Savoury Scones

Lu challenged me to make something that orginated somewhere fabulous. I've been missing Scotland and the carefree feeling I associate with my time there. I had every intention of making scones and was debating between lemon blueberry and chocolate cherry, when a recipe for bacon scones from Brown Eyed Baker landed in my inbox.

Here's the recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, thinly sliced
10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into 1-inch pieces
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 large egg
2 tsp. water

*I used lemon juice mixed with 2%milk instead of buttermilk

Cook the bacon. When it cools tear it into one inch pieces.

Mix the flour and baking powder and cut in the butter until the chunks aren't any bigger than peas.

Stir in the cheese, onions and bacon pieces.

Add the buttermilk until the dough sticks  to itself. Roll into a ball and put it on a floured surface. Roll the ball out until it is in a circle about 8 inches wide and (most importantly I think) 1/2 inch thick. My circle was about 12 inches wide but was 1/2 inch thick.

Cut into 8-10 wedges and coat with the eggwash made from the whisked egg and water.

Bake on parchment paper or a silicone mat for 15-22 minutes. Mine took 15 minutes. They should be lightly brown on top and not sticky in the middle.  I tested mine with a toothpick.

I think these were fantastic and I definitely want to make them again. I made them for us to have for a quick breakfast tomorrow (Easter) before driving to my sister in law's church but I ate 1.5 of them tonight!

They have a wonderful flavor and texture. I guess its the egg wash that gives them a the wonderful, yet slighty eggy taste? Whatever it is, it adds the perfect touch!

HOTGLUE: Hurry up and make your cupcakes chica! And let  me know when you've got another challenge for me!

Holy Cannoli!!

Less than 50 days until graduation, but with this workload I'd rather be anywhere else but here...somewhere warm, exotic, with good looking men and even better looking desserts! Rach, I bet you agree, so your next challenge is to make a treat that originates in any one of these wonderful, foreign places. Cannolis from Italy, Croissants from France, Baklava from Greece, Flan from Spain, Scones from Scotland! Anything from somewhere beautiful, so that we can live vicariously through our taste buds. Good luck!

pop Pop POP!

Tarts, that is.
I thought I would try my hand at making a homemade version of a yummy breakfast treat. I had lovely pictures and guidance from Brown Eyed Baker. However, mine did not turn out quite as picturesque. Rather, they had the crumply look of biscuits. However, they tasted fabulous! I made strawberry but now I want to experiment with other flavors, like peach and nutellaa and of course, chocolate peanutbutter banana.
Here's what happened:
First, I couldn't open the new jar of strawberry jam we bought from the Amist store, so I waited for Mike to wake up from his nap and open it for me. Husbands sure are handy. ;)
I combined two tablespoons of flour with 1 tablespoon of water and 3/4 cup of the abovementioned jam in a saucepan. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for two minutes and stired frequently. I then let it cool down.

While the jam mixture was cooling I mixed together 2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I worked in two sticks of salted butter with knives, until the chunks were pea size. I whisked together an egg and 4 tablespoons of milk, and added it to the bowl. I kneaded the dough togehter and divided it in half.  I rolled out one piece of the dough and cut it into 7 rectangularish shapes, though the recipe called to make 9.

I put them on the pan and spooned filling onto each piece, trying to leave a 1/2 inch on each side. I rollded out the second part of the dough into 7 of the same size/shape pieces and placed them on top, pressing the edges together.
I let the pastries sitt in the fridge for 3 minutes, uncovered, and then cooked them 25-30 minutes at 350F. I then ate one, scalded my tongue and forgot to take a picture of the final result.
But trust me, they were fabulous.
LU--- Your next challenge is to make, and decorate a cupcake that tastes like a cocktail/drink Will you  choose a margarita? pina colada? strawberry daquiri? dr pepper? Can't wait to find out!

What to do with leftover mango flavored cream cheese icing?

This question has tormented me since I made the mango cupcakes. I tossed around the idea of making mango cinnamon rolls, but figured I would get stuck eating them myself. Then, I found out we would be having company for dinnner Friday night so I decided to make an Amish Cake, top it with the frosting instead of brown sugar and nuts, and then pipe whipped cream and fruit along the base of the cake.The cake was simple to bake, and frost. But I totally should have left the whip cream off the edges. It totally didn't pipe out of the bag in lines, but in clumps, so it looked really sloppy. And I didn't fully read the iced the cake recipe, until after I'd iced the cake, so I didn't realize that it was best served warm. Whoops!
Amish Cake
1/2 cup butter2 cup brown sugar2 cup buttermilk2sp baking soda2 tsp vanilla3 cup flour
Cream together butter and brown sugar.Add buttermilk, baking soda, vanilla and flour. Bake for 40 minutes at 350F in a greased pan.
The recipe goes on to suggest mixing together6 tbsp melted buter4 tbsp milk1 c brown sugasr3/4 favorite nuts
and then putting it ontop of the cake and baking an additional 10 minutes or until bubbly

B is for Boston...Cream Pie!

