I can’t believe how long it has been since my last
post! I am sorry for all of my
readers who have by now, given up on the Hangry Foodasaurus. I’d like to think I have a pretty good
excuse for not writing and my hope is that once I explain what’s been holding
me back, you’ll forgive me.
As some of you know I’ve just completed my 200-hour Yoga
teacher training, which took place over the course of 9 intensive
weekends. We traveled from Boston
to Philadelphia about once per month and Nathan and I were hosted while we were
staying there by some very gracious friends in the area :). The weekends were extremely challenging
physically and mentally, but one particular weekend I was more exhausted than
ever. I could hardly keep my eyes
open. The next morning I tried drinking some coffee and for those
of you who know me coffee is a must!
After the first sip I could hardly keep it down. Hmmmm…well after putting two and two
together I surmised I might be pregnant, and it turns out I am!
Of the many interesting changes that come with being
pregnant I found one of the craziest to be the absence of hangriness. No shakiness, dizziness, extreme
agitation. In fact, for the first
3 months I could hardly eat anything at all and especially couldn’t fathom
touching a vegetable. Hummus
became my enemy. The thought of
salad made me gag. I was all about
reverting to my childhood: mac and
cheese, pop-tarts, frozen waffles, pierogies. Thank goodness I am over that hump because it was starting
to get a bit unhealthy.
Don’t get me wrong, I still need snacks and treats, but at
least I can say I eat vegetables again.
Way back in December I started to get a hankering for scones. I found a really good recipe from Joy
of Baking, which I’ve adapted slightly.
Since then I’ve made this recipe a total of three times, each time
varying the ingredients ever-so-slightly with amazing results.
You’ll need:
- 2 cups (260 grams)
all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (50 grams)
granulated white sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking
powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking
soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (113 grams)
(1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 total cup of
filling ingredients such as: chocolate chips or
chunks, toasted walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or cranberries, fresh
blueberries or candied ginger
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract OR almond or lemon extract
- 1-2 teaspoons of lemon or orange zest
- 2/3 - 3/4 cup (160 - 180 ml) buttermilk (I never seem to
have buttermilk so you can use regular milk and sour it by adding a tablespoon
of lemon juice and allowing it to stand for 10-15 minutes)
- Turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Basically you want to pick things that sound like they’d
work well together like:
Lemon-ginger, dark chocolate and dried cherries and walnuts,
cranberry-orange, lemon-blueberry.
How to:
1) Preheat oven to 400
degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven.
2) Grease a baking sheet
with organic vegetable shortening or use parchment paper.
3) Zest orange or lemon
if using zest.
4) In a small measuring
cup whisk together the buttermilk (or milk and lemon juice) and extract.
6) Cut the cold butter
into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. I don’t own a pastry
blender so I just ended up crumbling it with my fingers to get all the big
chunks out. (The mixture should
look like coarse crumbs.)
7) Stir in the chocolate
chunks, dried cherries, nuts, lemon or orange zest, etc.
8) Add wet mixture to
the flour mixture. Very Important! Stir
just until the dough comes together (add more buttermilk or flour as
necessary). Do not over mix the dough.
9) Transfer to a lightly
floured surface and knead dough gently four or
five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm)
round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. At this point my dough is always
on the flaky, dry side and not every bit of flour is mixed in but that is OK.
10) Cut this circle in
half, then cut each half into 4 pie- shaped wedges (triangles). Place the
scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk and
sprinkle with turbinado sugar for a nice effect.
11) Bake for about 15 to
20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes
out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
Makes 8 scones.
 |
| Dark Chocolate, Cherry, and Walnut Scone: A. Andiorio |
These have been an absolute winner every time I’ve made
them. They are moist, flaky and go
great with your morning coffee or tea.
They are best consumed right out of the oven, but if you somehow have
any leftovers they are also good warmed up in a toaster oven.
