Happy 1st Birthday!

I have all kinds of food-related posts to catch up on, but first I wanted to share some pictures of a birthday party Shane and I attended this weekend. Actually, I guess this post is sort of food-related. Jack, our neighbor's little boy, turned 1! It took him a little while to figure out what to do with his birthday cake but once he did, he went crazy...

Scones

I would probably be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of scones. When I want to bake something and try to come up with ideas, scones would generally not be anywhere on the list. That said, I recently found myself with an enormous container of plain fat free yogurt whose expiration date was quickly approaching. I definitely didn't want to throw it away so I started looking for recipe ideas. I figured I could sub the yogurt for sour cream in a lot of baked goods, so I looked for recipes with either yogurt or sour cream as an ingredient. Nothing was really appealing to me until I found these scones on Allrecipes.com. The thing that caught my eye was that the scones had close to 900 reviews and a 5 star rating! That just seemed too good to be true but I figured if 900 people loved this recipe maybe I would too!



I threw these together as we were making dinner so I was definitely somewhat distracted but the recipe was still pretty easy. I will say to make sure you use an enormous bowl when you start with the dry ingredients. I used one of the largest bowls we have, but once I added 4 cups of flour and the rest of the ingredients, the bowl was overflowing. It made cutting in the butter quite difficult. I also always struggle with knowing how much to knead the dough. The recipe says "briefly" but that's just not clear enough for me. So, in an effort to avoid over-handling the dough, I only kneaded this for about a minute. Then I wound up cutting the dough into only 8 giant sized scones. The recipe says it makes 12 so mine were quite large. As a result, I had to bake these forever...definitely longer than the 12-15 minutes called for. I added some icing when they came out of the oven and had cooled a bit (just a combination of confectioners sugar and milk) and cut a small piece off of one to taste....and they were delicious! I'm guessing the 2 sticks of butter in the recipe has a lot to do with that. I gave the rest to my mom to bring to work today and her coworkers really seemed to enjoy them. Even people who don't typically enjoy scones thought they were great. General consensus was that these scones weren't dry like a lot of others. Maybe the yogurt had something to do with that. Who knows. I do know I will definitely be making these again. Next time I'll add the raisins or maybe something else...



Scones
from Allrecipes.com

1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup raisins (optional) (I omitted these)

In a small bowl, blend the sour cream and baking soda, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut in the butter. Stir the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture until just moistened. Mix in the raisins.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll or pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut into 12 wedges, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom.

TWD: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte!

This week's TWD was chosen by Amy of Food, Family and Fun: chocolate-banded ice cream torte! Not all of the recipes in Dorie's cookbook have pictures but this is one of the recipes that does, and it looks gorgeous! There are alternating bands of chocolate ganache and ice cream that just looked so perfect. I was excited to give this torte a try as I suspected it might be sort of like ice cream cake and we love ice cream cake at my house!

I decided to make two smaller tortes in my 4-inch springform pans because I knew those were more likely to be eaten than one large torte. Also, Dorie uses raspberry ice cream in her torte and while I think chocolate and raspberry would be a delicious combination, I knew Shane wouldn't touch raspberry ice cream and I didn't want to be stuck eating both tortes myself! So, I decided on french vanilla ice cream for our tortes. Originally I planned to make homemade ice cream to use in the torte but it just didn't happen this time. I also used semisweet chocolate instead of bittersweet for the ganache.

The recipe comes together fairly easily. The hardest part is having the patience to wait for each layer to freeze before adding the next layer on top. I found it a bit difficult to spread the layers and make sure they were perfectly level in my small pans but in the end, they didn't look half bad. I think this is the type of dessert that would impress guests as the end product looks so fancy and is so unique. As for taste, I thought it was ok. As much as I love chocolate, I often feel desserts with a lot of chocolate are too rich and this was one of those times. The ratio of chocolate to ice cream in my tortes was too high so the dominant flavor was definitely the ganache. Shane did like it though so not everyone felt the way I did. I think I'll try to make this again sometime with a different ice cream flavor and see what happens.



Thanks to Amy for the pick this week! Check out her blog for the recipe and head over to TWD to see the other tortes!

Blueberry Galette

A few weeks ago this recipe for blueberry galette was popping up left and right on my google reader. Really, it was everywhere. Given my love of blueberry treats, I starred it multiple times. Finally, I set out to make it on a lazy morning last weekend. I was a bit worried since the last galette I attempted to make gave me a decent amount of trouble. Luckily, that was not the case this time! The dough proved fairly easy to work with and the galette was absolutely delicious! I loved the cornmeal crust - the texture was wonderful and a welcome change from the typical pie crust. This was also the first blueberry recipe I made that didn't turn out soupy or runny - the filling held together beautifully on this one! I did leave out the blackberries (not a fan) and the egg wash and turbinado sugar (laziness) but maybe next time I make this I will add some raspberries and add the egg wash!





