Bakery-Style Scones

We go through a lot of half-and-half at home between my sister and I. We each have a minimum of a morning cup of coffee every day during the week, and very often more whenever we can make it work, each with a little dollop of half-and-half because that’s the only way to drink it in my opinion. There are no boundaries on the weekend. In other words, we also go through a lot of coffee too.

Recently, when I walked to the neighborhood grocery store to pick up a pint of half-and-half they were out of my brand, at least in the pint size. But they did have the quart, so why not? Well, we did a good job working our way through that container, but as 3 weeks were quickly approaching I decided something had to be done to use up what was left. After thinking for a bit, I decided on scones because, well, scones. :) If you’re in the same predicament as I was, give this recipe a try, they’re delish!

I made this recipe twice. The first time I made a 1.5x batch to get a really nice sized scone. They turned out beautifully, but unfortunately they were too salty. Since they just have a little sugar in them, as scones should, the salt was overpowering. Still completely edible with a nice spoonful of homemade jam, but certainly not top notch. I made them again with half the salt and a smidge more sugar and enjoyed them much more. The original recipe also calls for 2 tablespoons of milk and 4 tablespoons of cream. I just replaced all of the liquid with the half-and-half and it worked great. Perfect way to use up that last little bit of the carton!

Bakery-Style Scones
Adapted from Serious Eats
Ingredients

• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups, spooned; 255g), plus more for dusting

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 ounces cold unsalted butter (4 tablespoons; 55g), cut into 1/2-inch cubes

• 6 ounces roughly chopped milk chocolate (1 cup; 170g)

• 6-8 ounces half-and-half (or a mix of milk [2 ounces] and heavy cream [4 ounces])

• ~1 cup mixed nuts and dried fruit (I used almonds, pecans, cranberries and cherries)

Directions
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 400°F (204°C). Sift flour into a medium bowl, then whisk in baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add butter and use a pastry blender, or two forks, to work the butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal. Add nuts and dried fruit and toss to combine, then stir in the 1/2 and 1/2 to form a soft (but not wet) dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-inch round. Cut into 6 or 8 wedges with a chef’s knife or a bench scraper. Sprinkle generously with coarse sugar, and arrange on a parchment-lined half sheet pan. Bake until puffed and golden, 25-30 minutes. Serve warm with clotted cream, jam, or a spoonful of whipped cream.

Scones are best eaten the day they are made. They do freeze well however if you have leftovers. When ready to eat, thaw to room temperatures. Reheat in a preheated 425 degree oven for 4-6 minutes until heated through and crisp, but before they start to bake through again and dry out.

Peaches and Cream Cupcakes

It's an extra special birthday today, my mom turns 60!! I can hardly believe it! In honor of this special occasion, Lara, my dad and I threw a little shindig for her this past Sunday. Family members and friends came over for a salad bar party. It was pretty delicious if I do say so. Today I want to share the best part of the party - the cake of course! Since it's August, and my mom absolutely LOVES peaches, I decided to make a peaches and cream cupcake for her. While I love having the opportunity to make a cake, at a party like this I decided cupcakes would be easier to serve, and would be easier for everyone to eat. 

These cupcakes turned out light and fluffy, filled with sweet and delicious peaches, topped with the perfect frosting, an airy whipped mascarpone and cream frosting. It doesn't get much better than this for an August birthday. I highly recommend both the cake and the frosting. I may never go back to buttercream again!

This cupcake recipe is definitely a keeper. It was simple, and baked up 24 perfect cupcakes. I've been looking for a go-to vanilla cupcake and I think this is it. To turn it into a peach cupcake all I did was dice up a few peaches from the farmers market, let them drain in a colander for a few minutes, tossed them with a little flour and threw them into the batter at the very end. It worked out great. Because peaches have such a gentle flavor, the cupcakes aren't overly "peachy", but they lend a hint of fruitiness to the cake, and you get a sweet surprise every few bites.

I've been wanting to try a mascarpone frosting for some time now and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity. There was no doubt that I would love this frosting, and I was not disappointed! This was the easiest, most delicious frosting I have ever tried. It took all of 2 minutes to whip together, didn't involved any sticky and messy powdered sugar, and tastes absolutely divine! I may never make another white frosting again. The only downside to it is you have to refrigerate it once made, since all that is in it is cream and mascarpone! But that's okay, it's a compromise worth making!

Happy Birthday Mom!! Lookin pretty good! Love you!

Peach Cupcakes
Adapted from Baking A Moment
Ingredients

• 3 cups (14 ounces) all purpose flour
• 1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened, cut into small cubes
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup (8 ounces) milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Drop or two of almond extract (optional)
• 2-3 peaches, cut into small pieces and placed in a colander to drain

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Add the butter and mix on low speed, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (2-3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, and scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are well-combined.

Combine the milk, vanilla extract and almond extract (if using) in a measuring cup. Beat half this mixture into the flour/butter/eggs. Beat on medium speed for 1½ minutes, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk mixture, and beat for another 30 seconds.

Toss drained peach pieces with a small amount of flour. Gently mix into the batter until well combined.

Fill paper liners ⅔ full with batter, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool completely before topping with mascarpone frosting (recipe below). 

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Mascarpone Frosting

From

Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese
• 2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

Beat all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment just to soft peaks. You need to beat it enough so that it is firm enough to pipe onto the cupcakes, but don't overbeat or mixture will curdle. 

