Maple & Ham Scones

If you ever make ham for your family, I'm sure you are well aware that you always have leftovers. And while leftovers are fun in their original form the next day or so, they quickly become monotonous and may even go to waste. Not with this recipe though!! Ohhhh are these ever good. I was inspired by the maple scalloped potatoes I made for easter and thought if they went well with ham, so would maple syrup, in scones! Oh yah, I did that!

I LOVE Anna Olson's scone recipes! They always turn out so light and delicious. So I flipped to my favorite recipe of hers for Apple Cheddar Walnut Scones and heavily adapted it to serve my purpose. Here's my rendition of the recipe made with Ham & Maple.

Ham & Maple Scones
Recipe adapted from Anna Olson's Back to Baking

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, plus extra for brushing
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 5-6 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
• 1/3 cup finely grated asiago cheese
• 9 oz leftover ham
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus extra for brushing

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Pulse the flour and baking powder together in the bowl of a food processor until combined. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly, but pieces of butter are still visible. Remove from the food processor into a medium bowl and stir in the cheese and 1/2 of the ham until coated. Add the heavy cream and the maple syrup and stir until dough starts to come together. Turn out on work surface. Knead lightly until dough comes together fully, being careful not to overwork. Lightly pat dough out into 1/2 inch thick square. Sprinkle with remaining ham pieces and press lightly into the dough. Fold the dough in half, pressing the ham in at the same time. Repeat process until you've worked in about 4 folds.
3. Shape dough into a square, about 8 inches by 8 inches. Cut the dough into 16 pieces and place on prepared baking tray.
4. Stir together about 2 tbsp heavy cream and 2 tbsp maple syrup. Brush tops of scones with mixture and bake in preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until they are a rich golden brown.

I baked these for hubby to take to his guys weekend last week and they were a hit!! I have been asked to kindly make these again next time I make a ham. Hope you enjoy these - they're a little different than your usual scone combination, but they work. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!

Currant Scones

Scones again?!! Yep. I can't get enough of these things lately. Hope you're not sick of them yet!! These are pretty darn good scones from Anna Olson's new cookbook Back to Baking. Anna's got a great dough folding technique that lets you work the dry ingredients into the dough without overworking it. The folding technique makes sure you have scones that rise up nice and high with flakey, buttery layers. 

Currant Scones
Recipe minimally adapted from Back to Baking

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• zest of one lemon, finely grated
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup cold milk, plus extra for brushing scones
• 1/2 cup dried currants

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, zest and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
3. Add the chilled butter pieces to the food processor bowl. Pulse until mixture is crumbly, but pieces of butter are still visible.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the whole egg and egg yolk, then whick in 1 cup of milk. Add to the flour mixture and pulse until dough comes together (do not over work).
5. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and pat into a rough square. Sprinkle currants over the dough, then work them in by pressing them into the dough with your hands, then folding in half, pressing the currants in at the same time (it takes about 4 or 5 folds).
6. Shape the dough into a square and gently roll out into an 8 inch square. Cut the dough into 16 square scones, then place them onto the prepared baking tray, leaving one inch between them.
7. Brush the scones with milk and bake for about 15 minutes, until they are an even golden brown. The scones are best served the day they are baked, but can be reheated the second day for 5 minutes in a 300F oven to refresh them.

I brought these to my friends house in exchange for her sewing me some plastic bag organizers (they're cute btw, I will post the link up here when she gets around to posting about them on her blog). She thought it was more than sufficient payment for her services!! I love how little sugar is in these scones - you can sweeten them up with a touch of jam when serving if they're not quite sweet enough for you. :)

This post has been linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at The Sweet Spot. Check it out for some great recipes and inspiration.

This post has also been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks! Head on over there for some weekly inspiration in the form of baking, cooking, crafts and other cool things.
Happy Baking my Friends!

Cinnamon & Ricotta Scones

You may have noticed I've been making a lot of scones and biscuits lately. They're quick and they're easy and they always taste delicious. These ones were no exception! I had some leftover ricotta cheese from my ricotta making experiment (in case you missed my post yesterday about making your own Ricotta Cheese, you can find it here) and looked for a way to use it up in scone. I found this recipe on West Side Baker and it didn't disappoint. If you have some leftover ricotta, or if you want to try out making your own ricotta, make these scones.

