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!
Over a Year Tumblrversary and Pumpkin Scones
Wow, November totally flew by, didn’t it?
It began deceivingly leisurely: I was enjoying the warmer-than-usual Boston November weather and lab had slowed to a more bearable pace as we prepared for and moved our entire lab to a brand spanking new building. Then suddenly I was on a California-bound plane to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving where I stuffed my face for a week straight (which is quite amazing considering I didn’t cook/bake ONE THING that I ate that week). We also managed to squeeze in a beautiful day in Napa, enjoying the crisp fall air and the colors, sampling wines, and AMAZING food.
last grapes in Napa…
Dear oversized pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery… will you marry me?
And now I feel as if I’ve been hurtled into the heart of December: bitingly cold weather that makes your eyes tear (it may be in part because I’m mourning the loss of the ability to wear tank tops and flats without socks for the next 6 months) and forecasts of snow (though have yet to see a snowflake), the unrelenting barrage of Christmas-mania (Christmas songs on the radio, the onslaught of online and in-store sales which only tempt me to buy more for myself instead of gifts for others, and Christmas decorations ad nauseum- which, I actually kind of love), and the inter-holiday slump where you are still slightly food comatose from Thanksgiving and can’t get yourself motivated to be productive at work because your brain is already on vacation, celebrating a birthday and Christmas. WHEW.
It’s no Rockefeller Center, but I am sort of proud of this slightly ghetto yet extremely fitting demonstration of Central Square Christmas spirit.
Christmas spirit is alive and well in lab as well. And that’s not a reflection of the tree, WE HAVE TWO. Heck yeah.
I am still a bit sad about how quickly November passed; it is one of my favorite months, mostly because it seems (to me anyway) that the whole point of the month is the anticipation of and preparation for the greatest holiday ever- a holiday who’s singular objective is to EAT. Where the quantity ingested is directly proportional to the amount of THANKS given. And I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the hardships endured by the Pilgrims and Native Americans, so yes, I will have some more turkey and pie! I LOVE spending the first weeks of November poring over delectable recipes for appetizers, turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin-based desserts in magazines and online, while watching Thanksgiving-themed episodes on the Food Network, and finally picking a handful of recipes to test in the kitchen to share with friends in Boston who are also avoiding the hectic holiday travel, or, like last year, an intimate dinner for two. But because this year we spent Thanksgiving in California, eating TWO amazing Thanksgiving meals (late lunch and dinner), and because I didn’t have the wherewithal to prepare a pre-Thanksgiving meal for ourselves here in Boston before we left, I feel like I missed out a special part of November!
Another momentous occasion that passed without much fanfare here was my tumblr’s first-versary! I started this little space to document my triumphs (and failures) in the kitchen so I could easily go back to recipes that worked and that we loved. It enabled me to learn how to (kind of) use a SLR camera, gave me an outlet to express myself and my randomness, and, most importantly, has provided a constant reminder that I DO have a life outside of graduate school that I love and enjoy, and no matter what goes on in lab, I will always have this.
I had always envisioned baking up something complicated and decadent to celebrate my first year in keeping up a blog, something that required a few pounds of expensive chocolate or a multi-step endeavor like home-made croissants or macarons. However, seeing as November was on fast forward and the tumblrversary date was almost 2 weeks and counting ago, I decided to just make something simple, something that I love to eat, and in a flavor that epitomizes the November and Thanksgiving that had passed me by all too quickly.
Pumpkin Scones. With Maple glaze.
Berry Scones
I’ll admit it, I’m a total scone-a-holic. I blame it on the bakery on the first floor of my building, Mariposa Bakery, which offers at least 3-4 different kinds of freshly baked scones every day. Cherry walnut, orange currant, strawberry oatmeal, blueberry lemon… I know (have tasted) them all! Before them, I had no idea of the beauty of a good scone (its addictive powers!) and its infinite flavor combinations; my experiences pre-Mariposa were restricted to the Starbucks ones which are good, but not excellent, and taste a bit paste-y in comparison, likely because they are not baked the day of or on site. Mariposa’s scones are crisp on the outside, yet light and soft on the inside, slightly buttery but not too cake-y, more dense than a muffin, but not at all dry or overly sweet. It’s quite dangerous living in such close proximity to these delectable biscuit-like vehicles of butter and fruit, and I have to stop myself from stopping in there every morning on my way to lab. I save Mariposa scones for special days, when meeting friends there for a caffeine fix away, or for heavy lab days with 12+ hour timecourses or full Saturdays/Sundays.
The thing about scones is that though they are actually very simple to bake, they really taste the best the day of, while their outsides are still crisp and crunchy in contrast to the fluffy inside. This is simultaneously my excuse for consuming entire batches by myself within 12 hours as well as my excuse for NOT baking them to begin with as a preventative measure against eating an equivalent of a stick of butter in scone form.
Of course, there are some mornings (like yesterday) where my stomach DEMANDS scones, and with the prospect of spending the better part of a sunny 70 degree and not humid day in lab, I gave into my craving and baked these berry lemon scones. I couldn’t decide between blueberry lemon or strawberry orange, and so I just put in BOTH blueberries and strawberries- which resulted in these rather patriotic scones.
I’ve posted a scone recipe before, but I am always searching for a recipe that results in scones similar to the gold standard of Mariposa’s. There are endless permutations of scone recipes: buttermilk vs. cream, egg vs. no egg, obscene amounts of butter vs. less obscene amounts of butter… I have always been tempted to do comprehensive testing and comparison of these recipes, however have always been deterred from this endeavor in light of the issue elaborated above (wherein I eat the whole batch in one day). This recipe is CLOSE to those heavenly Mariposa scones.. it’s got the crisp exterior and biscuit-like interior, whereas previous attempts have resulted in more cake-y like interiors (which are good too! I just prefer less cake). Checking back to previously tried recipes, I find that the difference is that there is less butter (!!) and less liquid. In the end, I think this is close.. very close… for next time I would either use a fattier liquid (heavy cream) or 2 tablespoons more butter to see if I get even closer to Mariposa’s!
Berry Scones
adapted from Orangette
makes 8-12 scones
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup diced strawberries and blueberries
lemon zest from 1 lemon
- Preheat oven to 425 F.
- Beat together the milk and the egg and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture (or cut using a pastry blender, or process using a food processor..) working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar and whatever additions you choose, and stir or toss to mix.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, reserving just a tad of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring the dough together gently with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead no more than 12 times. (My dough was a bit sticky so I had to add a bit more flour).
- Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.
- Attempt, and fail, at eating less than 2 of these the day they are baked.
