TWD: Apple Cheddar Scones

I’m not a coffee drinker. And as such, I’ve always kind of stereotyped coffee-type of baked goods into the…. “Not for me pile.” So, this means that when it comes to scones, biscotti, tea cakes, coffee cake, etc… I’ve just completely ignored their realm of baked goods.

And then, as usual when I actually try something that I think I don’t like…. I end up loving it and wondering why I was so opposed to the darn thing in the first place.

Case in point: Scones.

A few months ago, while staying at the Elizabeth Street Inn, I heard from another hotel guest that their scones in the morning were “to die for.” Which seemed ridiculous. I mean, how could a scone be “to die for”? That phrase is saved for Pecan Pie Cheesecake or Guinness Chocolate Cake, something really decadent and luscious. Not some silly coffee accompaniment, right? Well, even though I wouldn’t describe a scone as to die for, the scones at the hotel were absolutely delicious. Especially a lemon flavored one they had. And ever since that morning, I’ve been craving more scones. I’ve looked for a recipe, but hadn’t decided one specific one yet.

Anyway, fast forward to this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection: Apple Cheddar Scones. I was super excited when I saw this selection…. I mean, apples, cheese, and bread. Three of my favorite things (although, admittedly I’d never had them all together). These were a breeze to whip up, but you know what…. Mine turned into light, fluffy biscuits instead of crumbly scones. The scones I had at the Elizabeth Street Inn were a crumbly, harder texture. Whereas mine turned out light and fluffy (the best biscuit texture I’ve ever made, in fact). Maybe I did something wrong? I did use a cookie scoop to dollop them out, so that I’d have evenly sized pieces that I didn’t have to fight with bare hands. Could that have been the problem? Maybe it needs to cook as a larger mass?

Regardless… they were really, really good. I would definitely make these again as a brunch bread.

Thanks to Karina for the great choice and if you want to check out the recipe, head over to her blog… The Floured Apron.
And…. Guess who got to pick out next week’s selection? Yup, me. Woo

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cookies

So, yes, I've been on a little bit of a bar cookie kick, lately. I actually still have another bar cookie that I made last week that I have yet to blog about. But, a couple of days ago... I decided I wanted something chocolate-y, rich and sturdy. Normally, I would just make brownies... but for some reason, I haven't been in a brownie mood lately.

I flipped through my recipes and came across this recipe that I found on a blog a few weeks ago. As I looked over the recipe, I thought to myself... now, this sounds perfect! Chocolate! Chocolate Chips! Pecans! Coconut! You can't go wrong, there, right?

I was imagining a big, chewy cookie... but the recipe called for all white sugar. So, I decided to substitute all the sugar for brown sugar. And, for someone that likes intense chocolate flavor these cookies would be great. But, I found myself wanting the cookie to be sweeter and chewier. A good cookie, indeed... but, next time I think I'll kick up the sugar a little more. I'm a sugar fiend. Try it if you're looking for a sturdy, chocolatey, substantial cookie.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cookies
found at: Genesis of a Cook

2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup large pecan pieces
1 1/8 unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together until well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until well incorporated, then beat in cocoa powder.
3. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Gently fold in remaining ingredients.
4. Transfer dough to a clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions and transfer on a sheet pan with parchment paper.
5. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Take care not to over bake. Let cool on rack.

TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler

This weekend, I went to Memphis to visit my best friends April & Greg and of course, their dog, Banner. I know that April loves fruit as much as I do, and since cobblers usually seem to be fairly easy recipes to make, I decided that I could just make this cobbler while I was there!

My fellow Tuesdays with Dorie participants had been talking all week about how their cobbler toppings just weren't that impressive. That it was kind of flavorless. So, what did I decide to do? I decided to use a different cobbler topping from Dorie's Recipe for Cherry & Rhubarb Cobbler and instead of ginger (which I didn't have) I opted for Cinnamon. Ummm.. lots of cinnamon. Too much cinnamon, in fact.

The berries (raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries) weren't super flavorful and the topping just turned out too dang cinnamon-y. Uggh. My bad on this one. Better luck next time.

Thanks to Beth of Our Sweet Life for this summery selection! Be sure to check out everyone else's cobblers at Tuesdays with Dorie!

Cherry Pie

This past weekend, I took it upon myself to officially dub it as, Family Extravaganza Weekend. Aside from Father's Day, this weekend was also my Grandma's 89th birthday, as well as my brother Jason's birthday. Busy weekend, no? You could say that.

As has become customary, I asked Jason what he wanted for his birthday dessert. I had assumed that he'd ask for either a coconut cake or banana pudding. But, instead... he surprised me and willingly shared his selection with my dad. He chose Cherry Pie (which, is my dad's favorite dessert). I was pretty excited about this selection, because you see... Cherry Pie is probably one of the most favorite things that I make. And this Cherry Pie is a recipe that I came up with all on my own. Which makes it even more special to me. It's like my little baby.