For the past few weeks my mind has been plagued with making graduate school decisions. Where I want to go, where I don't, and sending out many letters with these decisions. It hasn't been very easy, as all these decisions entail leaving my loved ones and everything that is familiar to me. At the same time, I feel a sense of excitement when I think about all the goods things that await me, no matter where I'll be. And in the past few days, the school that I applied to in Boston has definitely been the frontrunner. It's a great school in a great place, and when my dad and I went to visit I loved everything about it: the history, Irish pubs on every corner, and the beautiful harbor. So, in honor of my (maybe) new home in the fall, I made Boston Cream Pie!

I found this recipe on a Paula Deen forum, adapted from a Paula Deen recipe for BCP cupcakes

Ingredients

-1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 small box of instant vanilla pudding mix, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup sour cream

Chocatate Ganache:

-6 1 oz. squares of bittersweet chocate, 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Mix and bake 2 round cakes according to directions on the box. Cool completely.2. In a large bowl mix together pudding, whipping cream, sugar, milk and sour cream. Beat at medium speed until you get stiff peaks. Consitency shoud be that of thick pudding.

3. Cut top off one of cakes to get flat surface. Cover top of cut cake with filling and put second cake on top.

4. Make the chocolate ganache: use double boiler and melt chocate and cream together. Stir regularly so chocolate won't burn. Once smooth whisk in sugar and continue until smooth. Put ganache in fridge until it is spreadable consistency (about 30 mins)

5. Spread ganache on cake and store in fridge.

This was surprisingly easy to make! My only issue was that the second cake, the one on the top, craked in the middle when I placed it on there, but that's something I think I could have fixed with a different kind of cake mix (maybe less moist) or more careful handling. The amount of chocolate ganache the recipe made was also a bit more than I expected, but when we ate the dessert it wasn't overpowered by chocolate. In all, a very successful venture. Now if only understanding Boston accents was as easy...

Offically On Board with the Mango Tango

I took ballroom dancing lessons in high school and learned how to tango. But up until today I'd never tried a mango. I'd had a strawberry mango smoothie but I'd never just eaten a mango. And boy was it delish.

Okay, so what if they're sitting on the washer. There was no other free space!!

So after my first taste of mango, I went on to make mango cupcakes using....*GASP* a boxed mix as my basis. I initally did not want to use the box mix. I wanted to make a yellow cake batter and add in the mango.  But the recipe promised, that with a few modifications I wouldn't be able to taste the "storebought fake sweet taste". So I thought I'd try it. Now, if I'd been smart I would have made 1 batch of cupcakes with the box and one compeltely from scratch and then asked people which they prefered. But I'd didn't plan ahead so I'll have to try that experiment later. Perhaps, with chocolate mini cupcakes.

So, for the cupcakes you mix together one yellow cake box mix with 4 eggs, 1/3 cup canola oil and 3/4 cup of buttermilk and 1 cup of mashed mango, instead of the ingredients/amounts that the box called for. Bake at 350  for 15 minutes and let cool while you make the frosting.

The frosting called for 4 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup of butter 4-6 cups of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of half and half. I left out the half and half and ran out of powdered sugar after adding in 2 cups, so I stuck a cup or so of granualted sugar in the blender and it let it run until the sugar was powdered...TADA (okay, I tried smashing it to bits before dragging out the blender but it was slow going). I also added in about 4-5 tablespoons of manjo juice. I don't have an accurate measurement because I just squeezed the mango into the frosting bowl until it looked like there was enough.

And I ended up with maybe a cup of leftover frosting that I'm looking for a recipe to use them on. I'm thinking it'd be good on bity chocolate cupcakes, but since I don't have anything but chocolate chips I think I might try making an amish cake and topping it withe frosting instead of the brown sugar and nuts it called for...or maybe cinnamon rolls? What do you think?

I'm glad I added in the juice because it really added a nice mango punch to the cupcakes, which on their on had a very subtle sweet fruity flavor. The juice made a wonderful difference, and gave the frosting a pale yellow color.

Mike and I both have cupcakes to take to work tomorrow!

I liked the cupcakes and will probabbly make them again, but maybe add in some more mango and possibly some rum/ rum extract. And oh, this made 24 cupcakes!

If you want to see the original recipe you can find it here.

Mango Tango!

I don't know how to tango...but nothing else rhymes with mango! I've had a pretty rough week, with a very full schedule and a pesky little cold that snuck up on me. But a bright spot in all of it...get this: buying a mango! I absolutely adore mangos; the color, the sweetness and how much easier it makes healthy eating. I'm not sure how Rach feels about them, but I found this fabulous little recipe for Mango Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (of course there's cream cheese in it)...and I think I might just make this her next challenge! I got the recipe from http://joelens.blogspot.com/2010/05/mango-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese.html. Of course, in case mangos can't be found/aren't desired, I'm willing to accept any cupcake recipe involving a fruit ;)

Best of luck, Rach!