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!

Mocha Sherbet

So now that my cream is gone, I'm still on a frozen dessert kick.  Using what I had on hand, I tried David Lebovitz's Mocha Sherbet.  I did make a sub of 1% milk instead of whole, but this was great sherbet!  I've loved espresso granita in the summer, and this is kind of the same flavor, only much richer.  It's so easy, since it's pretty much just heating to dissolve the sugar and combine.  It didn't scoop the prettiest, but it was very smooth and really it's pretty healthy compared to the other desserts I've been making!  I think I'll be making this one a lot this summer :-)

Philadelphia Style Chocolate Ice Cream

In preparation for Christmas baking, I'd bought a half gallon of Horizon cream at Costco.  I know a half gallon seems ridiculous, but it's so reasonably priced that I can't help myself.  Anyway, I ended up only making one batch of caramels for Christmas, so I was left with a lot of cream.  Enter the chocolate cake kick, all with lots of ganache and whipped cream!  And still I was left with about 4 cups of cream!  

I don't usually think of ice cream in winter in Wisconsin, but since it's been a pretty warm winter and I had four cups of cream on my hands.... I started browing the Perfect Scoop.  I tried both the vanilla philadelphia style ice cream and the chocolate.  My 4 year old's favorite ice cream is vanilla, which is perfect for his shirts!  And the vanilla was very good.  The chocolate though.  The chocolate is incredible!  It's rich, dark, chocolaty and perfectly scoopable from the freezer!  I used El Rey Bucare 58.5%, and it was really perfect.  Usually I like going for a darker chocolate, but it's what I had on hand, and I don't think I would use darker next time.  I do have Lebovitz's truffles and thin mints as add-in's for next time though!

Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

So I've been on a bit of a chocolate cake binge lately.  We've stayed with our favorites (the double chocolate layer from epicurious and Toba Garrett's chocolate fudge) for the last couple years, so I thought it'd be fun to look around again.  And this last cake in the chocolate cake streak was prompted by a late-night craving, so I tried Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake.  I was amazed at the little oil in the recipe, and in the end, I was disappointed.  The cake rose like crazy and domed, so maybe I overbeat.  It was a tough cake and not very chocolaty. The frosting was good, but seemed to be a mismatch with the cake.  I might like the cake better with maybe whipped cream instead of a dense ganache type frosting.  The frosting I would try again on a denser cake.  So here's the last little piece. 

It was fun to play around a little, and we got a couple new favorites with the Chocolate Cloud Roll and the Chocolate Orange Cake.

Chocolate Cloud Cake Roll

 I've never made a jelly roll before, but was inspired to try so I went to Beranbaum's Cake Bible and the Chocolate Cloud Cake Roll.  I've found Beranbaum's recipes to be really helpful when trying something new.  Her directions are always specific enough that I feel like I know what should be happening.  And this cake roll was amazing!  It was quick and easy to put together, and the quick baking time made it convenient.  It rolled so nicely (sorry for the night-time photo), and it was very light eating.  The next day I added a quick ganache and it was like a big swiss cake roll, but really good.  I can't wait to try again and make a pretty one!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Orange Ganache and Orange Buttercream

So it's a bit of a ridiculously long title, but it's a review of this recipe from the yellow Gourmet cookbook, so I thought I'd keep the name.  I've been looking at this cake for years now and finally got around to making it.

I made the cake and ganache as directed, and adapted the buttercream a bit.  I'd made the lemon raspberry wedding cake from the same cookbook a couple years ago, and I thought the buttercream was very heavy, so just lightened it a bit.  I made the orange curd as directed, and then added half the curd to swiss meringue buttercream with one less stick butter than usual (4 whites, 1/2 c sugar, 2 sticks butter). 

The buttercream was perfect - not too over-the-top orangey, and not too dense and heavy (leaving out the extra stick butter).  The cake itself was tender and fine, nice and chocolaty, not too dense or light or crumbly.  The orange ganache was my favorite element, though.  I'm thinking of trying some truffles with the ganache.  Altogether we really liked this cake - rich dark chocolate brightened with a little orange.  This is a new grown-up favorite!

Final TWD: Kids' Thumbprints

The Kids' Thumbprints are the last recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, and Dorie's hosting for us this week.  We tried the playing around version with the chocolate chips, and they're a cute little cookie! 

I joined TWD in October 2008, and I started this blog to join.  My first recipe with the group was the Lenox almond biscotti, and I got to try some things I'd never heard before like the blanc-manger and the dacquoise.  Baking has given us some new favorites, and since this is the final TWD, I thought I'd share the recipes that were highlights for our family:

Pumpkin Muffins love the muffins made with butter, light and rich
Sweet Cream Biscuits so much easier than cutting in butter, and they rise reliably
Tiramisu Cake pretty cake, loved the mascarpone frosting
Tourtely Apple Tart  those apples and browned butter!
Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia favorite tall brownie, dense and rich
Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownie favorite thin brownie, reminded me of ones my parents made when I was a kid
Espresso Shortbread  not too sweet, and so quick and convenient to make ahead and freeze

I've so enjoyed the chance to bake along! 

Polar Bear Cookies

I'd originally made the bears to go along with some onesies for a friend, but I couldn't get them to look baby themed, so I tried just giving them little eyes and a nose, and I think they turned out kind of cute!  They're just rolled fondant and then Wilton candy melts piped for the eyes and nose.  I tried making cookies this way a couple years ago, and they're so easy!  They don't lend themselves to details, they're better for simple designs, but they're quick, quick to dry for packaging so the cookies stay soft, and they travel well.  

And here is the little treat plate for our neighbor.  I tried the easy cheater fudge from Martha Stewart that was really good (with El Rey Icoa), and I used their idea of adding the crushed candy cane on top.  My opinion is the candy cane is fine if you eat all your fudge by day two.  Otherwise, you want to keep your fudge covered so it doesn't dry out, but that makes your candy cane sticky and messy.  So that's turned into a day-of cute idea for me. I'll use candy cane bark for sharing from now on, I think.  The scones are another Martha Stewart recipe and are my favorite and so easy because they can be made ahead and frozen, and then just baked whenever.  I'll try giving them a post all their own soon - they're a perfect holiday morning breakfast!

Christmas Puzzle Cookies

So this isn't the prettiest picture ever, but I was packaging them tonight, and wanted to get a picture in so this would make sense. I thought Martha Stewart's gingerbread puzzle was a fun idea for little treats to go along with little gifts for the godchildren.  I knew going in that I'd not do all the royal and just use white icing, to meet the kids' diets. 

So a couple of tips from my first experience....

• I didn't actually read the directions on Martha Stewart, which said to cut the cookies while still warm.  Instead, I cut them before baking.  Of course, they spread a little, so the puzzle's not a perfect fit, but the edges are cleaner.  I think if doing it again, I'd cut before baking, but I'd just be more careful not to scrunch the openings (like for the points of the star) when transferring the dough to the cookie sheet.
• I used the top of a gladware container to cut the outline, and then either used a cookie cutter or just cut the puzzle pieces.
• I was also really glad that I put each cookie puzzle with all its pieces together on the cookie sheet and then onto separate plates to cool.  I had put two cookies together in a container after cooling, and it was way more difficult to put together than I would have guessed.  When cutting them, I kept thinking I should try making the designs more difficult because these are going to be way too easy to put together.  But even with the icing, they (surprisingly) take a little effort.  
• From how they look in the end and how they fit together, I think I liked the ones that have a cookie cutter cut-out in the middle.  I think I like the idea of the star and the tree in the top right corner, except that the star has no icing.  For puzzle difficulty, though, the bottom left, which is random pieces like the Martha Stewart example, would be my pick.

I think these ended up kind of fun, and I'm hoping to do another batch for my kids!

TWD Bittersweet Brownies

These were great brownies!  They were so easy to throw together, they weren't super chocolaty,but they were nice and dense.  And they're very kid-friendly.  Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for this week's pick!

TWD Honey Scones

I love scones.  And these were incredibly easy to pull together.  I had the four-year-old cut the butter in with his hands, which he loved (I'm going to remember this for all biscuits and piecrust, for family :-) ).  We left out the nuts, baked half and froze half.  I love that scones are perfect for make-ahead.  These were very tender, not very sweet, and great with jam.    

Thanks to Jeannette of the Whimsical Cupcake for this week's pick!

Grape Jam

We have a few grape vines in our yard, and we were excited that they produced this year.  These seeded grapes are good for eating, and they taste 'grapey'.  I always thought grape candy was a made-up flavor, but these grapes actually have the real grape flavor that the candies try to taste like.  I wanted to try a jam without pectin, so I tried this Grape Jam from epicurious.
 
I started with trying to get the seeds out of each individual grape, but after about 40 grapes, I gave that up and just popped them out the skins, pureed the skins, and then simmered and strained the grape.  Look at all those seeds!  Much easier!


It took a while to boil down, but I ended up with 2 half pints of jam, which the kids have loved.  I'm looking forward to trying again next year!

Strawberry Lemon Marshmallows

I'm really excited about the idea of a marshmallow with a fruit swirl. My disclaimer is I have no idea of safety or shelf life issues.  So please keep that in mind with my enthusiasm :)

So I've been wanting to do a lemon marshmallow with a blackberry swirl for a couple years, and finally decided to try the swirl, even though I didn't have the blackberries. I used my favorite lemon marshmallow recipe - Emeril's lemon marshmallows, and then strawberry jam made with certo. After I'd poured the marshmallows in the pan to set, I just swirled the jam in.

I really liked the flavor - very much like the idea of the summer strawberry lemonades. Not much jam is needed. I didn't measure, but I think less than 1/4 c for an 8x8 pan. I made an effort to swirl into the marshmallow, so the jam wouldn't be exposed. The jam is a little sticky when cutting, but even after a week the jam didn't seem to make the marshmallow weep at all.  The idea of the fruit swirl is really exciting to me, and these turned out really well.

Since making these, I have seen Talanian's dulce de leche marshmallows, with dulce de leche swirled in a vanilla marshmallow.  I would think that these would similar shelf-life wise.  I've never tried pate de fruit, but I think I should try and see if there's any middle ground where I could do a swirl with it.  This seemed to work ok for a first attempt, and I'm looking forward to playing around some more with the idea. 

Royal Icing Butterfly Cupcakes

I thought we needed some cupcakes to celebrate a friend's new baby girl. I've done the royal icing butterflies a few times before , but long enough between each time to forget how quickly the royal sets! So my decorations are always raised, but they're still cute enough. These are the easiest to make, though I do cheat a little. I use Peggy Porshen's template in her Pretty Party Cakes, and pipe the wings on waxed paper. Here are the dried wings














But then I skip the whole folding the cardboard, piping the body step. If I were going to use the butterflies on fondant, I might have to do that. But here, I just stick the wings in the buttercream and then pipe the body over.

Along with the butterflies, I tried piping "baby girl" to make them more obviously baby-ish. First, that was too much text for one cupcake, and second, girl without a dotted "i" looks like grl or gurl, and neither of those were what I was really going for. But the baby turned out great! I was amazed that they stayed together!

For these I used the double chocolate cake from epicurious, Rosenberg's buttercream and Lesley's royal icing with meringue powder.