Usually, I make a double crust and use an Emeril Pie Crust Recipe, but this time, I decided to try a pie crust recipe from my book Baking From My Home To Yours (which is incidentally on sale for 12.99 from Amazon right now!). And you know what folks? As much as I love Emeril, I gotta say... Dorie's pie crust was better. Tender and thick. And I made it without a food processor. Just me, a pastry blender and raw palms.

This time around, I decided to do things a little differently...
I decided to attempt a lattice top. Using this wonderful guide from Elise at Simply Recipes, I rolled my dough, cut my strips and started assembling the lattice top, using the instructions constantly.

And it turned out beautifully...

I brushed the top with heavy cream and then even sprinkled a little brown sugar on top to get a caramel-y color to the top. I then wrapped aluminum foil (that I had sprayed cooking spray on...learned that one the hard way, last time) around the edges of the pie, so they wouldn't brown too quickly. And away into the oven it went.

It was a delicious pie, if I do say so myself. And I am so excited that I gave the lattice top a try. It made for a much prettier pie that screamed "homemade with love!"

Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day!Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough
- makes enough for a 9-inch double crust -
Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 ½ sticks very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces 1/3 cup very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening (non-trans fat), cut into 2 piecesAbout ½ cup ice water
Procedure

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don't overdo the mixing—what you're aiming for is to have pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, add 3 tablespoons of the water—add a little water and pulse once; add some more water and pulse again; and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. If you've got big pieces of butter, that's fine. The dough is ready and should be scraped out of the work bowl and on to a smooth work surface.

Separate the dough and shape the dough into two disks and wrap them. Refrigerate the dough at least 1 hour before rolling. (If the ingredients were very cold and you worked very quickly, you might be able to roll the dough immediately—you'll know: the dough will be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.) The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Once the dough is fitted into the pie plate, refrigerate it again. If you don't have time for a longish chill, just keep the pie plate in the fridge while you preheat the oven.

Cherry Pie
2 cans of Sweet Pitted Bing Cherries (14.5 oz cans)
1 can of Tart Cherries
3 tbsp cornstarch
½ cup Dried Sweet & Tart Cherries (about 3 ozs)
¼ cup Granulated Sugar
1 tbsp Butter
½ tsp Almond Extract
Red Food Coloring
Cream or milk
Pie crust for a double crust pie

Strain syrup from bing cherries and reserve juice. Strain tart cherries and reserve it’s juice separately. Combine the bing cherries and the tart cherries in a bowl with ¼ cup of the sweet juice (save the leftover juice), 2 tbsps of the tart juice, and the cornstarch; stir to blend and set aside.

Combine 1 cup of the sweet juice along with 1 tbsp of the tart juice with the dried cherries in a large saucepan. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes on medium low heat to allow the dried cherries to plump up. Uncover and increase the heat to medium and simmer until mixture bubbles thickly and it has reduced to about ¾ cup, stirring occasionally (about another 10 minutes). Add your other cherry mixture to the saucepan mixture along with the butter and sugar and heat thoroughly over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens (about 3-5 minutes). After mixture has thickened, pull off heat and add almond extract and a few drops of red food coloring. Transfer pie filling to a medium bowl and let it cool completely.

After it has completely cooled, position a rack in the second to the bottom row in your oven and preheat oven to 400 F.

Roll our pie disk on a floured surface to 12 inch round. Transfer to a 9 inch diameter pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1 inch. Put pie plate into the fridge while you roll out your top. Roll the top crust to 12 inch diameter. Spoon pie filling into bottom crust and then cover with top crust. Crimp edges decoratively (you may refrigerate pie for a little while at this point, if dough is very warm)and lightly brush the top and edges of the pie with cream lightly. (I also sprinkled brownsugar on top the crust). Make four slits in the top of the crust to allow the steam to escape (unless making a lattice top). Place aluminum foil strips around the edges of the pie to keep them from browning too quickly. Put pie on a baking sheet with a rim and place into the preheated oven.

After 25-30 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and continue to cook.Cook for about 50-55 minutes, until crust is golden.

Transfer pie to rack and allow to cool for 2 hours. Serve pie lukewarm or room temperature.

TWD: Chocolate Cream Puffs with Crunchy Hazelnut Topping

Apparently, I’m a simple girl.

I’ve never had a chocolate éclair, a cream puff, or any other fancy dancy pate a choux. (I never even saw this phrase till this week and I’m still utterly clueless to how it’s pronounced).

