Scones, Not Stones

Scones are a misunderstood, much abused pastry. I don't know how some bakeries and coffee shops are making them, but most commercial scones I've encountered could break teeth. So, if you saw the title of the post and are hoping to find a recipe for scones that won't leave you with dentures, your wish has been granted. These scones are tender, with a delicate crumb, and are delicious for breakfast or an afternoon snack. They are also, fairly fast and easy, leaving you with fresh from the oven scones in about 30 minutes. Here is a recipe I adapted from Joy of Cooking for Apple Ginger Spice Scones.

You will need:

2 cups Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

1 Tbsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger

1/4 tsp. Allspice

6 Tbsp. (¾ stick) cold, Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup Dried Apple, chopped

2 Tbsp. Candied Ginger, chopped

1 Egg

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

2 to 3 tsp. More Heavy Cream

More Sugar

Mixing Bowl

Pastry Blender

Baking Sheet

Preheat the over to 425 degrees.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and allspice together in a fairly large mixing bowl. Drop in the 6 tablespoons of cold butter in 1 tablespoon pats, and coat them with flour before you begin "cutting" them in (see picture).

Cut in the butter with 2 knives or a pastry blender (I recommend the pastry blender, because it will produce a finer texture) and separate them as you work, until the largest pieces are the size of peas and the rest resemble breadcrumbs (see picture). Do not allow the butter to melt or form a paste with the flour.

Whisk the 1/2 cup heavy cream with the egg and vanilla in a separate bowl, and then add to the flour mixture, mixing with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Then gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently against the sides and bottom of the bowl until it all loose pieces are incorporated and the bowl is fairly clean. Separate the dough into two equal balls, and pat each ball of dough into a 6-inch round about ¾ inch thick and cut each into 8 wedges and place at least ½ inch apart on the baking sheet (see picture).

Brush the tops with the extra heavy cream, and liberally sprinkle them with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown (see picture).

Let cool on a rack or serve warm. I highly recommend enjoying them with a cup of tea.

No Glop Apple Pie

I love apple pie. I do not love apple glop pie, which is what I find in most people's apple pies. I get that some people love the gooey, syrupy, gelatinous, primordial ooze with apple bits that you find in most apple pies. I'm just not one of those people. I want my apple pie to look and taste like apples. It should not have flour, or cornstarch, or have the filling cooked beforehand. This is my apple pie. It tastes like apples.

You will need:

7-8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp. Allspice

1/4 tsp. Ground Clove

1 Tbsp. Butter

1Tbsp. Heavy Cream (optional)

More Sugar (optional)

Pie Crusts

A Mandolin Slicer

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Peel and core all your apples, and then slice them on your mandolin on the thinnest setting you have. Trust me. The thinner the better. Then cut them in half, to make little half circles of apple (see picture). Really, trust me.

At this point you should also put your bottom crust in your pie plate, and make sure there is no air trapped between the crust and the pan. I'm not including a pie crust recipe, because I use my mother's secret pie crust recipe, and I won't reveal it. You'll never make me talk!

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and spices, and mix them up well (see picture). I'll use this time to give a big shout out to Penzey's Spices. They're great. When I was growing up, there was only really one type of cinnamon available, and it was whatever McCormick was offering at the grocery store. Now, there are tons of different types of your staple spices available to you. I highly recommend finding a Penzey's and smelling a couple of types of cinnamon, and deciding which one you like best.

Okay, start laying out your apple slices in concentric circles. It looks really pretty while you're making it, and it kills me that no one gets to see this part of it when it's finished (see picture). But you aren't doing it to be pretty, you're doing it to make tightly packed, thin layers of apple. Sprinkle every layer with the sugar/spice mixture, starting off with a light sprinkle on the first layer, and gradually getting heavier as you layer to the top. Some spice will trickle down, so you want it top heavy, or the bottom will be very spicy.

