Strawberry Scones

One day I woke up and just wanted to make something for breakfast. Since it was a work day, I knew I had to make something fast, so I decided to make these Strawberry Scones. The original recipe was called Strawberry Shortbread Cookies and they're from Baker Girl. To me, they are more like scones, so I renamed them. These were really good right out of the oven and for about half the day afterwards, but the next day they got heavy and gummy. I'm not sure why. If you have an occasion where you'll eat them up right away, then I would make these, otherwise, I would probably skip it.

Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Scones
from Baker Girl

12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces (2 cups)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling over the cookies

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon zest and remaining sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until moist and fragrant.

4. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the zest/sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have coarse crumbs. Add the cream to the bowl and stir until the dough starts to come together, then gently fold in the strawberry mixture.

5. Use a small cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) to drop dough onto the prepared baking sheet, evenly spaced apart. To make them into scone size, drop 1/4 cup of dough onto baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let the cookies cool. The cookies are best the day they're made, but can be kept in an airtight container for 1 day.

Morning buns

It was Mr. G's birthday the other day, so I got up extra early to make him a treat for breakfast. He was still sleeping when these buns went in the oven and the smell of the buns actually woke him up. =)

These morning buns come from Cook's Country magazine. Lately I have been edging towards Cook's country instead of Cook's illustrated magazine. I still love CI, but each recipe takes soooo long to make and the ingredients list is impossibly long. Cook's country appeals to lazy side of me.

These turn out wonderfully. It has a flaky crust, borderline croissant dough without the fuss. The filling is a yummy cinnamon sugar with a hint of orange zest. The orange zest in the filling brings out the orange juice in the dough...it's really a wonderful touch. I made the dough the night before and the buns just need a little rise time in the oven before they're ready to bake.

An important note, though, if you do decide to make this. Use the foil liners!!! I only had 6 foil liners so the other 6 buns were in paper liners....they were really difficult to get out and got kinda greasy. Here's the recipe.

Morning buns
Cook's Country January 2011
makes 12 buns

dough
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast (1 envelope)
3/4 tsp salt
24 tbsp unsalted butter (3 sticks, or 336g), cut into 1/4 inch thick slices and chilled
1 cup sour cream, chilled
1/4 cup orange juice, chilled
3 tbsp ice water
1 large egg yolk

filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp grated orange zest
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large zipper lock bag. Add butter to bag, seal and shake to coat. Press air out of the bag and reseal. Roll over bag several times with rolling pin, shaking bag after each roll, until butter is pressed into large flakes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in sour cream, orange juice, water, and egg yolk until combined.

2. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead briefly to form smooth, cohesive ball. Roll dough into 20 by 12 inch rectangle. Starting at short edge, roll dough into tight cylinder. pat cylinder flat to 12 by 4 inch rectangle and transfer to parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.

3. Line 12 cup muffin tin with foil liners and grease liners with cooking spray. Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl.

4. Remove dough from freezer and place on lightly floured surface. Roll dough into 20 by 12 inch rectangle and sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch border around edges. Staring at the long edge, roll dough into tight cylinder and pinch lightly to seal seams. trim 1/2 inch dough from each end and discard (see note). Cut cylinder into 12 pieces and transfer, cut side up to prepared muffin cups. Cover loosely with plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

5. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Remove buns from refrigerator and discard plastic. Place buns in turned-off oven until puffed and doubled in size, about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove buns from oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. Bake until buns being to rise, about 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until deep golden brown, 40 to 50 (see note) minutes. Cool buns in tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and discard liners. Serve warm.

Notes:

• *I didn't trim and discard the ends of the dough.  Why waste it?  
• *The recipe says to bake it for 40 to 50 minutes, mine were finished in about 25 to 30 minutes.  
• *To make ahead, Cooks country says to transfer filled muffin tin to freezer until buns are firm, about 30 minutes.  Transfer buns with liners to zipper lock bag and freeze for up to 1 month.  To finish, return buns to muffin tin and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.  Proceed with step 4. 

Apple Caramel Scones

This is my first time baking in the oven in my new house and needless to say I was very apprehensive. What if my baking streak was all due to my oven at home?!! Thankfully, the baking gods were on my side when I made these scones.

I have been in love with making scones every since the orange cranberry scones. They are so easy to make and with my mistake (great discovery) with the cake flour, they are even better than ever!

I decided to make these scones for an office picnic. The apple scones by itself is a bit bland so I put a caramel topping on it. yummy! Here's the recipe, it's basically the same recipe as the Orange Cranberry scones just with some minor adjustments.

p.s. Has any of you ever tried cleaning your oven using the self cleaning button? I tried that today and boy was it amazing!! I normally just clean my oven manually, but I thought I would give this "clean" button a try. The oven looks brand new now, I'm really impressed. The eco-friendly side of me is saying I used way too much electricity cleaning the oven this way. Basically what it does is heat up your oven till it's really really hot, the residue in the oven then turns into dust and all you have to do is wipe it off. The problem is your oven is heated for about 2 hours!!! Mother earth or lazy me? ouvei! Here's the recipe.

Apple Caramel Scones
adapted from Baking Illustrated

7 oz all purpose flour
3 oz cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup apple, diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place the flours, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Whisk together or process with six 1-second pulses.

3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. If using a food processor, remove the cover and distribute the butter evenly over the dry ingredients. Cover and process with twelve 1-second pulses. Add the apples and quickly mix in or pulse one more time. Transfer dough to a large bowl.

4. Stir in the heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

5. Transfer the dough and all dry flour bits to a counter top and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds.

6. Pat the dough on a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4 inch thick circle. Punch out dough rounds with a biscuit cutter. Push together the remaining pieces of dough, pat into a 3/4 inch thick round, and punch out several more dough rounds. Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet.

7. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Caramel Sauce
adapted from My kitchen cafe

7 soft caramel candies
1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream

1. Microwave caramels and cream in bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Drizzle on scones.

Orange cranberry scones

I'm really enjoying my sewing class. Sewing is so out of my element and everything has not come very easy to me, but I love every minute of it. My teacher is so wonderful and so encouraging. She offers extra sessions at her home. I went to one of her extra sessions this week and decided to bake something for her.

I needed something really easy and quick because this has been a crazy work week for me. I made these orange cranberry scones from Baking Illustrated. It's so easy to make and the result is absolutely wonderful!

I made a little substitution because I ran out of all purpose flour!!! Have you heard a baker that runs out of all purpose flour?!! I needed 10 oz of all purpose flour for this recipe, but I only had 7 oz. I substitute 3 oz of cake flour. I'm not sure if it's because of this substitution, but the scones has such a nice crumbly texture. Sooo good!! You need to make this right now! Here's the recipe.

Orange Cranberry scones
adapted from Baking Illustrated

7 oz all purpose flour
3 oz cake flour (see note)
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Whisk together or process with six 1-second pulses.

3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. If using a food processor, remove the cover and distribute the butter evenly over the dry ingredients. Cover and process with twelve 1-second pulses. Add the orange zest and cranberries and quickly mix in or pulse one more time. Transfer dough to a large bowl.

4. Stir in the heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

5. Transfer the dough and all dry flour bits to a counter top and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds.

6. Pat the dough on a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4 inch thick circle. Punch out dough rounds with a biscuit cutter. Push together the remaining pieces of dough, pat into a 3/4 inch thick round, and punch out several more dough rounds. Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet.

7. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note:

• * I made a glaze for the scones. To glaze the scones, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle sugar on them just before baking.
  
• *The original recipe uses 10 oz of all purpose flour.
  

Butterscotch Scones

I had a work get together this morning and wanted to make a breakfast treat to bring to the office. I originally wanted to make blueberry scones, but i was too lazy to go to the supermarket to pick up blueberries, so i settled on using the butterscotch chips i had in my stash. I found a recipe at Epicurious, and after reading all the rave reviews, I was ready to bake! the scones only took about 20 minutes to mix together, and another 25 minutes to bake, so it was pretty easy to do. Everyone at work *loved* them!! yipee, success!! They have a slight crunch on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside. A great scone, not at all dry!! Here's the recipe...I adjusted it slightly...

Butterscotch scones
adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup of golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 cup butterscotch chips (about 6 ounces)
1/2 cup (or more) chilled whipping cream
1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
   
2. Sift all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Add chilled butter; using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Mix in chips.
   
3. Whisk 1/2 cup cream and egg in small bowl to blend. Gradually add cream mixture to dry ingredients, tossing with fork until dough comes together in moist clumps. Add more cream by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry.
   
4. Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls onto large rimmed baking sheet, spacing apart. Bake scones until golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note:

• The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of brown sugar, but I changed it to 1/4 cup because I didn't want it too sweet. I also didn't have golden brown sugar, so I substitute with 2 part dark brown sugar to 1 part granulated sugar. It was the perfect amount of sweetness.
• I had to use a little more than 1/2 cup of whipping cream because the dough was too dry. I ended up using about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of whipping cream in total.
  
• The recipe says it makes 14, I was only able to get 9 out of the batter.
  

Cream Scones

Aaugh!! I have too much heavy cream and I don't know what to do with it. I looked through my cookbooks to find a recipe calling for lots of cream. I found a recipe for cream biscuits in America's test kitchen family cookbook. It was so easy to make and took no time to bake. I would probably add a little more salt next time, as I thought it was kinda bland alone. Otherwise, the texture was really nice and fluffy. Here is the recipe:

Cream biscuits
The America’s test kitchen family cookbook

2 cups (10 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Add 1 ¼ cups cream and stir with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough from bowl to countertop, leaving all dry, floury bits behind in bowl. In 1 tbsp increments, add up to ¼ cup cream to dry bits in bowl, mixing with wooden spoon after each addition, until moistened. Add these moistened bits to rest of dough and knead by hand until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3. For round biscuits, pat the dough on a lightly floured work surface into a ¾ inch thick circle. Punch out dough rounds with a biscuit cutter. Push together remaining pieces of dough. Pat into ¼ inch thick round, and punch out several more biscuits. Discard remaining scraps.

4. For wedge biscuits, Press dough into an 8 inch cake pan. Then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With a knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into eight wedges.

5. Place rounds or wedges on parchment lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.