Cinnamon & Ricotta Scones
Minimally adapted from West Side Baker

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup sugar (coarse sugar if you have it)
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and baking powder. Add butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the ricotta, egg and vanilla. Add all at once to the mixture in the food processor. Pulse until dough just comes together.
4. Turn dough out onto counter. Divide into two pieces. Pat each piece into a 6" round and then cut into 8 wedges.
5. Place all  16 pieces on one large baking tray or two small baking trays that have been lined with parchment paper. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Brush with a little milk and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until top of scones is golden. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Hope you enjoy these! We devoured them pretty quickly in our house.

This post has been linked up with Whatcha Baking Wednesdays over at Cajun Sugar Pie. Hop on over for a look at other yummy baked goods fellow bloggers have been whipping up this week.

This post has also been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks. Head over there to check out all the Superbowl yumminess going on in the blog-world this week!

Happy Baking my Friends!

January 2012 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Scones, aka Biscuits

Its time for the Daring Bakers' Challenge again! Last month you probably noticed I didn't post a Daring Bakers' challenge... I participated, but my attempt was such an epic fail that I couldn't bring myself to try again. Last months' challenge was to make sourdough bread - like real sourdough where you make your own starter to rise the bread without yeast. Mine bubbled away for a couple days on the counter, then the temperature dropped a lot one night and the house got too cold... I tried to revive it the next day, but it was not meant to be. My poor starter died!! Thus, no December 2011 challenge for me!
Oh well, this is a new month and something very familiar to me - scones, aka biscuits. I've made biscuits and scones many, many times using many different recipes. My standby recipe is still my baking powder biscuit recipe out of my (mom's) Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. These biscuits raise up mile high and always receive rave reviews whenever I serve them to guests. I have to say that the challenge recipe doesn't quite live up to my baking powder biscuit recipe, but its a pretty close second! It was fun to experiment with something new.

Blog Checking Lines: Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers' host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (aka biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens.

I've posted some pictures of the scones I made with Audax's recipe. They turned out well, but they weren't quite as good as my ultimate biscuit recipe (check back in February for a post with my ultimate biscuit recipe). Check out the Daring Kitchen website for the recipe or to join in with these great monthly challenges. You can further your baking skills in a constructive and supportive community of fellow bakers!!

One thing I found interesting was mixing up a batch of biscuits by hand. I never make my biscuits by hand - I always use my food processor. Thats where I get the best results! But do try whatever works for you.

Lastly, I grew up eating baking powder biscuits - my mom always made them for us, so they are a type of comfort food for my sister and I. I'm not sure if this is a Canadian tradition or just a family tradition, but we always served our biscuits warm, with some salted butter and drizzled with Roger's Golden Syrup. Mmmmm! Delicious. :)

In addition to checking out Aud's recipe, do check out the biscuit and scone recipe roundup I've posted below - these are some of my favorite biscuits and scones from previous blog posts I've done.

Blueberry & Lime Scones
Cranberry Oat Scones
Chocolate Scones
Banana Biscuits
Savory Scones
Almond Apricot Scones

Happy Baking Friends! Thanks for stopping by. :)

SRC: Wives With Knives Lime Blueberry Scones

Hi All!  Hope your holiday preparations are going well. In addition to my usual holiday preparations, it is also time for December's Secret Recipe Club reveal for group C! Each month members are assigned another member's blog at random to choose a recipe from and make it and then on the reveal date, we reveal the recipe we selected and the blog we were assigned. It is a fun project, although, some months I feel more like stalker than blogger! All in good fun though. :)

Photo by Cathy at Wives with Knives (used with Cathy's permission)

This month I was assigned the blog Wives with Knives. And wow!! What a fabulous blog - so many beautiful pictures and delicious sounding recipes. My only regret is that December wasn't such a busy month for me - I would have loved to try a couple of recipes each week from this lovely blog. Cathy writes this lovely blog from Oregon (which also happens to be one of mine and my hubby's favorite vacation spots). She has lovely recipes - a good mix of sweet and savory, beautiful scenic adventure posts, and lots of interesting farmers market posts as well. It is a great mix that is sure to capitivate all readers who happen to drop by - if you haven't already happened upon her blog, do so ASAP! You are bound to find all kinds of inspiration there. :)

