary of hitting that publish button is a slight departure from my usual food posts, oh. there is still food involved but I wanted to do something a little different, a bit daring and fun.

I am honored that Teagan Riordan Geneviene has agreed to do a guest post today. I also want to thank my friend at Hocuspocus13 for agreeing to help me with this post, she created a recipe for a very special tea (I made it and its delicious, I read about the flowers/herbs and they are incredibly good for you as well) I think it’s the perfect addition to our meal in the tea room. Thank you, and now I am handing it over to Teagan….

Hello everyone. I’m happy to meet you!

From my first visit to A Pug in the Kitchen, it has ranked at the top of my list of favorite blogs. Interesting commentary, photos, easy to follow instructions, and delicious food — I was hooked. So when Suzanne asked me to do a guest post there was no way I was saying no. Even better, it became more of a collaboration than a guest spot.

After my regular, real world job, I’m an author of fantasy fiction. My blog is called Teagan’s Books. My current novel in progress is actually book-2 in an urban fantasy series that began with “Atonement, Tennessee.” The title is the name of my fictional town where supernaturals secretly live among the residents of this seemingly quaint town. (Book-2 will be called Atonement in Bloom.) I told Suzanne about a few different settings in the series that would involve food. She picked a locale that was new for book-2, Adelle’s Attic Tearoom.

What I’m sharing with you is more of a snippet than a story. It’s a scene with two minor characters in the novel. I think it’s fun to get to know the characters who only play a small role. I hope you enjoy it.

Adelle’s Teapot — Features from Atonement TN

1924 Good housekeeping 2 girls tea

The inventory notes Annie recorded were part of an ancient list, passed down through the Metatron clan. For the most part, the older theitem, the more power it held. The kind of power varied widely.

The Mirror of Truth and Justice Most Poetic could show one’s true self. The mirror could be playful, cryptic, devilishly mischievous, or brutally honest. It almost seemed to have a mind of its own. In age and in power, that mirror ranked about mid-way on the inventory list. Annie shuddered to think of the havoc she had known the mirror to wreak.

She kept many of the items hidden in plain sight in her antique shop. It had been easy enough to steer Ralda Lawton away from a special quilt. Ralda, the new owner of the Sunhold estate, did not need that star design quilt, but someone else would. However, the brass Bed of Dreams was meant for her. The bed wasn’t strong in power, but it was effective.

ad 5 Oclock Tea Annie looked down at the ancient list. Something glowed through several layers of paper. She knew the glow came from the script identifying a very old item. The glowing writing meant an item awakened. Her hands shook as she leafed through the pages to the very beginning of the catalogued inventory.

The teapot. Annie took a shuddering breath. It was simple and unassuming looking, but the teapot was the oldest item listed in Annie’s inventory notes. It was also arguably the most powerful. Because of its unique properties the teapot had always been kept separate from the other items. Adelle, Annie’s sister was the teapot’s custodian. It was safely tucked away in the attic of the Victorian house that was Adelle’s tearoom and home.

A brew had not been made from that teapot in living memory. But what else could awaken the pot but the alchemy of water, heat, and the right combination of herbs, flowers, and leaves?

“No Adelle,” Annie muttered as she put away the ancient ledger. 1937 Look Shirley Temple Santa tea

Annie ran out of her shop, the door banging shut behind her. Her platinum hair shone in the moonlight. She skidded around the corner and ran down the town square. Annie stumbled to a stop. She gazed at the night sky in open mouthed astonishment.

Above Adelle’s tearoom the sky shimmered in a golden aura. When Annie looked farther up into the sky, she saw an even more astonishing sight. The entire town of Atonement rested unaware beneath five columns of light pillars. The columns of light pulsed through the clouds.

“Adelle,” Annie gasped. “What have you done?”

With a hand to her chest, Annie continued toward her sister’s home. She fell going up the front porch stairs. As she righted herself, Annie saw that the front door stood open. Then she realized that every door and window in the Victorian house was wide open.

“My God, Annie! Are you all right?” Adelle exclaimed as she helped her sister to her feet and guided her inside.

Annie allowed her sister to guide her, gasping for breath and shaking with fright, to the kitchen table. There Adelle poured a cup of tea. Annie turned horrified eyes from the teacup to her sister.

1940s Home Notes Girl tea party “Oh don’t be silly,” Adelle chastised. “It’s not from that teapot.”

Annie took a sip of the tea her sister pressed upon her. She took a bite of cake or scone or some baked treat that would ordinarily have been delicious. However it might as well have been cardboard in her mouth. Without even realizing what she was doing Annie crumbled the rest between her fingers never looking at it. She stared blindly out the kitchen window into the darkness, too stunned to process the thousand thoughts in her mind.

“Why in heaven’s name would you let the teapot awaken?” Annie finally asked.

“It couldn’t be helped. I needed to talk to our grandfather,” Adelle replied.

“That wouldn’t be difficult for you,” Annie said. “Why would you use the teapot for that?”

Her sister’s mouth curved to that self-satisfied, cat-with-a-bowl-of-cream smile that Annie knew all too well.

“Which grandfather,” Annie asked, closing her eyes and bracing herself for the answer she already knew was coming.

Adelle pursed her lips then made a reluctant, sardonic grimace. “The one quite a few times removed. Maybe a few hundred times.” 1905 Sunday Mag Tea Woman steam kiss

Annie groaned and dropped her head to the kitchen table, her pale hair falling to cover her face. Forehead against the polished wood, she rocked her head side to side. Finally she looked up at her raven haired sister.

“Tell me this is not happening,” Annie pleaded hoarsely.

“It really couldn’t be helped, Annie. I had to consult Enoch,” Adelle said apologetically.

“What could possibly be that important?” Annie demanded.

The sardonic twist left Adelle’s mouth. She looked into her sister’s eyes, coldly serious.

“Cailleach Bheur,” Adelle said. “Beira the Crone.”

***

As you can see, my odd little imaginary town has its quirks. I hope you enjoyed this little visit to Atonement, Tennessee.

Hugs,

Teagan