last of the christmas baking - scones

I bake scones for my Mother and Grandmother as part of their Christmas box.  They love these and I am quite fond of them as well.  When we go to the beach, scones have a tendency to be our breakfast of choice.

Scones

1 cup heavy whipping cream soured with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup melted butter

sugar for dredging

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl put the soured cream, egg, and sugar.  Mix well.  Add the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.   Mix.  

The dough will not have come together yet.  Add the melted butter and mix everything together.  The dough should have the feel of a biscuit dough but look more like cellulite.  

Pat the dough out to a 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness.  You can roll it out if you wish but I find patting is enough.

Cut the scones out with a circle cutter or glass.  Roll all sides in sugar.

Put on a baking sheet covered with a silspat or parchment paper.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and done (check the sides)

I particularly like these with homemade butter and jam.  After a few days, I toast them.  My Grandmother freezes hers to make them last longer.  Yummy in the tummy!

last of the christmas cookies - sables

I found a recipe in the nytimes.com years ago, Dorie Greenspan's Master Recipe for Sables.  It looked good but just a tad to fussy for me.  It is really only a shortbread recipe with eggs but those eggs make such a difference!  

Sables

1 cup butter (2 sticks, the highest fat content you can find makes a better cookie, like Plugra but works even without that)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 large egg yolks

2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream it together well.

Like I said, the only difference from shortbread is the egg yolks, so add the egg yolks to the bowl now and mix well.  Add the flour and salt and mix.

Prepare baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.  Take a small spoon full of dough. Roll in a ball. Place on baking sheet.  I mush with a glass bottom just so the look different then shortbread.

(At this point, if you have read the Dorie Greenspan recipe you will have noticed I left out a lot of fuss.  This is really how I do it and they turn out as good as the fussy way.  I have tried both).

When the baking sheet is full, bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

The Christmas cookie baking is done.  I did not say Christmas baking, just the cookie portion.

More tomorrow.

more christmas baking - molasses crinkles

I am continuing the Christmas baking.  My boxes will be out late because I hit a wall due to being anemic.  The iron is helping but when I am done, there is no way I can push any farther through.

One of the cookies I added to the Christmas boxes a couple years ago was molasses crinkles.  These should never be kept in the house or only baked when you know the hordes will be descending.  Then make a double batch so everyone can have their fill!  (smile)

Molasses Crinkles (old common recipe, but a good one!)

3/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses ( I have used every strength including blackstrap and nobody complains.. munch, munch, munch)

1 egg

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

granulated sugar to roll them in.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Put the sugar, brown sugar, and molasses in a bowl.  Cream together.

Add the eggs and mix well.

Put the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt in the bowl.  Carefully mix into the egg mixture.  I say carefully because this when I normally get flour in the middle of my back somehow!

If you want, you can refrigerate at this point for a hour or more but I never do because I just do not want to take the time.

Put a bit of granulated sugar in a bowl.  Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats (or aluminum foil like when I grew up).  Take  a teaspoon of dough out of the bowl.  Roll into a ball.  Roll in the sugar in the bowl.  Place on the baking sheet.  Repeat until the baking sheet is full.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until set.  I actually like them a little underbaked so that is why there is a range.

Cup of tea.  These cookies.  Life does not get much better.

Enjoy and relax!

white elephant present

Russell had a white elephant gift exchange for work.  I suggested that I make a bag for his presents.

I took four dish towels and cut them up, stitched them together, and made a bag.

We found some tool packs that came to the price limit he was told.  We always have really good luck with people liking tools for white elephant gifts or wedding gifts.

Stuff the tools in.  Is that nice or what?  There is no need to throw away the wrapping or figure out how to recycle it.  And the person who received it LOVED it!

sourdough oatmeal bread

I obviously bake a lot.  I have been making our daily bread for years.  I found the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown a great learning tool.  I get teased by how many copies I have of it. But there are reasons for that many copies:  it is falling apart, I give it away, I take it every where with us traveling, I take notes in it....

Lately, I have wanted to make oatmeal bread because a bowl of oatmeal has not really settled.  I experimented a bit and this is what I came up with.

Sourdough Oatmeal Bread

sourdough starter

3/4 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 1/2 cup water

1 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

4 - 6 cups flour

The night before, you are going to replenish your starter by mixing the starter, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup flour together in a large bowl.  The bowl needs to be big enough for all the bread dough.

Also, put the oatmeal in a thermos and cover with the 1 1/2 cup water (you can also do this in a bowl wrapped with a towel).

The next morning, take out a couple of tablespoons of the sourdough starter for next time.  Put 1 cup of water in with the starter and the oatmeal.  Mix well.  Add the brown sugar, olive oil, and 3 cups flour.  It should be the consistency of pancake batter.  Let sit about one and half hours.

Add the salt and another two cups of flour.  You should be at the point where it is hard to stir.  Get your hands in there and start kneading.  I then turn the bread out on to the counter and knead some more.  The bread should be fairly smooth when you are done.  Sometimes I knead for ten minutes to release stress but you do not have to.

Cover and let rise for a couple of hours.

Punch down and let rise for one more hour or until double (my house is cold so sometimes that takes many hours)

Grease two loaf pans with butter.

Divide the dough in half.  Shape each half into a loaf and place in a pan.  Cover and let rise one last time for a bout 45 minutes (or in my cold house, until double)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The oatmeal makes it very moist and without this length of baking it will not bake all the way through.

This bead really tastes of oats.  I like it toasted with butter and jam.  I have not tried it as a grilled cheese sandwich because there is no cheese or cheese like substances currently in the house.  I bet it would be fabulous!

Bread really is that easy.  Some patience but easy.  ASK questions and I will help.