Oh my darling
I’m old enough to remember the songs we sang in grammar school and not old enough to forget what it was like to say a prayer in Public School. Horrified? Yes, indeed-y, I do. We also said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, put our heads down on the desk to “rest”, sat in the stairwells and hid under desks around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis (we were safe there, right?) and sang religious Christmas Carols in December in Public School…… Who else out there remembers? Not many, I’m guessing.
Some of the songs we sang I wonder if kids today have ever even heard of. Waltzing Matilda was a favorite of mine. I am still reminded of this song every time I see or think of one of my favorite movies, The Thorn Birds. Farmer in the Dell and other songs were for jump-rope marathons and a long list of others come to mind. Also, My Darling Clementine.
I’ve been scouring the stores already looking for Winter Citrus. I’m not sure what that means. There are cakes I’m ready to bake and lists of experiments to do before we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m always intrigued by the subtle differences in flavor between citrus varieties. Last week I wanted a box of Clementines for snacking and low and behold, the usual box is gone. This year they are all in bags – at least that’s what I’ve seen so far.
Anyway, today’s a beautiful day for a morning baking experiment and so I followed my palate around the kitchen. I was going to do a clean-flavored corn scone (I crave corn muffins just about every day) but I decided to incorporate some of my clementines into the mix to brighten the flavor. Corn can be very flat tasting and even pasty if you’re not careful.
Citrus of all kinds is the perfect brightener for corn. There are no Blood Oranges yet and the Meyer Lemons that I saw about a week ago have disappeared. So, the Clementines were selected. Did I want segments or “supremes” as they’re known in the kitchen? Would they be bland or just right? I went looking for some recipes online and didn’t find exactly what I wanted and so I went off on my own. The one whose photo I loved was from Beth Dunham. http://bethdunham.ca/updatesnews/2014/6/7/worlds-flakiest-scones But today, I didn’t want Grand Marnier or even cranberries. Just cleaner flavor – corn with a lift from the distinctive fragrance and flavor of clementine. Here’s what happened:
CLEMENTINE-CORN SCONES WITH TOASTED PIGNOLIS – loosely adapted from Beth Dunham –
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup stone-ground corn meal
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
zest of three small clementines
8 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
scant 3/4 cup buttermilk plus 3 tbsp clementine juice, strained
egg wash
1/4 cup toasted pignoli nuts drizzled with egg white and mixed with 1 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp clementine zest
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor whir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and clementine zest. Add butter and pulse 8-9 times until butter is about the size of small peas. Dump this mixture into a low-wide bowl. Make a well in the center.
In a measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and the clementine juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and, using a dough scraper, gently pull the dry ingredients into the wet, just until the dough begins to hold together. Knead lightly with your hands and place the dough onto a lightly-floured surface. Pat out to a 1 1/4″ height. Cut scones with a 3″ fluted biscuit cutter, re-patting dough with scraps until gone. Place on the prepared pan. Brush with egg was and top with the pignoli/sugar/clementine zest mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes, turning pan halfway through. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Serve with sweet cream butter. Enjoy!