Blueberry Galette
from Meet Me in the Kitchen, originally from Cooking Light

Pastry
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup fat-free buttermilk

Filling
4 cups blueberries
2 cups blackberries (I omitted these)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1 large egg white
1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar



To prepare pastry, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a food processor; pulse two times. Add butter to flour mixture; pulse 4 to 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on, slowly add buttermilk through food chute; process just until dough forms a ball. Gently press dough into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap; cover. Chill 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Unwrap and place dough on a sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough into a 15-inch circle. Place dough and parchment on a baking sheet.

To prepare filling, combine berries and next 3 ingredients (through juice) in a medium bowl; toss gently to coat. Arrange berry mixture in center of dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold edges of dough toward center, pressing gently to seal (dough will only partially cover berry mixture).

Combine fat-free milk and egg white in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Brush dough with milk mixture; sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over dough. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour or until pastry is golden brown. Let stand 30 minutes; cut into wedges.

Cheesecake Thumbprints

I've fallen so far behind in my posts that I'm going back over a week now since I made these cookies. Generally I post the same (or the next) day I make something to give some perspective. No big deal except I didn't make any notes on my impression of these cookies and my memory isn't the best, so I won't have a ton to say...

I whipped these up one afternoon because I wanted to make cookies and hadn't baked anything from my Martha Stewart cookbook in a while and as I flipped through these caught my eye. I had some cream cheese sitting in the fridge that I needed to use up so they were a great choice. They came together easily though they are a little bit more time consuming than your typical cookie since you need to roll the dough into balls, make an indentation, bake for a bit, make the indentations again, let them cool and then finally add the cheesecake filling. As usual, I was impatient and didn't refrigerate for the suggested 4 hours before trying the cookies. As soon as they were cool enough to eat, I tried one. Despite the simplicity of the ingredients I really enjoyed the cookies. They're a basic shortbread with good flavor and texture and the cheesecake filling pairs well with them!



Cheesecake Thumbprints
from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons sour cream
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add 1/4 cup sugar and a pinch of salt, and beat until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add 1 egg yolk, sour cream, and vanilla; beat until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and remaining 1/4 cup sugar on medium speed until well combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and egg yolk; beat to combine. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, mixing until just combined.

Shape level tablespoons of dough into balls, and place on prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Using the lightly floured end of a thick wooden spoon handle (or your thumb), make an indentation in the center of each ball.





Bake 10 minutes; remove from oven and make indentations again. Rotate sheets, return to oven, and bake until edges of cookies begin to turn golden, 7 to 9 minutes more. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Using a small teaspoon, fill the center of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon cream cheese filling, mounding it slightly. Return cookies to the oven, and bake until the filling is firm, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate in an airtight container at least 4 hours before serving.

I'm Back

After a rough week, we headed out to Connecticut for the weekend. Our friends Jay and Kerri were married in a beautiful park setting and could not have had better weather! We had a great time and I think it was just what we needed. Hopefully I'll get caught up with the blog later today or tomorrow at the latest but for now a few pics from our weekend!

TWD: Granola Grabbers!

This week's TWD almost didn't happen. It's been a rough few days for me and I haven't felt terribly motivated to update the blog. I've actually got a backlog of tasty treats I've made that need to be posted but those will have to wait for another, better, day. So, it'll be a short entry this week but hopefully I'll be back to blogging as usual in a few days.

Michelle of Bad Girl Baking chose this week's TWD recipe: granola grabbers! It's been a while since TWD made cookies so I was pleased with this week's selection. That said, when I looked down the ingredient list I became a little skeptical. I don't care for peanuts and I didn't have any wheat germ and honestly, these cookies just seemed a little too healthy :-) I soldiered on though because Dorie rarely disappoints.



I made a half batch because there aren't enough people in my house to eat 40 cookies. The wheat germ was replaced by whole wheat flour and I left out the peanuts and doubled the almonds instead. After reading some of the other TWD posts I wished I'd added some chocolate chips too but maybe next time!



The cookies were quick and easy to make and surprisingly, really delicious! I enjoyed them a lot more than I expected to and will definitely make them again.

Head over to Michelle's blog for the recipe and if you're curious, check out the other bakers at TWD as there was a lot of variety in the cookies this week!