Breads, Biscuits, Scones Archives - Page 6 of 6

Blueberry Buckwheat Scones-Manresa

By threejamigos | January 3, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

I don’t think I will be baking any cookies for a while. Twelve recipes seemed doable but amid the whirlwind of the holidays, shopping, friends and family visiting, it turned into a daunting task. But I completed my cookie mission, finishing on New Year’s Eve… and now I NEED a BREAK!

But I do need to make something yummy today. Something that will go well with APPOINTMENT TV, that is, Downton Abbey. Yep, I admit I am a fan and tonight I will be glued to the telly watching the final season premiere. Jamie and I will be settled on the couch with a cup of tea and a treat with a British twist.

Recently, on my way home from the boathouse, I stopped at Manresa Bread in town. On the drive there, I had somehow convinced myself that I had worked out enough to enjoy a Kouign Amann-a flaky, buttery, caramelized puff pastry delight. Totally calorie worthy and boy-o-boy is it a lot of calories. Right next to the Kouign Amann, a plate of scones caught my eye. Made with buckwheat flour and fresh blueberries, they had a lovely dark bluish tinge and golden brown edge. Intrigued, I had to get one (don’t think for a minute I passed on the Kouign Amann). I promised myself I would spend some extra time in the gym the next day. Really.

Thanks to the Santa Cruz Examiner, I have the recipe for Manresa’s Buckwheat Blueberry Scones. Perfect for tonight’s Downton Abbey episode. The scone is totally delicious. The crumb is much finer, less crumbly. Like all scones and biscuits, don’t overwork the dough. I used a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour and a dough scraper to blend the cream with the flour-butter mixture. I made a quarter recipe today or my biscuit bowl above would have had considerably more dough. In addition to the buckwheat flour, the recipe calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour. The buckwheat flour gives it a flavor punch, scones with attitude.

I like recipes where the measurements are given in weights (grams) as in this one. The scale I have is not precise enough for this recipe so I rounded (yep, just like they taught us in elementary school) to the nearest whole number. Seemed to work fine. I used regular sea salt which was a bit too salty, use kosher salt next time or reduce the salt in the recipe by half. I skipped the buckwheat groats since I didn’t have any. The sprinkling of sugar was a fine finish. I will definitely be making these again!

Downton Abbey Blueberry Buckwheat Scones via Manresa

125.7 gm buckwheat (0.74 cup)
242.5 gm cake flour (1.77 c, unsifted dipped)
242.5 gm all -purpose flour (1.94 cup)
67.4 gm sugar (0.34 c)
36.6 gm baking powder (2.65 T)
16.2 gm salt (2.7 t)
204.7 gm butter (14.41 T)
420.0 gm cream (1.76 cup)
110.0 gm honey (5.4 T)
143.6 gm berries (~1 cup)
Total grams : 1611.2

Make honey cream: warm cream and honey together until honey dissolves. Cool completely, preferably overnight.
Sift all flours, baking powder, sugar and salt together.
Cut butter into 1-inch cubes
Using a stand mixer or your hands rub butter into dry ingredients until butter is pea sized
Pour in cream and mix until soft dough forms/dough comes together. Add more cream if necessary, one tablespoon at a time.
Remove bowl from mixer, scrap paddle. Mix blueberries into the dough, crumbling the dough slightly to incorporate blueberries.
Chill if you plan to bake later. If baking immediately, form dough into 85g loose balls.
Place on baking sheet two inches apart. Egg wash and top with demerara sugar and chopped buckwheat groats. Bake at 350F for 14 to 16 minutes.

