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!
4th of July Cupcakes
I’m excited to celebrate July 4th over the weekend: enjoying the PERFECT summertime weather (sunny, warm, NOT humid), watching World Cup quaterfinal matches, hanging out at a few BBQs, being awestruck by the annual FIREWORK EXTRAVAGANZA on the Charles River, and of course, eating eating EATING!
To kick off the holiday weekend, I baked these cupcakes and decorated them patriotically with blueberries and raspberries. The cake itself is flavored with lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, and almond extract. The crumb is moist and slightly dense, due to the addition of ricotta cheese. I tucked away a raspberry in the center each cake by filling each cup about halfway, adding the raspberry, then filling the rest of the cup.
This is my quick and efficient way of cooling baked goods… on my windowsill.
Decorating the cupcakes was fun; I used a cream cheese frosting as my “white,” blueberries for “blue,” and raspberries for “red.”
And the raspberry in the middle, once baked, becomes a sweet and tart jammy filling surprise!
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend, and hopefully gets to take a day (or two?) off!