When you are done layering your apples, sugar, and spice, dot the top with bits of butter (see picture). (The apples should be piled at least and inch and a half higher than the edge of your pie pan. The apples will shrink when you bake them, so you want it to start high.) Then place your second crust on top and seal the edges. Make sure to cut some vents into the top crust. I like to cut a decorative leaf pattern, but a few slashes will do the trick.

Now, at this point, because The Physicist has a sweet tooth, I brush some heavy cream lightly over the top, and sprinkle the crust with more sugar.

Place your pie on a cookie sheet (pies sometimes bubble up, and you want something to catch the drips so they don't burn). Then, using small strips of aluminum foil, cover just the edges of your crust. Slide into the oven to bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the crust covers, and bake for another 20 minutes. The pie should look golden (see picture). Cool for 20 minutes, then serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I should warn you, it tastes like apples.

Hollandaise: A Three Hand Sauce

I'm a huge fan of sauces. Luckily, The Physicist LOVES making sauces. But there is one sauce that I'm in charge of, and that's Hollandaise. I learned to make hollandaise when I was sixteen, after having it at a restaurant, and have tweaked the recipe to the point where I think it's perfect. Just adding a few more ingredients, you can also get Bearnaise sauce, which is just pure heaven over beef (see picture).



The trick to a good hollandaise is that you need no distractions, and preferably three hands. When conditions are perfect, it's a two person sauce. One person to make the sauce, and one to run interference with the phone, other distractions (like children), and to get the butter out of the fridge at the critical moment. It can be done by one person, but two just makes things easier.


You'll need:

4 egg yolks

2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

A stick of cold butter (1/2 cup)

A small saucepan

A mixing spoon (not a whisk)


I like to put the egg yolks and the lemon juice together in the pan, before ever putting the pan on the stove. Stir 'em together real good, so you have a solid bright yellow sauce. Now, before you turn on your stove, is the last time for about 20 minutes you can do anything other than stir this sauce, so get your affairs in order. If need be, the saucepan can be left on your counter like this for 10-15 minutes (see picture).


Phone off? Pets and children locked up? (These things can also be handled by your third hand.)

Okay. Turn on your burner to the lowest possible setting, put half of your cold stick of butter (1/4 cup) into the egg yolk mixture (leave the other half in the fridge), and then place your saucepan over the low low heat. Start stirring. Constantly. Not fast, but constantly. I like to use my spoon to swirl the half stick of butter around (see picture). Keep stirring until the butter is completely melted. The second it is melted, add the other half of the stick of butter, preferably, using your third hand, so the stirring NEVER stops. Keep stirring.

If it ever looks like you might be getting a curd (pretty much, you accidentally made a bit of scrambled egg), just take your saucepan off the heat, and continue to stir until the curds reincorporate into the sauce, or if they are big curds, you stop getting more, and then return the pan to the low heat to continue to thicken. Your sauce got a bit too hot for a second. It happens to the best of us. If you catch it early (you see almost streaks in the sauce), you can recover, and you won't see curds in the final sauce. If you get big curds, don't worry too much, the sauce will still be delicious, just will have some lumps, and won't be too pretty.

Stir the sauce until the second half of the butter is melted. And then, keep stirring. When the sauce is done, it will become ever so slightly lighter, but if you're not that good at determining color, here's another way to check it: Unfinished sauce is the consistency of milk. Finished sauce is like a thin pancake batter (see picture).
Serve immediately.

It's great on asparagus, chicken, fish, and artichokes.

Now, if you want to make Bearnaise sauce, it's the same thing, just add 1 Tablespoon White Wine (or white wine vinegar) in with the lemon juice, and at the end, add 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon, 1/2 tsp. dried chervil, and a 1/2 tsp. onion powder. Bearnaise is amazing on red meat.

Baby Santoku

The Physicist loves his Santoku knife. He even has a slicer that has the same scalloping in the sides, because his chef knife cut so nice. He cuts everything with that knife. But . . it's HUGE. I'd need to chop a clove of garlic, and he'd hand me that thing, and I'd look at him like he was crazy or at least not a fan of my fingers.

