Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones
This was the first meal we ate in our new apartment, about one month ago:
And the very first thing I baked in our new place?
SCONES. Of course. Whole wheat raspberry ricotta scones.
I hadn’t even unpacked all the dishes into the cabinets, but managed to find my flours, pastry cutter, and baking sheet.
I only let myself bake off a few because I have been known to devour a whole batch of scones (equivalent to a stick of butter) entirely by myself. And even though we DID move an entire apartment worth of possessions and furniture from a 5th floor walk-up with just a subaru outback and our own hands, during which I most DFINITELY burned off more than a stick of butter’s worth of calories (yes, this is how my mind works), I convinced myself to exercise some restraint and freezed half the batch. The promise of freshly baked scones in the near future (without the prep time and clean-up!) somehow outweighed the desire to eat 9 scones.
But now that berry season has sadly passed (unless you want to shell out $5 for a tiny box of raspberries), I am even more glad that I decided not to eat the entire stick of butter that day, but rather, allowed myself the chance to enjoy a raspberry scone when raspberries cannot be found in any grocery store for ANY amount of money. Which is rapidly approaching faster than I’d like.
These scones are terrific, and whether you decide for yourself that you’d like to eat them all or save a few for later is really up to you. Whole wheat lends a certain heartiness that makes just one scone feel filling. The combination of the ricotta, butter, and heavy cream lends to a wonderfully moist crumb, almost calling into question the validity of calling this a “scone.” Unique to this particular recipe, the raspberries are cut in, like butter, which delivers various sizes of jammy berry pockets and streaks throughout the scone.
I’m still working on getting the hang of the lighting in the kitchen; the sunlight is significantly obstructed compared to the previous apartment. I brought my breakfast to the living room for some more natural light- and here’s a look at how our living room looked that first week. Unfortunately, not too much has changed in the last month in that corner of the living room!
Braided Lemon Bread
My dad has taught me a lot over the years. He taught me how to drive stick and made me drive from a full stop up a hill, over and over until I didn’t stall. He educated me in the rules of NFL football, quizzed me about team names, coaches, and quarterbacks, and taught me to love the Niners (in good times and bad). And, he taught me how to be resourceful in the kitchen.
In my dad’s kitchen, nothing is wasted. Food ingredient OR time. Leftover odds and ends of onions, peppers, and last night’s pork chops go into Sunday morning omelettes. Prep dishes are washed as the meal is being cooked or dessert is being baked, so that after you’ve finished eating or baking, all that is left are the dishes you ate off of. These are practices that I’ve happily brought into my own kitchen, and just one of the infinite ways that my dad has shaped and influenced my life. Thanks Dad, I hope you had a fantastic day!
So remember that lemon curd? We didn’t come close to finishing it off with the pavlovas, but I used the rest in this tasty breakfast “brastry” (bread pastry? no??)! A soft sweet dough is filled with a cream cheese and lemon curd filling, and when baked, will fill your kitchen with the most lovely smell; you’ll be able to close your eyes and imagine that you’ve opened that little coffee pastry shop you’ve always dreamed of.
Guinness Brownies
I have been holding out on you.
But not on purpose, I promise!
I baked these Guinness brownies at the end of 2010, and in the midst of the holiday craziness, visiting families on opposite coasts, getting engaged, and turning 29, I somehow forgot to post about these stout-y chocolate-y chocolate brownies.
But what better day to tell you about a dessert infused with Guinness than the day where we all celebrate as the Irish do and lift a (few) pint(s) to good ole Saint Paddy??
Honey Millet Muffins
There is this fantastic little place in La Jolla. With an extensive brunch menu that I still have all-too-vivid-and-drool-inducing dreams about. Delicious lattes in cups the size of small bowls. Six (6!!!!!!!!) different kinds of eggs benedict. Free coffee and homemade coffee cake while you wait for your table. And… some amazing jumbo sized freshly baked raspberry millet muffins.
So when I saw this recipe for honey-kissed millet muffins, I jumped at the chance to bake these at home in the hopes of recreating The Cottage muffins!