Ingredients	gms	1/2 recipe	1/4 recipe
buckwheat (0.74 cup)	125.7	62.85	31.425
Cake flour	242.5	121.25	60.625
all-purpose flour (1.94 cup)	242.5	121.25	60.625
sugar (0.34 c)	67.4	33.7	16.85
baking powder (2.65 T)	36.6	18.3	9.15
salt (2.7 t)	16.2	8.1	4.05
butter (14.41 T)	204.7	102.35	51.175
cream (1.76 cup)	420	210	105
honey (5.4 T)	110	55	27.5
berries (~1 cup)	143.6	71.8	35.9

Cream Scones (Dorie is a Goddess)

By threejamigos | December 1, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

I absolutely love Dorie Greenspan, her recipes work, her writing is wonderful and most of all she comes across as a really nice person. I left a comment regarding a recipe I found on her blog, it wasn’t even her recipe but from Sarabeth’s in New York. Well the next thing you know, she contacts Sarabeth who in turn calls me to troubleshoot the recipe! WOW. That’s what I’m saying..NICE.

Scones are Made for Sharing

A favorite Dorie recipe (aside from World Peace Cookies) is Cream Scones from her Baking From My Home to Yours. They’re so easy to make, you can whip them up in a jiff. Today I brought them to our mom’s Monday morning coffee. I ran 30 minutes late due to my last minute decision to make them but no one complained. After all, I came bearing gifts, warm scones just out of the oven.

You can put just about anything you want in these scones. I threw in lemon zest and dried wild blueberries in today’s batch. Infinite possibilities exist, orange zest and cranberries, raisins, even dried corn and cherries would be a wonderful addition.

Game of Scones: The Rules

To make these I used my biscuit bowl (love it). Of course, you can use any bowl but I need to justify having a biscuit bowl. Have all your ingredients well chilled to start. You could use a food processor but the dough does come together quickly using a pastry blender or your fingers to incorporate the butter into the flour. Do not over-mix, you will see little lumps of butter in your dough and still have flour showing.

Pour the mass on the counter and knead a couple of times to bring the dough together. Shape the dough into 2 5-inch circles and cut each into 6 wedges, (the baking time was closer to 15 minutes). Brush the scones with cream before popping them into the oven.

While they’re baking I make my coffee and 20 minutes later I’m kicking my feet up, enjoying a cup of coffee and warm scones. How great is that?

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Dorie Greenspan's Cream Scones

Dorie's classic cream scones

Course Biscuits and scones

Cuisine American, British

Keyword Cream Scones

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Servings 12 scones

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

1 large egg
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Dry Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons granulated white sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 Tsp salt
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter chilled & cut into small pieces

The Add Ins:

3/4 cup currants
1 tsp vanilla extract or sub 1/2 teaspoon almond exrtract optional
clotted cream substitute creme fraiche or mascarpone
peach jam or preserves
Egg wash
2 tbsp heavy cream or egg wash
turbinado or sparkling sugar

Instructions

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

By Hand

Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly.
Pour the egg, cream and currants over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, come together. Don't overdo it. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times.

Food Processor:

You can also use a food processor. Place dry ingredients in bowl, pulse 1-2 twice to mix. Add butter and pulse 5-6 times until mixture looks like crumbs. Add egg/cream and pulse to dough just begins to clump. Do not overmix! Take mixture out of processor bowl, fold in peaches and shape dough into circles, proceed as below.

Directions for both by hand or food processor

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place it on the baking sheet.
Brush scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar
Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes (start checking at 15 min) or until their tops are golden and firm. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for them to cool to room temperature.
The scones can be frozen on the baking sheet as the cut wedges, then wrapped airtight. Don't defrost before baking- just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.
Serve with jam and clotted cream or butter

BOB….Biscuits on the Brain

By threejamigos | August 26, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Maybe its because I have two kids in college in the south, or maybe its just because who in their right mind doesn’t like biscuits, it is my current obsession. When I was a kid, scratch biscuits came out of a can with a chubby dough boy on the outside, pop the can open, ta-da, biscuits in 15 minutes!