Chocolate Chip Cream Scones

This semester my sister Lara and I started a new weekly tradition. Once a week, usually Wednesday or Thursday mornings, we head over to our favorite local bakery, Wealthy Street Bakery, where we split a pastry and enjoy a cup of super dark coffee with plenty of half and half. It has probably become my favorite time of the week! Each week it can be difficult to decide what to get to eat, the options are all so good. There are muffins, scones, croissants danishes, cinnamon rolls, breakfast cookies, babka and bread pudding to name just a few! There is absolutely no way I can name a favorite breakfast treat, but I do have to say that I absolutely love the flavor and texture of their scones. They are so light and soft, yet slightly crisp, light but not overly delicate. In the last few months I have been on the search for a scone recipe that may somewhat compare to these little beauties. Here is one attempt at this difficult and important challenge.

I decided to start by trying Martha Stewart's scones from her Baking Handbook, which is a wonderful cookbook and has never let me down. This was no exception. These scones turned out delicious, with a great texture and were beautiful too. I have been enjoying them all week with a smile on my face.

With that said, these scones were not exactly like the scones from Wealthy Street. They are not quite as tender, and just a little too crunchy. Instead of being lightly crisp on the outside, they are slightly firmer, not quite as light. I fixed this a little by turning the temperature of the oven down partway through baking which worked very well, but they were still a little harder than I want. Still delicious of course, but not the texture I am looking for. However, the flavor is excellent and the scone overall is fantastic. Definitely something I can make again (after I find the copycat recipe I want so badly!). Give these scones a try, they really will make your breakfast extra special.

Look at the height of that scone

Sugary and crunchy top, beautiful 

golden brown

Chocolate Chip Cream Scones

Adapted From: Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed
• 1 egg yolk
• sanding sugar for sprinkling

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Mix in chocolate chips

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the cream into the flour mixture. Slowly draw the dry ingredients over the cream, gradually gathering and combining the dough until just coming together. If it is too dry, add more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands press and pat the dough into a circle, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a parchment lined baking sheet; cover with plastic and freeze until very firm, at least 2 hours, or overnight. (At this point you can freeze the unbaked scones in a resealable plastic bag until ready to bake, up to 3 weeks.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, lightly beat egg yolk with a couple tablespoons of cream or milk; brush over the tops of the scones and sprinkle generously with sanding sugar, if using. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the heat to 325 degrees and continue baking for 15 to 20 more minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm, or at room temperature. 

Tiramisu

I don't know about you, but when I think of Italian desserts the first thing that pops into my mind is tiramisu. I actually made this tiramisu last summer, and just never had the chance to post it. I decided that this was the week to fix that problem.  Booze soaked lady fingers, coffee, mascarpone, heavy cream and a dusting of cocoa, delicious! I can't say that I'm much of a tiramisu connoisseur, but that doesn't really matter, all I know is that this tiramisu was so yummy! Cream and rich and full of flavor. If you are looking to make an impressive Italian dessert for a crowd, this is sure to fit the bill.

Just to warn you, this recipe makes a huge batch of tiramisu. It is quite rich so you don't really need a lot of it at once, not that I will judge you if you do! You do need to make it ahead of time so that it has time to chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours. This makes it a really easy dessert to serve to guest then, you don't have to do anything except cut it up when you are ready to serve. 

The whole process is quite simple, but it is a little time consuming. There are a lot of steps with making the custard, soaking the lady fingers and then layering everything together but none of it is technically difficult, plus there is a lot of opportunity for snooping! 

This is a fantastic dessert for crowd. If you happen to have some left (I had plenty leftover) I found that it froze quite well. I cut it up and threw it in the freezer. When you want a little snack all you have to do is pull it out. You can eat it straight from the freezer which I found turned it into kind of like an ice cream sandwich, or you can let it warm up a little bit and it will be as good as new! However you like it, enjoy!

Tiramisu

From America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups strong brewed coffee, room temperature
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons instant espresso granules
• 9 tablespoons dark rum (I used Kahlua, I didn't have any dark rum)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1-1/2 pounds mascarpone
• 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
• 14 ounces (42 to 60, depending on size) dried ladyfingers (savoiardi)
• 3-1/2 Tablespoons cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed
• 1/4 cup grated semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (optional)

Directions

Stir coffee, espresso, and 5 tablespoons rum in a wide bowl or baking dish until espresso dissolves; set aside.

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat yolks at low speed until just combined. Add sugar and salt and beat at medium-high speed until pale yellow, 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once or twice. Add remaining 4 tablespoons rum and beat at medium speed until just combined, 20 to 30 seconds; scrape bowl. Add mascarpone and beat at medium speed until no lumps remain, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down bowl once or twice. Transfer mixture to large bowl and set aside.

In now-empty mixer bowl (no need to clean bowl), beat cream at medium speed until frothy, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Increase speed to high and continue to beat until cream holds stiff peaks, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes longer. Using rubber spatula, fold one-third of whipped cream into mascarpone mixture to lighten, then gently fold in remaining whipped cream until no white streaks remain. Set mascarpone mixture aside.

Working one at a time, drop half of ladyfingers into coffee mixture, roll, remove and transfer to 13 by 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. (Do not submerge ladyfingers in coffee mixture; entire process should take no longer than 2 to 3 seconds for each cookie.) Arrange soaked cookies in single layer in baking dish, breaking or trimming ladyfingers as needed to fit neatly into dish.

Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers; use rubber spatula to spread mixture to sides and into corners of dish and smooth surface. Place 2 tablespoons cocoa in fine-mesh strainer and dust cocoa over mascarpone.

Repeat dipping and arrangement of ladyfingers; spread remaining mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers and dust with remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons cocoa. Wipe edges of dish with dry paper towel. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours. Sprinkle with grated chocolate, if using; cut into pieces and serve chilled.