These muffins are not those muffins. Actually, they were completely different, except for the fact that they both contain millet, a happy round little grain, which added (literally) POP to the muffins. But I found that I loved these muffins too! They are substantial (from the whole wheat) without being heavy and are sweetened with honey instead of sugar, which alleviated any guilt about eating three two for breakfast and prevented mid-morning crashes which can often occur from sugar-laden muffins. The best part about these muffins was that honey was in fact the paramount flavor (albeit, a subtle one), and I enjoyed the delicate floral sweetness and realized that I do not appreciate or celebrate honey as much as I should! I had added berries to half the muffins (in attempt to recreate The Cottage muffins) but then found that I actually preferred the plain ones because I could better enjoy the honey flavor.
Until I return to La Jolla for those raspberry millet muffins (57 days and counting!), these muffins will easily fill the void.
Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake
I’ve been a bit obsessed with blood oranges this winter: I’ve been buying them by the bagful, I’ve made marmalade, and from the moment I saw this olive oil cake, I have kept at least 3 blood oranges ready and waiting in my fruit bowl so that I would be ready to make this at a moment’s notice.
Unfortunately, it took 2 weeks for that moment to finally arrive.
But arrive it did, and it brought a stunning cake with it. Like previous olive oil cakes, this cake is beautifully mild with a delicious fruity finish due to a high content of extra virgin olive oil. The oil also happened to impart a darker greenish hue to my cake which may not look so attractive, but I can assure you, it did not detract one iota from its delicate flavor and luscious texture.
The blood oranges add a bright citrus flavor, though milder than regular oranges, which just gently perfumes the entire cake. Zest is rubbed into the sugar, a technique I’ve tried before with results that I loved. Freshly squeezed blood orange juice is added as well as juicy jewel-toned pulp silvers, which are obtained through “supreme”-ing an orange- which ended up being quite a challenge for me. It seems so simple in theory: cut away all the peel and pith by following the curve of the sides of the orange, and then cut out each segment from the stingy connective membranes. And I’m sure I’ve seen it done many times on Iron Chef, and maybe a Top Chef quickfire challenge? But when faced with the challenge in my OWN kitchen… well, let’s just say I managed to extract enough segments from orange innards for the recipe, but not without a lot of lost juice and a big bloody mess.
But the cake was well worth the mess!
The cake is stunning in its simplicity with a mild citrus flavor, a slightly crispy “crust” on the first day, and a luxuriously rich texture (without feeling heavy, like other butter-laden cakes) that only improves the longer you can keep yourself from devouring the entire loaf… not that I would know. I liked mine with freshly whipped cream at the start and end of my day, and next time I will be sure to save extra blood oranges make the honey blood orange compote!
Lacey Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Though Andreas and I don’t really make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, we do try to do a little something special, whether it’s dinner together at our favorite sushi spot or bacon lettuce tomato sandwiches on a lunch date. This year I somehow managed to make Andreas’ ULTIMATE IDEAL COOKIE, almost completely by accident!
His ideal cookie is thin and shatteringly crispy, sweet with a hint of salty. This cookie is IT. I have to give a shout out to my cousin Emily, for bringing to my attention some lacey and florentine cookie recipes two weeks ago (Emily, I’m still not certain about the difference of the two, but I’m thinking a lacey cookie is any flat and crunchy cookie with high butter to low flour ratio, whereas a florentine is a type of lacey cookie that includes ground nuts). Because of the thin crispyness of these cookies, they seemed a perfect candidate to satisfy Andreas’ cookie wishes, so I found a recipe that incorporated a few more of Andreas’ other favorite ingredients: shredded coconut and oatmeal.
The cookies are light and so crispy on their own, slightly caramelly (that’s what happens when a good amount of butter melts into a good amount of sugar), with a bit of chew from the coconut and oatmeal. With melted chocolate chips spread between two cookies, they made excellent crispy cookie sandwiches!
Now that I’ve found the cookie that Andreas would DO ANYTHING FOR, I am having a hard time suppressing thoughts of all the ways I can use this to bribe him to do what I want and buy me lots of presents the next time I will reward him with his favorite cookie!
Oatmeal Sandwich Bread and Meyer Lemon Blood Orange Marmalade
I finally had the opportunity to slooooooowww down this weekend and so I was happy to take advantage: I caught up on trashy reality tv, filled the apartment with the warmth and aroma of freshly baked whole wheat oatmeal bread (I wish I could bottle it!), and attempted to make jam for the very first time.
This bread is so good that I have actually been looking forward to waking up every morning for a toasted slice! It’s perfect with just a pat of butter, and even better with a bit of jam. It is earthy from the whole wheat and oatmeal, sweet from a touch of molasses, with a soft and tender crumb.
I’ve been eating this bread with a generous helping of home-made meyer lemon and blood orange marmalade. I was intrigued by the unique combination of Meyer lemon (a lemon-tangerine hybrid) and blood oranges and it certainly did not disappoint. It is a perfect balance of tart and sweet, like a little jolt of sunshine to break me out of my winter blues. Because both Meyer lemons and blood oranges are sweeter and less acidic than their lemon and orange relatives, the jam is not as mouth-puckering as one might expect from a fresh marmalade- the citrus is still a bit tart, but subtly so.
Making the jam was actually very easy, especially because I did not bother with canning the jam (trusting that I would succeed in eating the jam within a month, which, at the rate I am going through this jam, will not pose a problem!). Slices of fruit are cooked down until the pith and peel are soft and tender, then white sugar (for sweet) and raw demerara sugar (for slightly carmamelized flavor) are added until the mixture cooks down and sets into a sweet jammy goop. For next time, I would cut the slices into smaller segments, because although the cooking process renders the pith and peel into soft citrus candy, it is a bit difficult to spread these long tendrils on toast. I also think adding a bit of crystallized ginger might be heavenly. And I would love to learn to can, so I could make huge batches and enjoy all year round!
Chinese Almond Cookies
Happy Year of the Rabbit!
I know I’m a day late, but pulling together a 35 slide powerpoint lab meeting presentation prevented me from posting this yesterday. But don’t let the passing of New Year’s day prevent you from enjoying these buttery little cookies- they are quick to pull together and are perfect on non-New Year’s days, particularly with tea.
These cookies remind me of the favorites we would get from Chinese bakeries in San Francisco when I was little- buttery and a bit crumbly, just slightly sweet, with a lovely subtle almond flavor. And happily crinkled tops.
So happy.
Here’s to the new year, may you have the best health, love, and happiness in this year!
Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Bread
For some unknown reason, my face has decided to relive my youthful teenage years this week, which is a nice way of saying pimples of gargantuous proportions and intense redness have unapologetically assumed residence on my face. Not quite sure why my face has decided to punish me; it could be the stress, it could be the junk food, or it could be that my face is now predicting snow storms in the Northeast (by size and intensity of color)- in which case the one right between my eyebrows represents the 12 inches last week, the one to the right of my nose was the 6 inches this week… and the one next to that predicts a few inches next week!
The pimples have nothing to do with this quickbread, though “pimples” and “pumpkin” both start with the same letter, so I could say that this post is brought to you by the Letter P. I could also remark how the fresh red cranberries that stud each slice of bread are very reminiscent of the recent unwanted topological additions to my face. But seriously, enough about my face already- let’s talk pumpkin, cranberries, and walnuts with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg! This bread is very moist and flavorful, from to the pumpkin goodness and spices and unexpected addition of orange zest. I really enjoyed the tart cranberries, and from another cranberry quickbread, learned the benefits of using both fresh cranberries and sweeter dried cranberries. The flavors are deliciously Fall, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it for breakfast almost every day of this very wintery week- toasted, with a little pat of butter, and a smile on my face.
Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies
I’m not sure I would call these cookies (instead of pastries), but I will not hesitate to call them AMAZING.
The flaky pastry dough is very reminiscent of (if not identical to) another favorite “cookie” of mine, rugelach. I don’t know what chemical reactions occur between the cheese and butter at 400 degrees, but they just happen and give you wonderfully light and flakey croissant-like layers (but without all the intensive work). WIN.
These “cookies” are infinitely adaptable to your taste preferences because you can fill them with any sweet or savory ingredient(s) that strikes your fancy. My fancy this time? Nutella. And raspberry preserves.
The raspberry preserves were a little messy… it didn’t want to stay in the dough. Or perhaps I (as usual) was a tad bit over-generous with the portion of filling.
And this has been a familiar scene lately with all the snow that fell this week, though I can happily say that I love the results of a dusting of powdered sugar in my kitchen so much more than the consequences of a snowstorm in Boston (brown slush and ice until April).
Oh, hello delectable flakey layers. Thank you for being so addictive.