I’m not a big bread pastry type of gal in general. I’m very picky about my donuts, etc… Basically, it boils down to one thing… Sugar. I like sugar. And lots of it. This totally explains my love of milk chocolate. So, for this reason… the only donuts I’ll even entertain eating are Krispy Kreme… and you know why? Because it’s basically pure sugar.

Mmmm.. sugar.

So, initially I was worried about liking this recipe that was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. But, when the actual dough came together super, super easy, I started to get excited. I halved the recipe and made éclairs and cream puffs.


Instead of making peppermint filling, I made Dorie's Chocolate Pastry Cream...which for me, turned out to be just like a chocolate pudding. (Is that what Pastry Cream is supposed to be?) And out of sheer laziness, instead of making a glaze... I opted to heat up a little crunchy nutella (world market brand) and spread over the top.


These turned out alright. Not my favorite thing, but at least now I've had one. And the recipe was actually super easy, although, I thought my arm was going to fall off whipping the pastry cream.

S'more Pie

The first time I had S’mores, I was getting ready to graduate college. I mentioned this fact yesterday while at my parents house for the Family Extravaganza weekend. My mom insists that I had S’mores in my childhood. She claims, at some point while we were camping.. . we had S’mores. But, let’s be honest here… I would most definitely remember the first time I had a S’more. I can guarantee you that.

So, yes, my first S’more was when I was 21 years old. There was a campfire involved… and I believe there was even a guitar… And there was lots of bossing underclassman around the park to find more sticks to keep the campfire burning. Ahhh… college life.

Anyway… Let’s just say I have some catching up to do with the ole S’mores concept.

Enter this Pie.

I’ve been trying to figure out the perfect time to make this pie… and luckily, the time came sooner rather than later. This weekend was a big weekend in my family… My brother Jason celebrated a birthday on Saturday, my grandma turned 89 on Sunday and it was father’s day! Throw in the U.S. Open final round (well… it was the final round, although the outcome is still unknown) and it was a Sunday packed full of family and celebrations.

As customary… I asked my brother what he wanted for his birthday dessert. He chose a cherry pie. Which was perfect because for one, I’ve been craving cherry pie, and two, cherry pie happens to be my dad’s favorite dessert, so I was able to kill two birds with one stone. Or… two occasions with one pie, rather. (More on the cherry pie later this week).

This is all fine and dandy, except for my brother Mike. You see, Mike is more of a chocolate lover… less of a fruit lover. So, I knew I’d have to make something else as well, that he could eat for dessert. And that’s when I thought of the S’mores Pie. I think this pie more than made up for his less than perfect birthday cake I made a few weeks ago....

It came together very easily. I didn’t make homemade graham crackers or homemade marshmallows. But, I did make the crust and the filling and then added marshmallow fluff to the top and broiled it for a few minutes to brown up a bit.

Not being a bittersweet chocolate fan, I actually used all semi-sweet chocolate in the filling and next time I make this.. I might use half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate. What can I say? I’m a sugar fiend.

This would be an awesome July 4th dessert. Quick (I made the pie the day before, chilled it and then just topped it off with marshmallow fluff and broiled it before serving), easy, and extremely tasty.

A slice also makes for a tasty breakfast… even cold, fresh from the fridge. Or, at least that’s what I hear.

Hazelnut Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I know everyone and their brother is sick of hearing how I was in Oregon last month for a week. So, I’ll spare you the details, except… the one thing I wanted to buy while I was there… (well besides a UofO track t-shirt, chocolate covered hazelnuts and pinot noir) was hazelnuts. Fresh Oregon Hazelnuts. Yum.

I ended up buying some the morning I left at the Portland Airport. And... I know what you're thinking... hazelnuts at the airport?? But, there is this cool store in Oregon called conveniently... "Made in Oregon" where everything they sell is stuff produced in Oregon. Cool, huh? I went to one of these stores in Newport and didn't pick up any hazelnuts, thinking I'd go somewhere later in the week that would have a bigger selection. Turns out. I didn't. So, the Made in Oregon store in the Portland Airport had to do. I’ve had these hazelnuts sitting in my cabinet for a month now and I’ve vigorously searched for the right recipe to use some in. Finally, one day on Cookie Madness, Anna posted a recipe with Hazelnuts that she got from this website. I perused the website and decided on these cookies. Oatmeal, Toffee, Chocolate Chips and Hazelnuts... I mean, you can't go wrong there, right?

These cookies are delicious! I used Heath Brickle Bits instead of Heath Bars cut up, so I added more chocolate chips to the recipe. I must disclose, also, that I added probably a quarter cup more sugar than the recipe called for, because my nuts were salted (ha ha).

These cookies turned out chewy with a little crisp and the hazelnuts and the toffee really go well together. A definite winner.

Hazelnut Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies