Raspberry Oat Scones

 

I've noticed that (when I actually post) I post a lot of one-off's.  Recipes or projects that are new for me.  This is one that is a favorite.  They're basically the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook Oat Scone recipe, with a little less butter and salt, and raspberries instead of cherries.  They're a favorite because they're so good, they're kind of healthy-ish, there's no eggs, and they are perfect for make-ahead. 

Raspberry Oat Scones

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2/3 cup buttermilk

just before baking:
1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 tablespoon raw sugar

In a mixer, combine the dry ingredients (flours, 3/4 c sugar, salt, soda, powder, oats) and mix.  Gradually add butter and blend until it looks like pie crust.  Add the buttermilk and blend just until it comes together.  Gently mix in raspberries by hand.

On the counter, lay out a 18" piece of plastic wrap, and turn out half the dough.  Form the dough into a 4x16 log that's about an inch and  half to two inches tall.  Cut into three sections, and then cut each section in half into two triangles:

Place the sections back into the shape of the log and wrap with plastic wrap.  Wrap with foil and freeze (2 hrs to a few months).  Repeat with the remaining dough.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350.  Take out dough from freezer, unwrap and space on cookie sheet.  For each log, brush with 1/2 TB cream and sprinkle with 1/2 TB sugar.

 

The dough will still be frozen to bake.  Depending on how cold the dough is, bake for 45-55 min.

Batman cake

This year my to-be five year old wanted a Batman cake for his birthday.  We browsed some fun ones on cake central and flickr, and he decided he wanted one with buildings, the bat signal and some kapow's :-)

The fondant was a little soft, it was a little warm out, and I rushed so we could get to the zoo, so it's obviously a little rough.  And I really need to work on spacing my letters.  Still, I thought it was a fun idea, and he was happy :-)

Sailboat & whale cookies

And another cohort treat, this time for a new baby boy!  These are my mom's sugar cookies with meringue powder royal.  I've not done much decorating with royal.  One thing that seemed odd was that adding color seemed to thicken the icing.  Maybe it was more time out, but you can see the little crabs have far more texture than the whales or the boat sails.

 

And I think it ended up working best when I didn't use a thicker royal to outline and another to flood.  I did the sails all with one consistency, and I think that turned out best.  Maybe not for details (like my fish-face instead of smiling whales), but at least for the sails.  Looking forward to more practice!

Shower Cupcakes

 

I've been taking some classes in a cohort, so as our members in our little group have some life changing experiences, I've been trying to make little treats to celebrate.  One of the ladies is getting married, so I made cupcakes and tiny sugar cookies.  The cupcakes are Toba Garrett's moist yellow cake which work well for me for cupcakes, if they're made the day of.  The frosting is Rosenberg's buttercream again.  The flowers were from the smallest cutter in the Wilton flower cutters, and the centers are Wilton's sugar pearls.  In the store, the pearls looked huge compared to the cutters, but they worked out to be pretty proportionate!

 

Ina's Outrageous Brownies

I kept reading that Ina's Outrageous Brownies were a favorite, so I finally got around to trying them.  They are very moist and fall apart pretty easily.  Usually when a brownie recipe says to refrigerate, I just ignore it because I don't care how pretty the slices are.  This time, though, I had to refrigerate so they would keep their shape at all.  I think these really are better made ahead.  I won't make them often as they really do have a ridiculous amount of butter and chocolate, but I'm thinking they could be really good cut in chunks for ice cream. 

Baked Chocolate Donuts

In the mood for donuts, but not interested in frying, I tried these baked chocolate donuts.  I was really excited about how these turned out!  Unlike the plain baked donuts I'd tried where I liked the donut holes the best, here I liked the actual donut.  The donut holes seemed to dry out a little.  I tried the glaze in the recipe, a basic powdered sugar glaze and  another chocolate glaze, and I liked the alternate chocolate glaze the best. 

The donut recipe is available at the link above.  Here's the chocolate glaze:
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 TB powdered sugar
1 TB butter
Melt chocolate and butter, stir in powdered sugar. 

Maida Heatter's All American Brownies

Lately I've been making our bread, and whenever I have the oven already heated, I kind of think I might as well use it and make some dessert!  I was in the mood for some plain brownies, and found Maida's All American Brownies.  They're really easy, saucepan style brownies.  Thin, dark and rich.  A perfect quick dessert!