Pop on Over!

 

It just started snowing for our second big snowstorm this year. Can you believe it? The middle of January and this is only our second really big storm? I was told, by a certain someone who shall remain nameless, that New England is buried in six foot tall snowdrifts from October to April. Lies. All lies! I love snow, I was looking forward to snow. I’ve got a large chocolate stash and have been waiting with bated breath for a decent snowstorm so I can have a great excuse to make large pots of hot chocolate. I don’t know why, but I find falling snow SO comforting. Well, when I’m warm and cozy in my house watching it through icy windows anyway. And right now it’s perfect, falling thick and fast and pretty much demanding that I make something hot and comforting to go with it!

Have you ever seen the 1949 version of Little Women? I love that movie! I used to watch it when I’d spend time at my grandma’s house when I was little. Probably one of the reasons I loved it so much was that my grandma would make me popovers every time! Do you remember that scene when the girls go to visit a friend and Amy wants to eat all the popovers on the way over? I loved Amy. I must have sensed a kindred spirit in a fellow popover hog.

I love this recipe for popovers because you don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients. You probably have all the ingredients on hand right now and you don’t stress about popover pans, just use a muffin tin! I make it in my blender, but you can just as easily whisk the ingredients together by hand. Try them today, they’re divine! And Amy and I promise not to judge if you want to eat them all yourself. 

 

Popovers

Yields 9 popovers

Adapted from Baking with Julia

1 cup flour

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar (optional: I have a sweet tooth.)

3 eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, melted

 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray two 12-cup muffin tins with spray. (You can also make these in buttered ramekins.)

In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients. Blitz until smooth.

Pour through a strainer into a liquid measuring cup. (You’ll have about 2 cups of batter.)

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the muffin tins, using every other cup. This is so the popovers have enough space to pop!

Bake for 15-25 minutes without opening the door. The popovers should be puffed and golden. (The original recipe says 25 minutes, and my oven might be running a little hot, but mine were perfectly golden at 15 minutes. You’re just working on the exterior at this point.)

Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for another 10-20 minutes to help dry out the interior. (Again, mine were done at 10 minutes, you don’t want to overcook them. Just keep an eye on them!) The centers will still be slightly underdone and eggy, that’s my favorite part.

Serve immediately. We like them dripping with butter and honey and served alongside large mugs of hot chocolate. Enjoy!

Swedish Crepes

 

When I lived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with my grandparents, we used to have breakfast at this wooooooonderful restaurant at least once a month. It’s called The Old European Breakfast House and they serve the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. Ever. Evvvvvveeeeeerrrrrrr. My favorite thing there was this wonderful combo platter they have. (Now here’s where I list all the things on it and you will forever view me as the biggest piggy ever. And I don’t even care, it was totally worth it.) It came with Swedish crepes, Danish blueberry Aebelskivers, a German potato pancake, and hotcakes – but I always got them to substitute a Dutch baby. Served with their amazing fresh squeezed orange juice and (in the wintertime) a beautiful mug of hot chocolate. Sure, that’s probably all your calories for the day (and then some), but OMGosh, what a gorgeous way to start a leisurely weekend!

So, when we moved away I had to find a similar recipe and make my own crepes, just like I did with my favorite tomato soup. This recipe doesn’t have a splash of orange juice in it, like theirs does, so it doesn’t have quiiiiiite the same flavor, but it comes close enough for me. And I’m pretty darn picky. (By the by, in the past I have tried adding orange juice, orange zest and orange extract to the recipe, but it just didn’t seem worth the effort, these crepes are beautiful just as they are.)

The difference between these and classic French crepes is their eggyness. These crepes have a little more body, but they’re still a far cry from a pancake. What I really love about this recipe is . . . . . you don’t have to have much finesse to make a perfect crepe. French crepes can be pretty finicky. Swedish crepes are a bit thicker but they’re also sturdier and you don’t have to worry a whole lot about them ripping.

And I’m not going to lie to you, it will probably take you about an hour to cook up all this batter. But once you get the hang of it, it’s a nice way to spend your morning. Especially if you have some company in the kitchen! I made these to order once when I had a house full of guests and we just had a wonderful time, enjoying each other’s company and a long leisurely breakfast.

So, here’s the recipe. I’ve offered pretty detailed instructions in lieu of photos 1) because I didn’t have anyone to take pictures for me and I had to move too quickly to do it myself and 2) because, to be honest, I made tomato sauce for dinner last night and now I really need to clean my stovetop. Sorry. But please don’t let the instructions intimidate you, these really aren’t difficult to make!

 

Swedish Crepes

Batter:

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups milk

7 eggs

1 stick of butter, for the pan

Filling:

1 brick of cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

Topping:

Lingonberry jam (Usually this can be found in the specialty section of your grocery, or sometimes by the specialty cheeses. Although you could have knocked me over with a feather when I found it in the regular jam section of my grocery! There must be a lot of Swedes in Maine!) or the jam of your choice, raspberry is also nice here.

Powdered sugar for dusting

 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.

Pour in the milk and whisk well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking very well with each addition.

Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.

While that’s resting, in a medium bowl beat the cream cheese and sugar together with a hand mixer. Set aside.

To make the crepes:

Warm an 8” non-stick skillet over medium heat. Set out a cube of butter and a butter knife. Have a plate handy for the finished crepes. Set out a small saucer and a 1/3 cup (dry) measuring cup. Take a deep breath.

1) With the knife, cut a pat of butter (about a teaspoon worth) and using the dull side of the knife (you don’t use enough pressure to scratch the pan, just steer the butter around.), run the butter around the sides of the pan, then make sure the bottom is thoroughly coated. You’re not looking for a pool of butter here, just a nice, even, slick surface.

2) Scoop in 1/3 cup of the batter. Pick the pan up from the heat and with a smooth, even motion, roll the batter around the pan, first coating the bottom, then around again and again until the edges of the crepe are nice and smooth. (The crepe should fill the whole bottom of the pan.)  There won’t be much liquid batter left by the time you’re done rolling. (This will probably make more sense when you’re actually doing it than just reading it.)

3) Set the pan back on the heat for just a minute or so, the very edges will turn just the slightest bit brown. Now, shake the pan side to side, the crepe should release from the pan. Carefully run a spatula under it, lift and flip. (I like to use my fish spatula for this, it works beautifully.) Let the crepe just set on the other side, about 30 seconds, then slide onto the waiting plate.

Repeat steps 1-3 with the remaining batter. After about the third crepe, you’ll start to feel like a pro!

That’s it! Spread about a tablespoon of the cream cheese down the middle of the crepe, roll up, top with a little jam and dust with powdered sugar! Enjoy!

 

P.S. Just like classic crepes, you can top these with just about anything. Nutella, or a pat of butter, a squeeze of lemon and a dusting of powdered sugar, or fresh fruit and whipped cream, etc. etc. etc. If you want to serve them with something savory, leave out the sugar in the batter and fill with herby cream cheese and chunks of chicken or any other savory filling of your choice. Sky’s the limit!

P.P.S. You can also make these up ahead of time and fill them with slightly softened ice cream and drizzle with chocolate sauce for a lovely dessert.

P.P.P.S. If you break your last jar of lingonberry jam (like I did today) and you happen to have chunky cranberry sauce and raspberry jam in the fridge, just combine them in equal amounts and use that instead. It’s not a super close resemblance but the combination of sweetness and tartness was close enough to satisfy me. (And, like I said, I’m picky.)

Peach Melba Waffles

My family is staying with me and this morning my mom suggested waffles for breakfast. Quick, easy, simple crowd-pleaser, right? Not by the time I’m done with them! Honestly, I didn’t set out to make anything fancy-schmancy, but when I walked into the kitchen I could smell the peaches sitting in the basket. I knew I needed to use them soon so I decided to top the waffles with them. But, went my thinking, I bought them to try a recipe for Peach Melba I’d seen and been dreaming out for a few weeks now. I was holding off making the Peach Melba because I wanted to make my own vanilla ice cream and had just not gotten around to it yet. I also have a tin of Bird’s Custard Powder that I’d bought a few weeks ago. The kids had been begging me to make some custard from it ever since.

~ ~ ~ Funny story ~ ~ ~

I was looking for Bird’s Custard Powder to use in a Nigella recipe, well, a few, actually. I’d been looking at the local grocery stores and a few specially shops and hadn’t found it. I stopped by the co-op in Belfast for something else and while I was there decided to see if they had any. They did! I was so excited! I had previously told the kids what I was on the lookout for and when I found it they both shrieked, ‘bird powder, bird powder, bird powder!!!!!’ They told everyone they met in the store that we were going to have custard made from ‘bird powder'!!!!!’ They hounded me for several days (until their short little attention spans forgot about it) to make them custard from ‘bird powder!!!!’ I don’t even want to think about what custard made from ‘bird powder!!!!’ would taste like!

So, anywho, waffles. It was an extra effort, but I was tethered to the kitchen anyhow making a double batch of waffles, so I had plenty of time to make a few extras. The raspberry sauce takes just a few seconds, the custard sauce takes a few minutes and the poached peaches are a breeze. This is definitely a recipe you could knock people’s socks off with, a great one for houseguests!

Peach Melba Waffles

Adapted from Alton Brown and Nigella Lawson and Bird’s Custard Powder

For the waffles: 2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups buttermilk

3 eggs

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat your waffle iron.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and butter.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture, whisk well to combine..

Portion into your waffle iron and cook until the waffles are golden brown and delicious!

While those are cooking . . . .

For the peaches: 3 cups of water

3 1/2 cups of sugar

1 split vanilla bean

2 tablespoons lemon juice

8 peaches

Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits.

In a large pan combine the water, sugar, vanilla bean and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Turn the heat down to a low simmer and add the peaches.

Poach the peaches 2-3 minute on each side. Remove to a plate. Carefully (those suckers will be HOT!) peel the skins off the peaches.

For the raspberry sauce: 3 cups of raspberries (I thawed some frozen ones)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine raspberries, powdered sugar, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor or blender.

Pulse to combine.

Push mixture through a strainer. Done!

For the custard sauce: 2 tablespoons Bird’s Custard Powder

1 pint whole milk

1/3 cup sugar

In a medium bowl mix the powder with a few tablespoons of the milk to make a thick paste.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk. Take it off the heat when it starts to bubble.

Pour into the custard paste and whisk to combine.

Return mixture to the saucepan and heat until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

To assemble the waffles:

Place a waffle on the plate.

Place two peach halves on the waffle.

Spoon raspberry sauce over the waffles, drizzle over the pancakes.

Drizzle custard sauce over the waffle.

Serve. Swoon. Enjoy!

My Idea of Heaven

Can I just take a second to say: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My mom used to make this pastry for Sunday breakfast when I was growing up. It’s divine. It’s like one part cream puff and one part pie crust, slathered in a yummy vanilla glaze. Only better. I used to make it all the time and bring it to work or to a friend’s house and people would think I was amazing :) But it’s really not hard to make, and I’ve made it even easier here.

I’ve been thinking of these pastries since I made chouquettes the other day. After making the pate a choux in the mixer and having it turn out so well, I wanted to try the same thing with this recipe. Then I decided to make it even easier by making the base in the food processor. (Since it left the same amount of dirty dishes anyway!)

This recipe is so amazingly yummy, and now amazingly easy, you should make it today! Your family will think you’re a rock star! I timed myself the last few times I made it and I had it in the oven and the kitchen cleaned up in under 15 minutes. Awesome!!!

 

Carol’s Danish Pastry

Adapted from Songberries

For the crust:

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 cup flour

a pinch of kosher salt

2-5 tablespoons cold water

 

For the pate a choux:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 eggs

 

For the glaze:

1  1/2 cups powdered sugar

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla (or the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1-2 tablespoons cream/milk

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set out a baking sheet.

In the food processor: (or you could do this by hand with a pastry cutter or knife) Pulse the flour and salt a few times to combine.

Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the water a few tablespoons at a time and pulse until the dough comes together and forms a ball.

Divide dough in half. Form each ball into a long ‘snake’. Lay each ‘snake’ on the pan and pat it out into a long wide rectangular shape.

Keep in mind that this is like a pie crust and it’s not going to bake up any bigger, this will be the size of your finished product. And it doesn’t have a ton of flavor, so you’re not going to want it very thick. Just thick enough to handle the weight of the pastry on top of it. So spread that dough out!

Okay, enough with the crust, onto the choux! Put a cup of flour and the almond extract into the bowl of your mixer, attach the paddle to the mixer. Crack the eggs into a bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and pour it into the mixer. Mix on low until the flour gets incorporated.

Add the eggs all at once and turn the mixer up to medium. Beat until the batter looks shiny and smooth.

Scoop the batter out onto the crust, use a spoon to spread it out. I spread it just  shy of the outer edge of the crust.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious.

While you’re waiting . . . add the sugar, butter, vanilla and milk/cream to a bowl and whisk to combine.

Oh, and take a minute to, at the very least, rinse your dishes. That stuff will turn to concrete if you leave it!!!

When the pastry is ready, remove it from the oven and drizzle the glaze over it. Let it cool a few minutes before cutting into 1” wide pieces and serving. You can serve this hot, warm, cold, room temperature, etc. It always tastes awesome!

Chouquettes and First Steps!

First, I must ask that you take 8 seconds out of your life and watch this video :)

My last baby’s first steps! Doesn’t a Faerie get her wings or something? Oh, that’s for the first laugh? Well, maybe a faerie gets a new dress or something.



So, it’s a dark, dreary, rainy day here in Maine. (So imagine how pretty those would look with a little sunlight shining on them, mmm-kay?)  I love it. I like rainy days, just so long as there isn’t too many of them strung together. They give you an excuse to stay in your jammies all day. Or watch movies all day. Or bake all day. Or all three! Stay in your jammies, watch movies and bake all day! That’s what we’ve been doing! I was going to make a cookie recipe my grandma sent me, but then I caught up on Baking Bites. And these caught my eye. But  I didn’t have pearl sugar, so I used my crystallized sugar. YUM! The first batch had some learning curve to it, but the kids and I ate it in about 2.7 minutes anyway. So I decided to make a second batch. Yummy yum yum.

Seriously, why am I not making choux pastry more often? It really is easy and I’ve been making it for years! I just forget about it. Well, not anymore! By the way, Nicole’s recipe calls for you to use your mixer when adding the eggs. BRILLIANT. Truly, beating those eggs in by hand was probably what’s been keeping me from cream puffs and eclairs all these years. Anyway, these little babies are going to be on the breakfast menu the next time we have houseguests. They only take a few minutes to whip up and they’re so pretty and sparkly and yummy! And they have eggs. And eggs are a breakfast food. So I can serve these for breakfast. So there!

This is Nicole’s recipe, but doubled. Unless you’re making them for just yourself, you’re going to want to double it.

Chouquettes

Adapted from Baking Bites

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

7 tablespoons butter

3 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)

1 1/2 cups flour

4 eggs

1/2 cup crystallized sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium pan, stir together the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt over medium heat.

Add the flour and stir until the dough comes together in a ball. Continue cooking another minute. 

Remove dough to your mixer’s bowl.

Using the paddle attachment, stir the dough for a minute to let it cool a bit.

Add the eggs, one at a time on medium speed, incorporating fully before adding the next.

Turn the speed up to medium high and beat until the batter becomes smooth and shiny.

Drop by the tablespoonful onto the parchment.

Here's where my method differed from hers (because I wasn’t using pearl sugar): Roll each lump of dough into a ball and dip HALF of it into the crystallized sugar. If you do more than half, the extra sugar will run down to the bottom of the pastry and BURN leaving you will a perfectly cooked pastry with a nasty burned bottom. Not cool. Learn from my mistake.

Place sugary dough ball dough side down back on the parchment. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Bake for 18-25 minutes. (My first batch was done at 18, my last batch took 25. Just keep an eye on them, you’re aiming for golden brown)

Now you’ll have to excuse me, I’m being summoned to watch Sleeping Beauty.

Okay, You Can Stop Looking Now

Tada!!! The perfect blueberry muffin! And it’s from The Joy of Baking.com. I should have known. Don’t go to that site unless you’re willing to gain five pounds just from LOOKING at the pictures!

I’m always trying new muffin recipes looking for that perfect muffin. My standby is Alton Brown’s muffins, they taste great but really don’t keep well. And, although my kids give it their best efforts, we just can’t eat a whole recipe of muffins in one day! But these, oh, these were perfect! Beautiful crumb, just the right flavor, yummy streusel on top, just the slightest bit of yummy crunch on the outside, and they kept well! No drying out or alternately, going soggy! Make these today, you won’t be sorry!!!

 

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Just barely adapted from Joy of Baking.com, I like more lemon.

1 cup milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into cubes and chilled

2 cups blueberries

zest of 1/2 a lemon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla.

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

REMOVE ONE CUP of the mixture and place in a smaller bowl.

With a pastry blender (or your fingertips.) cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the blueberries and the lemon zest and stir to combine.

Pour in the milk mixture and fold to combine. Try not to mix it too much.

Portion the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.

Stir the melted butter into the reserved flour mixture until that mixture looks like, um, large crumbs.

Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the muffins.

Place in the oven for about 18-20 minutes. The tops will be golden brown but still spring back at a light touch.

Enjoy!

P.S. These muffins actually keep really well. Cover them and they will last a couple of days. Assuming you don’t eat them all hot out of the oven.

P.P.S. Don’t do that. Eat them right out of the oven. You’ll burn the skin off the roof of your mouth when you hit that first molten blueberry. Don’t ask me how I know.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. . .

My little sweet-toothed child asked for pancakes this morning. I got all excited thinking about the crepes I’ve been wanting to make so I asked her if she wanted ‘special’ pancakes. She demanded to know what made them special, so I told her they are thin and buttery and filled with ‘yummy cheese’. (I was thinking of the cream cheese and mascarpone filling I wanted to make.) Oops. Pancakes with cheese was NOT what she wanted. To be fair, that does sound a little odd.  So, regular old pancakes it was.

Until we went in the kitchen. First they wanted bananas. Hmm, I could put those in the pancakes, no problem! Then they wanted graham crackers. I hadn’t even gotten the mixing bowls out at this point! Then they wanted marshmallows, and if you give a mouse kid a cookie marshmallow. . . . he’s going to want some milk chocolate to go with it. All that was starting to sound pretty good to me too (I wonder where they get their sweet tooth?), so I thought, ‘we’ll just throw all that into the pancakes! Please everybody!’ So I got started on Banana S’more Pancakes. My mom called and during the conversation it occurred to me that maple seeeeeerup* might not taste all that great on these. My mom suggested peanut butter and we came up with this saucy-seeeeeerupy* recipe. YUM!

*Have I told you about seeeeeeerup? First, some important info: Jay is from New England and I’m from Utah. I made Jay breakfast one morning after we’d gotten married. The works. Bacon, sausage, orange juice, eggs, and pancakes with ‘homemade maple syrup’. I grew up with my mom’s ‘maple syrup’ aka a simple sugar syrup flavored with maple extract. Jay grew up in New England. Where there are maple trees. And sugar houses every 2 miles. Etc. Etc. Etc. So I set Jay’s plate down in front of him and he’s thrilled with the pancakes. He cuts a big piece out and takes a bite. And then his eyes popped out of his skull, rolled off the table and lay there on the floor glaring at me. About 20 minutes later, when he consented to speak to me again, he asked what the bleepity bleep bleep bleep I had put on the pancakes. I was just a little out of sorts after his reaction and told him I maaaaaade maple syrup, thankyouverymuch. After a long lecture about maple syrup and how to properly pronounce maple syrup (seeeeee-rup, not sirrup – rhymes with stirrup) and the history of maple syrup and many childhood stories about maple syrup and how maple syrup DOES NOT COME FROM AN EXTRACT FROM WATKINS, he made me promise never, ever to do that again. And I was only to purchase maple syrup made in New England forever and ever, amen. So, the moral of this story is, Thou Shalt Not Mess With Yankees and Their Seeeeeerup. The end.*

These pancakes turned out to be out of this world! Oh My Gravy, I am SO making these again! I’m usually a two-pancake kind of girl, but I only barely made it into my second pancake before I had to throw in the towel fork. They are hearty! And the sauce is just so delicious, I couldn’t get enough! I suggest cooking the pancakes at a little lower temperature than you normally use (medium low-ish) so that the marshmallows and the chocolate chips start to melt a little.

Banana S’more Pancakes

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 bananas, mashed

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup marshmallows

1 cup graham crackers, broken into small bits

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and butter.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry and give it just a couple of stirs. (You’ll stir it more in a sec!)

Add the bananas, chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers. Stir it up!

Let it set for a few minutes while you heat a couple of skillets (I used non-stick) over medium low-ish heat.

Ladle (I use a measuring cup) about 1/2 cup of batter into each pan.

When the surface gets all bubbly and the chips and mallows have started to melt, flip it over and cook the other side.

Enjoy with Peanut Butter Sauce and a very large glass of milk!

Makes about a dozen large, very filling pancakes.  

Peanut Butter Sauce

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan bring the water and sugar to a boil.

Lower the heat and add the peanut butter.

Whisk to combine (this could take a few minutes and it might look a little icky until the peanut butter comes back together, just give it a chance!)

Add the butter and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Enjoy over pancakes. Or ice cream. Or use it in place of fondue and dip fruit in it. Or just eat it with a spoon.

Amelia loves to share her bananas with Jillian, and this kept the two of them busy while I got the pancakes ready! ‘Scuse the early morning do’s, we’d just gotten up! I love the look on Amelia’s face, she’s showing Jilly exactly how to ‘open up!’ And Jilly thinks the whole thing is hilarious! She’s a split second away from tossing that cracker and clapping with glee!

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Well, I hope you’re ready for a flood of pumpkin recipes, because it happened. I opened my first can of pumpkin of the season. Now I’ll be making pumpkin recipes until I find myself without a partial can of pumpkin in the fridge! Actually, Michelle had a great idea to use leftover pumpkin in a smoothie, but when I went to her blog to find the recipe I found a recipe for pumpkin PANCAKES, so now I have to make those too!

Side note: I am extremely suggestible. (I’m also fond of run-on sentences, but that’s neither here nor there.) And I get songs stuck in my head with mind-numbing (don’t I wish) swiftness. My family is well aware of this, of course. So I go along, minding my own business, when all of the sudden I get a random phone call, usually from my dad. I pick up and hear, ‘this is the song that never eeeeeeeends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeeeeeends, somebody started singing it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just becauuuuuuuuse, this is the song that never ends’, and then my head explodes. 

So, in case you were wondering (although I don’t know why you would be) when I see a lonesome, half used can of pumpkin in the fridge, there is a soundtrack that starts playing in my head, and it goes like this, ‘ this is the pumpkin that never ends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeends. . . ‘

Well, enough about me, let’s make some scones.

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Do you use that cutting edge on the box? I don’t. I use scissors. I have wasted SO much paper because it won’t tear straight. And that stuff is pricey! Grab some scissors!

In a large bowl, measure out 1 cup AP flour, 1 cup cake flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Whisk it all together and put the bowl in the freezer. (I also put my pastry cutter and bench scrape in the freezer.)

In a medium bowl, measure out 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1/3 cup cream, 6 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. (Aren’t those little balls of sugar cute?)

Mix well and put the bowl in the freezer.

Cut up 6 tablespoons of butter.

Take out the bowl of dry ingredients and the pastry cutter and cut the butter into the flour. . .

 

. . until you get coarse crumbs.

Hopefully you already quartered your macadamia nuts. If you didn’t, just put the butter/flour mixture back in the freezer while you cut those babies up.

Add the nuts to the flour mixture and pour the wet ingredients over the top.

Mix until your dough starts to come together. It will be dry and sticky at the same time. It’s weird like that. Dump it onto a floured countertop.

Pat it out into a circle about 3/4 of an inch thick.

Use the pastry cutter to cut the circle into 8 pieces. (You could also use a sharp knife.) I find that if you make 8 separate cuts you get nicer points on the scones, as opposed to making 4 big cuts.

Set the pieces on the baking sheet.

I thought they looked a little dry, so I made a quick egg wash from a yolk and a little water.

The four on the right have egg wash. And it’s nothing short of a miracle that they did not get a sprinkling of crystallized sugar. That’s my favorite topping on a scone. I had a really hard time not putting some on!

Bake for 15 minutes.

That should be enough time to brew a pot of coffee. . . . .

And clean up the disaster you made while putting the scones together. Not to mention the mess made by two hungry hunters that left the house at the buttcrack of dawn.

See! You should even have time to whip up the glaze! (That’s what is sitting on the cutting board.)

Freshly baked scones = instant aromatherapy.

Put them on a cooling rack. The four on the right are the ones with the egg wash. I’ll leave it up to you (do I have much choice?) but I prefer the look of the ones with the egg wash. Oh, and here’s a little trick. . . take the piece of parchment and slide it under the cooling rack. Then, if you’re careful, when you glaze the scones the excess will fall onto it and you’ll have less of a mess to clean up!

Drizzle on your glaze.

See! What did I tell you! Easy-peasy.   

            

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Adapted from Pinch My Salt 

1 cup AP flour

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup macadamia nuts, quartered

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup heavy cream

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator.

In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer .

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer and take the other bowl back out.

Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the macadamia nuts.

Get the pumpkin mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Brush with egg wash. Bake scones for about 15 minutes.

Ginger Molasses Icing

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons cream

4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Stir together molasses, cream and ginger until combined. Add in powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until you get a thickish consistency.  Drizzle over scones and enjoy!

Pre-Made Our Way: Granola Bars

I love making my own stuff! Bread, yogurt, pancake mix, even cheese once! This fun challenge is hosted by Natalie at Oven Love, and comes at just the right time. Make your own granola bars! We are going to a big camping event and I was just getting around to thinking about the food for that weekend. These will make a perfect snack! Natalie shared some links when she posted this challenge and I followed those to this wonderful bar from Kristin at The Kitchen Sink Recipes. Man, does she have some gorgeous recipes there! I'll be making this and this in the very near future. YUM!

Nuts and seeds waiting to be toasted. Pretty, huh!

Syrup ingredients waiting to get melty.

Mmmmm, smells wonderful!

Prep square pan with parchment.

10 minutes later, all toasted.

Into the bowl along with the fruit. I went with tart cherries, yum!

Pour in the syrup.

Stir with a wooden spoon. For, like, 100 years. It will come together eventually!

Dump into pan.

Tamp down with a measuring cup. This part was fun :)

Bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool for evvvvvvver. Really. 2+ hours.

Cut up into bars. Lots of bits fell off the bars. Yummy bits. Somebody had to eat them!

Sponge Bob. Sponge Bob ate them.

The rhino smelled something wonderful and came to investigate.

Seriously, these bars will draw a crowd!



Granola Bars
Adapted from Kristin at The Kitchen Sink Recipes

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 cup whole almonds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
1 cup dried tart cherries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Line a sheet pan and an 8x8" pan with parchment. (Make 'handles' on the 8" pan)
On the sheet pan, combine the oats, coconut, seeds and almonds.
Toast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium pan over medium heat, combine salt, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, brown sugar, and peanut butter.
Keep warm after sugar has dissolved.
Transfer toasted seed and nut mixture to a large bowl.
Add cherries.
Pour sugar mixture over nuts and cherries and mix well.
Pack into 8" pan with the back of a measuring cup.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Use the parchment 'handles' to remove granola to a cutting board.
Using a long, sharp knife, cut into 1" bars.
Cut the bars in half.
Store in airtight container.
Hide from roaming Ninja Turtles.