So, last year, I asked Santa to leave me a smaller sized one. Christmas morning, there it was in my stocking: my very own Baby Santoku. Now, *I* use it for everything. It's the perfect size for me, and it really is one of the greatest knives I've ever used.

Post Party Mac & Cheese

The Physicist and I just had our Halloween party, and, as usual, still have a fridge full of party food. Which is why I'm blogging about my second greatest invention: Post Party Mac & Cheese! (My first greatest invention is Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.) With a little forethought, you can be enjoying a giant tray of mac & cheese the week after your party. I usually buy a bunch of cheeses for a party that have bold flavors, but flavors that generally go together. We tend to go for green and orange cheeses for the Halloween party, so I had Munster, Aged Gouda, Wasabi Gouda, Sage Derby, Caramelized Onion Cheddar, and a Goat Cheese. I also had leftover cauliflower and broccoli from my veggie tray. I caramelized some onion I had laying around, and cooked up some leftover bacon.

The Physicist (my personal saucier) made a blond roux, (we'll blog about roux later) added milk, then the goat cheese, and then half of my shredded cheese (we ended up having about a pound!). I boiled up and drained some macaroni noodles, and added the chopped cauliflower and broccoli, the bacon, the caramelized onions, and the remaining cheese. We put the whole thing in a large baking dish, covered it in some panko, and baked it at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. It's a bit of a heart attack waiting to happen, so only have it 2-3 times a year, which is about our average for big parties.

Caramelized Onions

I'm a huge fan of caramelized onions, and I like to put them in all kinds of things (like the mac&cheese I'll be blogging about tomorrow). BUT . . . they take time. On the bright side, they don't require constant attention, in fact, they do better if you ignore them awhile. I'd recommend making them while puttering around the house on a weekend, then storing them in the fridge 'til you need 'em. Here's a simple guide to making them.

You'll need:

An onion

Olive Oil

Frying Pan

Spoon

Timer

Rough chop your onion or slice it in rings, then cut the rings in half. Here, I've only done about half an onion, since I only wanted enough for my mac&cheese.

Put your frying pan over medium heat, with enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Probably less than a Tablespoon. Add your onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

When your onions are translucent (see picture), reduce heat to very low, make sure they are in an even layer, set your timer for 15 minutes . . . and walk away. DO NOT STIR for 15 minutes.

After about 15 minutes, give 'em a good stir, try to get the whites sides down and the brown up, set your timer for 15 minutes and walk away again.

After another 15 minutes, repeat your stir process. They should be beginning to get some caramelization now (see picture). Set your timer for 15, and walk away.

At 45 minutes, they should be fairly brown (see picture). This is where you'd stop if you were The Physicist. It's actually where he asked me to stop. And sure, if you like your onions just caramelized, without blackness or crispy bits, then this is when you should take your onions off the heat.

But if you like the taste of carbon, stir and set your timer for another 10 minutes.

This (see picture) is how I like my caramelized onions. I like 'em black and crispy, I think they add loads more flavor this way.

At this point, you can add them to your recipe, sprinkle them on a salad or meat, or let them cool to room temp and store them in an air tight container for use later in the week.

NaBloWriMo

So, I've decided instead of participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I will participate in NaBloWriMo (National Blog Writing Month). Prepare yourselves for 30 days of recipes, cooking tips, and epic love letters to my favorite kitchen gadgets (oh, Kitchen Aid Mixer, how I love you so). I have 30 days of topics written out, but they may change if I get inspired at the grocery store. The Physicist may also be doing some posting this month (we might finally get his posts on home brew beer and soda!), but he's been really busy with the whole "Physics" thing, so it might not happen. I'm very excited, since this is my first NaBloWriMo, and hope to make it the whole 30 days! Wish me luck!