So - sad news - I took photos of these delicious scones that I made and my computer crashed and I lost my photos. I was near tears so hubby volunteered to do some recovery procedures with my dinosaur of a lap top tomorrow to see what he can rummage up. So, please keep your fingers crossed. I've shared a picture of my friend's lovely Christmas cards that she makes (see my previous post regarding Handmade by Sabana). I will update this post with food pics if hubby can recover, or when I have a chance to reperform the recipe later this week. Apologies to those of you visual foodies!!!  **UPDATE: I received a very kind email from Cathy at Wives with Knives with an offer that I could use one of her photos in order to get into the SRC list for the month. So, thanks Cathy for being so kind to me! :) :)

**UPDATE #2: I wasn't able to recover these photos, but I did rebake the recipe and get some of my own pictures. :) These scones were definitely appreciated a second time by my family! Mine aren't as pretty as Cathy's, but they definitely tasted delicious.

Here is the lovely recipe - I've only made some minor modifications to the recipe - mainly due to what I had on hand. :) This seems like a pretty versatile recipe, so feel free to play around with it.

Lime Blueberry Scones
Recipe minimally adapted from Wives with Knives

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp lime zest
• 5 tbsp butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Sift dry ingredients into the bowl of a large food processor. Add lime zest and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the buttermilk and pulse until mixture comes together. Pour mixture out onto counter and mix in the blueberries gently, folding and refolding the dough a couple of times to gently work the berries in without mashing them. Pat the dough into a square and cut into 12 squares.
2. Place the scones on a baking tray lined with a piece of parchment paper. Brush with a bit of buttermilk and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

I hope you enjoy these scones, despite the lack of pictures. Please keep your fingers crossed for good ideas for recovery of lost pictures. Or if you have any suggestions, please feel free to pass them my way. Hoping for the best... or maybe this is just a hint telling me I need to make these again... they were pretty darn good.

Happy Reveal Day fellow group C'ers. Can't wait to check out your creations.

Cranberry Oat Scones

Want a delicious and easy breakfast you can whip up quick on the weekend? Make these awesome scones! If you have house guests, whip them up and pop them in the oven before they get up in the morning and they will be impressed, and you don't even have to tell them how easy they were!!

Cinda Chavich's (author of The Guy Can't Cook) tip on perfect scones is "a light touch - don't handle the dough too much or your scones will become heavy". Follow her advice and you'll end up with light and fluffy scones every time. The reason this tip works so well? When you cut the butter into the mixture it stays cold so that it fills up pockets in the dough. When you bake the scones the butter melts leaving a lovely fluffy scone. If you handle the dough too much, the butter will melt before the scones are baked, therefore leaving a more dense scone with a heavy texture. :)

Cranberry Oat Scones
Recipe from The Guy Can't Cook

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour


• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided


• 1 tbsp baking powder


• 3/4 tsp baking soda


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes


• 1 cup rolled oats


• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used cranberries from here)


• 2 tbsp finely grated orange zest


• 2/3 cup buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.


2. In a food processor, combine the flour, 3 tbsp of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is chopped into small pieces and the mixture is crumbly. Pour into a large bowl and stir in the oats and cranberries.


3. In another bowl, whisk together the orange zest and buttermilk and add to the dry ingredients. Stir quickly with a fork until the batter begins to cling together.


4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat into an 8 inch square about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into four 4-inch squares, then slice each square crosswise to make 8 triangular scones. Set triangles on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with remaining sugar.


5. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden, then transfer to cooling rack.

I hope you enjoy these delightful scones! I recommend you make a double batch because they won't last long. Happy Baking my Friends!

Chocolate Scones

If you're anything like me, you probably often buy a good sized container of heavy cream for a recipe you're making - just in case you need a bit extra. Only to find that you don't need that bit extra and then you end up racking your brain trying to come up with a way to use it up before it goes sour. Well, this recipe can help you out - it calls for a cup and a quarter of heavy cream! No more tossing leftover heavy cream in the trash!


These biscuits are really rich - so don't make them too big or you won't be able to finish them. The recipe actually calls to use them to make chocolate strawberry shortcakes so feel free to give that a try! Simply delicious. Since they're so rich, you might not be able to eat a whole batch - don't despair - they freeze beautifully so feel free to make lots if you have lots of leftover heavy cream!




Chocolate Scones
Recipe from Fine Cooking - Chocolate 2010, p 82


Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus about 3 tbsp for sprinkling
• 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp table salt
• 9 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 1/2 ozs semi sweet chocolate, grated or finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, plus about 3 tbsp for brushing
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Line heavy baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder an salt together in a large bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients until largest pieces of butter are the size of small peas. Add grated chocolate and toss to combine. Combine cream and vanilla. Make well in center of dry ingredients and pour in cream mixture. Mix with a fork until dough is evenly moistened and just combined. Dough should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand 5 or 6 times to pick up any dry ingredients remaining in bottom of bowl and create a loose ball.
2. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and pat into an 8" square about 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer dough to prepared baking tray and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425F. Remove dough and trim about 1/4 inch from edges to create a neat, sharp edge. Cut dough into 12 squares and position them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. With a pastry brush, brush the biscuits with a thin layer of cream and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake until the biscuits look a little dry and are mostly firm to the touch, about 18-20 minutes.

These biscuits are delicious tasting and a lovely treat! Make them on the weekend for a decadent breakfast - they go great with a nice strong cup of coffee. Or make them for chocolate strawberry shortcakes and impress your guests with a fun twist on the classic strawberry shortcake. I'm looking forward to Friday tomorrow! Should be the start of a fun-filled weekend!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Savory Scones

This is a really fun scone recipe! You can toss in whatever you feel like or whatever you have on hand. You can make substitutions in the recipe if you want and just be creative! This recipe is out of one of my favorite cookbooks - The Guy Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich. In the cookbook, Cinda's comments regarding this recipe are as follows:

...scones are loaded with savory stuff, from roasted red peppers and
spinach to fresh herbs. The combinations are infinite - so get creative. They're
great split, toasted, and topped with poached eggs, or simply to grab for a
portable breakfast."

And the plus side of this recipe - you'll be noshing on delicious scones within 35-40 minutes! Doesn't get any better than that! :)

Savory Scones

Recipe from The Guy Can't Cook, p. 65

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt (omit or decrease this if using salty ingredients like feta, bacon, proscuitto)
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup finely chopped savory stuff (roasted red peppers, carmelized onion, roasted garlic, finely chopped spinach, chopped steamed broccoli, crumbled bacon, slivered proscuitto, etc.)
• 1 green onion minced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (dill, basil, oregano, or thyme)
• 1 cup shredded or crumbled cheese (aged cheddar, feta, gruyere, gouda, or blue cheese)
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup half-and-half cream or buttermilk (use plain yogurt in a pinch)
• poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a food processor, combine the flours, salt, baking powder, and butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then transfer to a bowl.
3. Sitr in savory vegetables and/or meat into the dry ingredients along with the green onion, herbs, and cheese. Add just enough cream to make a soft dough (the amount you add will depend on how wet the vegetable mixture is), and stir with a fork until until the dough forms. Don't work the dough too much, the less you handle it, the flakier your scones will be. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat the dough onto and 8-inch square about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into four 4-inch squares. Slice each square crosswise to make 8 triangular scones. Set the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a pastry brust, lightly brush the tops with extra cream and sprinkle with seeds.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a cooling rack for a short time. Serve warm with butter or plain cream cheese. Makes 8 scones.

One more tip from Cinda:

"Think about complementary and classic combinations for the scones (red pepper
with oregano and cheddar cheese; spinach with dill and feta; proscuitto with
chopped olives, basil, and parmesan; cooked and crumbled italian sausage with
carmelized onions; or just get creative)."

I used bacon, cheddar cheese and chives. Hubby & sister loved these and eagerly devoured them. :) These are easy to whip up on a Sunday morning to go with your coffee instead of going to the coffee shop to buy them or as a snack to go in your lunch. Happy Baking my Friends!