In searching for a biscuit recipe, I learned southern families make their biscuits in a wooden bowl. These bowls are handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter. That struck a cord with me and I have been searching for a biscuit bowl of my own. A tall order here in California. I thought about having one made but I would have to make a gazillion biscuits to justify the cost. Then, I came across a Peruvian wooden bowl at NapaStyle…shallow and wide, it fit the bill. Not an actual biscuit bowl but close enough! When I visit my kid in Nashville I may continue the search for a true dough bowl but for now this is it so its time to make some biscuits!

This first recipe comes from State Magazine in Tennessee. From Tupelo Honey Cafe, not their signature AmAzing biscuit which I have had, but a nice tangy tender biscuit. A key ingredient is White Lily Self Rising Flour, available in the South, it is a softer winter wheat flour, lower protein content (King Arthur Flour has a version), perfect for biscuits.

Make sure your ingredients are cold! Mix in the butter with a pastry blender, until the butter particles are pea size. Use a light touch, don’t overmix.

I like this biscuit, but I wish the biscuit was taller, the search continues.

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Tupelo Honey Cafe Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup chilled shortening cut into pieces
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
Melted butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425˚ and position oven rack slightly below center of oven. Lightly butter a round cake pan or cast-iron skillet. In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, and salt. Snap pieces of shortening with your fingers until they’re no larger than peas. Make a well in the mixture and pour in cream and ⅔ cup of buttermilk. Using your hands, sweep in the flour and turn dough until dry ingredients are moistened and dough resembles cottage cheese, adding just enough of remaining ⅓ cup buttermilk to reach this consistency. Sprinkle rolling surface with flour. Turn dough out onto the surface and sprinkle top with flour. With floured hands, fold dough in half and pat it into a ⅓- to ½-inch-thick round, using additional flour as needed. Flour again if necessary and fold dough in half a second time. If dough is still clumpy, repeat folding process for a third time. Pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round. Dip a 2-inch biscuit cutter into the flour and cut out biscuits, ensuring you don’t twist the cutter. Place biscuits in pan, sides slightly touching. Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter and bake for 15-20 minutes, until light golden brown, rotating pan 180 degrees after 6 minutes. Remove from oven and brush biscuits again with melted butter. Yields 10 biscuits.

Best Damn Banana Bread

By threejamigos | June 12, 2015 | Comments 5 comments

Bananas for Bread

Did I get your attention? Ok, it may not be the best damn banana bread recipe as there are probably millions, but it is really yummy and very easy to make! How easy? The kids made this bread in pre-school. They would smoosh the bananas, mash the butter and sugar together and crank the sifter, and with a little (ok, a lot) of help, stir and pour the batter into the muffin tins. Over the years we have played with the recipe and added different nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, dried apricots or Nutella to the batter. It can be baked in a loaf pan or in muffin tins, your choice. It really is simple & delicious and we have Teacher Heidi to thank for the recipe!

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4 from 3 votes

Best Damn Banana Bread

Simple and delicious banana bread from my kids' pre-school days.

Course Breads, quick breads

Cuisine American

Keyword Banana Bread

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 55

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
6 ripe bananas mashed
4 beaten eggs

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp. Baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until well blended, it does not have to be light and fluffy since you want some density to your bread. Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add flour mixture and bananas to butter-egg batter alternating dry ingredients with bananas, begin with third of the flour mixture, then half of the banana, third of flour, the remaining half of bananas and end with remaining dry ingredients. Honestly, in a pinch, just dump it all in at once and stir well to combine completely. Should be fine.
For muffins, line 2-12 cup muffin tins with paper liners or butter and flour cups. Fill about 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
For loaf bread, use 2 buttered and floured 9x5 loaf pans and fill equally with batter. Bake 45-55 minutes or until tester comes out clean. The top of bread will be fairly dark when done. Cover top with tin foil if the bread begins to brown too much. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Makes 2 loaves or 2 dozen muffins

Notes

Be creative! Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips to batter and/or chopped toasted pecans or fresh blueberries. For the bread in the photos, 3 heaping teaspoonfuls of Nutella were plopped and swirled into the batter before baking. Recipe can be halved.