wild ones – 2014
Well, if nothing else, at least there is a nice selection of ideas for scone baking on this blog ……. and a bit of nostalgia and silliness here and there……..
Wild One, by Bobby Rydell was released in 1960. I’ll tell you, it scares me to death to think that I was 6 years old in 1960. But, I remember this song, which of course continues to have lasting playing life……… a cake-box sized record player and 45s anyone?
Wild Ones – in the yard today:
In my yard, and especially at this time of year, I love to go around and discover all the wild things growing, here and there – well, not the proliferation of Poison Ivy, which is literally all over the place! One of the landscape casualties this Spring was the inadvertent cutting down of my wild raspberry bushes. I am still hoping they didn’t get all of them. I have come to look forward to seeing these beautiful berries emerge, right next to my driveway, and in July, deliver a nice little gift of beautiful fruit!
I lost a lot of favorite plants – roses and some others. I am actually trying an experiment on one of my Eden Climbers that, when I hauled it out of the ground, looked beyond hope. I have stuck it in a bucket of water and, after about a week, I think it is pushing some buds! We’ll see. I guess I didn’t do a very good job telling the landscapers what to delete and what not to delete in the Spring Clean-up. I will have to be a lot more careful with this in the future!
As I was in the process of mourning the loss of the wild ones, I happened upon some beautiful organic raspberries and scoffed them up. That was the choice of this morning. I could have done the raspberry-orange version again, but, being that I am on a what’s new venture, I searched around. Inspired by perhaps my favorite layer cake combination, I decided upon Raspberry-Chocolate. As I worked away, I asked myself, why hadn’t I done these earlier?
Filling your house with the wafting scent of baking chocolate in the morning is somewhat dangerous and intoxicating, especially if you are using good chocolate. Here’s what happened:
RASPBERRY-CHOCOLATE SCONES –
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
8 tblsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 pint fresh raspberries, organic
1/3 cup good quality chocolate chips, such as Guittard
egg wash
muscavado sugar
Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor, whir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the butter cubes and pulse 8-9 times or until the butter resembles small peas. Remove the dry ingredients to a low, wide bowl. Make a well in the center.
In a measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, yogurt and almond extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and, working with a dough scraper, gently bring the dry ingredients into the wet. When the dough begins to hold together, knead with your hands to form a cohesive mass. Do not overwork the dough.
Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll out into a rectangle, about 12″ x 8″. Correct shape with a dough scraper and make sure the dough does not stick to the surface.
Arrange the raspberries and chocolate chips over all. Working from long edge, gently roll the dough up into a cylinder, working to keep uniform shape. Using the dough scraper, cut into 9 scones. Arrange on the baking sheet, cut side up, and gently correct shape into circles. Brush with egg wash on sides and top gently. Sprinkle with muscavado sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned and crunchy on top. Serve warm. Enjoy!
Adoro:
