Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Carrot Muffins
March 28, 2023 at 2:59 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, scones
I’ve spent a good chunk of my pastry career working in bakeries (and making lots of muffins), but I don’t work baker’s hours at home. The only muffin that ever gets served for breakfast here is a leftover one. These Carrot Muffins were made as a coffee break snack.
These are not carrot cake masquerading as muffins. Instead of a dense cake filled with add-ins and warm spices, these are really light and springy and are spiced with sunny flavors like ginger, vanilla and orange zest. They have a surprise ingredient, pomegranate molasses, which (surprise!) I didn’t have. I subbed it with date molasses and then turned the sitch into a double date by using dates as my chopped dried fruit component. They’re not just for brekkie- they’re good anytime of day.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Iced Honey-Apple Scones with Spelt
January 24, 2023 at 10:37 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, scones
If I don’t need to blog about scones, then I really don’t make scones (or muffins, for that matter) because I’m never able to get a baked good cranked out by breakfast time. And no way I’m waking up early on a weekend to try, so these Iced Honey-Apple Scones were consumed as dessert. Actually, I froze two of them to be a future microwave-defrosted breakfast treat. These scones contain pretty much what their name says, plus some tangerine zest. I don’t have any spelt flour right now, but do have a box of farro flour, so I made that swap in the the dry ingredients. I cut my apples into quite a small dice, and I had nice little bits running throughout the dough. The dough was sticky, but I liked portioning the scones with a quarter-cup scoop and think the mounded look is quire appealing.
Just a bit of honey sweetened these scones, so the icing was definitely welcome. I have a bottle of boiled cider, and used that as the liquid to make the powdered sugar icing. Instead of bee pollen (come on Dorie, who has that?) as garnish, I just grated on some more flecks tangerine zest since I wanted a bit more of that flavor anyway. For breakfast or dessert, these are good, and not too much in terms of size, sweetness or richness.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Scones Pudding
September 27, 2022 at 4:36 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, pudding, scones
You can give all sorts of baked goods the bread pudding treatment…doughnuts, croissants, cake scrap, bagels, and even scones. All you have to do is chunk them up and bake them in a custard bath. This Scones Pudding is made from leftover Buttermilk Scones, a recipe we baked last month. I tucked two of them into the freezer so I’d be able to do a half batch of pudding with them later. Technically, I was half a scone short for a half batch, but went ahead with 50% of the custard recipe anyway. I sliced my scones as instructed and layered them into a little dish. I did have some gaps because of the missing half scone, but liked the thought of having pockets of straight-up baked custard here and there, since the scones are so dense.
Dorie suggests spreading the scone slices with lemon curd as you layer them in your baking dish and then arranging apple slices on top of the pudding, but she also says you can play around with that. I gave mine a “summer’s last hurrah” combo of raspberry jam, fresh razzies and nectarine slices. I will not eat an apple if there are still stone fruits to be had. I liked this, and I enjoyed the slightly higher custard to scone ratio I had going on. I wish I’d taken a slice shot, because it was actually kind of pretty with a ripple of red jam running through the center.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Buttermilk Scones
August 23, 2022 at 8:06 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, scones
A quick search tells me we made a Buttermilk Scone recipe before, back in 2014. I have no memory of those (a BWJ recipe), or really of 2014 in general, but apparently I liked them and even said I’d make them again. Well, of course I didn’t, but now I have made these BWD Buttermilk Scones instead.
With only 2 teaspoons of sugar (could that be a typo??), other TWDers said these were more like buttermilk biscuits than sweet pastries. I bumped that up to 2 tablespoons of sugar and also sprinkled the tops with turbinado before baking. They were a sticky-but-easy mix and they got a pretty decent rise in the oven, but they still registered as only very lightly sweetened. While some butter and honey or jam (or 2 or 3 more tablespoons of sugar) would probably give them what they’re missing, they certainly did make me think of a biscuit or a cobbler topping. Since buttermilk is so lean, they also don’t have the same delicate, rich texture as a cream scone. I decided to turn a couple of my scones into strawberry shortcakes with sweetened mascarpone whipped cream and macerated berries and mint. The rest headed into the freezer for Scones Pudding next month.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Cottage Cheese Biscuits
April 26, 2022 at 1:04 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, savory
I’m not the most competent biscuit maker, but thankfully these Cottage Cheese Biscuits were easy to get together and baked off pretty nicely. Would I have really known the dough had cottage cheese in it if I hadn’t been the one to squish it in there? Probably not, but the biscuits had a nice tender crumb, so I think it did something behind the scenes. I made half a recipe and cut four square biscuits so I wouldn’t have any re-roll to deal with. I actually froze the unbaked biscuits for a few days before baking them off, since I picked up my cottage cheese container in the fridge one day and noticed it was getting to the use it or lose it point (i.e., a couple days past the date)!
When I did bake off the biscuits, I turned two of them into egg and bacon sandwiches, a suggestion Dorie threw out there and I grabbed (and tucked into little paper sleeves). The other two are still unbaked and in the freezer, but I have a feeling they’ll get the same treatment.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Pear and Butterscotch Cobbler and a BOOK GIVEAWAY!
November 11, 2015 at 12:01 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, sweet things | 9 CommentsTags: biscuits, cobbler
I’ve found that a lot of people shy away from making one type of dough or another. Some people claim, “Oh, I don’t do pie dough,” while others say, “I stay away from yeast.” When my friends at Quirk Books asked me if I wanted to help celebrate the release of their new book, Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries by Russell van Kraayenburg, of course I jumped at the chance. Russell writes the gorgeous blog Chasing Delicious, and that guy can bake. His new book is full of tips and information to make a rainbow of doughs including: scone, biscuit, pie, shortcrust, sweetcrust, choux, brioche, puff, croissant, Danish and phyllo. Whatever your personal dough demon is, you can work through it with this book. Russell gives a master dough recipe for each type (which he explains by using easy ratios) and then several recipes using the various doughs.
For me, biscuits were my dough nemesis until a few years ago, when I worked at a bakery and had to crank out trays of breakfast pastries every morning at 6 am. After all that practice, now I own those suckers! I was super pleased to give Russell’s biscuit dough a try as part of Quirk’s Biscuit Week Challenge. I spied a plum cobbler recipe in his book and couldn’t get the thought out of my head– sweet, soft fruit under a tender, cakey, slightly savory biscuit crust. When I remembered a few Bartlett pears and a bit of homemade butterscotch sauce in the fridge, a light blub went on in my head and I was inspired to make a Pear and Butterscotch Cobbler using up my odds and ends and Russell’s biscuit dough. He’s even put together a video to show step-by-step how to make perfect biscuits. Because the dough is dropped on the fruit here, instead of rolled and cut, a tender cobbler topping is almost guaranteed, even if you think you’re dough-challenged.
The kind folks at Quirk Books sent me a copy of Making Dough, and now I want to send a copy to one of you! Just leave me a comment (one per person, please) on this post before 5:00 pm EST on Tuesday, November 17 and I’ll randomly choose a winner from the list. Be sure your e-mail address is correct so I can contact you if you’re chosen.
Pear and Butterscotch Cobbler– serves 4 to 6
inspired by (and using) a recipe in Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries by Russell van Kraayenburg
Notes: If you don’t already have butterscotch sauce on hand, you can approximate the flavors here with 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp of butter cut into little bits. Toss with the pears and other filling ingredients.
1 1/2 pounds firm-ripe Bartlett or Bosc pears
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon, divided
1 tbsp rum (optional)
1/4 c plus 2 tbsp homemade butterscotch sauce (I used this one)
1/2 recipe of Russell’s prepared biscuit dough
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp brown sugar
– Position a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat oven to 400°F.
– Peel and core the pears and cut each into large chunks. In a medium bowl, gently toss the pear chunks with cornstarch and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. Add the rum, if using, and butterscotch sauce and toss just to coat. (Your butterscotch sauce will work best here if it’s room temperature or barley warm.)
– Turn the fruit mixture into a 1-quart baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep oven on.
– Pinch off small handful-size clumps (about 2″ in diameter) of the prepared biscuit dough and scatter them on top of the filling so that the clumps touch. Be careful as your baking dish will be hot!
– Lightly brush the biscuit clumps with melted butter (I dabbed with a pastry brush) and sprinkle with the 1 tbsp brown sugar and remaining 1/4 tsp cinnamon.
– Bake for another 20 minutes, until the biscuits are golden and the filling is bubbly. Cool to warm or room temperature before serving.
Please note that the publisher, Quirk Books, sent me a copy of this book.
***Giveaway Winner Update: I used random.org to generate a random comment number to find the winner. Congratulations to Anne! I’ll be in touch soon.***
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Baking Powder Biscuits
August 19, 2014 at 12:01 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWJ, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 15 CommentsTags: baking, biscuits, breakfast
Marion Cunningham’s Baking Powder Biscuits were good for breakfast, and also good for dessert, all dressed up like shortcakes. These were easy to make. I didn’t want to do an all shortening biscuit like the recipe called for, so I swapped out half of it for butter. I rubbed my shortening/butter and dry ingredients together the night before and stashed the mix in a container in the fridge…in the morning I just had to work in the milk. They didn’t rise as high as I wished they would have (maybe I should have patted them out less? or maybe they really do work best with all shortening?), but they were very tender, not dense at all. I made square biscuits instead of round, just so I didn’t have to deal with scrap and reroll.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here) Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Buttermilk Scones
March 4, 2014 at 12:01 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWJ, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 18 CommentsTags: baking, breakfast, scones
In order for me to get most breakfast pastries on the table for anything even resembling acceptable breakfast time, I usually have to get started the night before. While I’m still in my jammies, I’m a disorganized mess. I generally can’t handle measuring, mixing, baking and cleaning all before I’ve had my Chemex of coffee…so for something like scones, I get the dough made the night before and just set the pieces on a sheet tray in the fridge overnight to bake in the morning. Always works great. For some reason, though, I decided last minute to make Marion Cunningham’s Buttermilk Scones on Saturday morning instead of Sunday, and thankfully they came together really easily the morning of. By the time the oven was preheated, I had the dough made and cut and the dishes (only a few) washed. I actually used my KitchenAid to mix the scones, since I got used to doing them that way at the shop I worked for up until October. I just kept a close eye on the size of the butter bits, and then skipped the extra hand-kneading Marion gave hers at the end. These scones were delicate, just sweet enough, great with jam and easy to make. This recipe’s definitely going to be made again.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). And there’s even a video of Julia and Marion making these together (there’s an interesting option shown using a rolled dough technique…I may try that next time). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Basic Buttermilk Biscuits
October 11, 2011 at 12:20 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 15 CommentsTags: baking, biscuits, breakfast
…or something like that. I had intended to make Buttermilk Biscuits. I had followed the recipe…it said it was “basic.” I had been having such good luck with scones recently that I thought biscuits would come out of the oven. I’m pretty sure that, while what came out was delicious, it was technically not a biscuit. It was something more bready, with a bottom that had essentially fried in its own butter on the baking sheet. More English muffiny maybe. Whatever happened, this little breakfast roll was great with homemade jam…both apricot and concord grape. I’ll have to try again for proper biscuits though.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Cooking for Comfort, as it was Jennifer’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cream Scones
July 12, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 9 CommentsTags: baking, breakfast, scones
It’s steamy hot out…hot and gross…but these Cream Scones were sooo worth turning the oven on for. Butter and cream…they are a combo to be reckoned with. I don’t know how two things that are so rich can make something that is so light, crumbly and almost melt-in-your-mouth, but there you have it. I’ll be making these again when it’s cooler out and I can stand a proper cuppa to go along with them.
After many attempts at scones and biscuits that wound up looking annoyingly like pancakes (sad!), I think that with my last few batches, I’ve finally gotten it down. I already told you all this stuff with the last one, but….now I grate my cold butter, and then pop it into the freezer while I assemble my dry ingredients. Then I just give a quick, fingertippy toss of the butter and dry stuff. I find that this way, I don’t have to do as much rubbing and working to get the two incorporated. Also, I pat the scones out a little fatter than Dorie says to ensure a tall rise (which I don’t think the angle on this photo shows, but I assure you, they were nice and high). Of course I get one or two fewer scones per batch, but that’s fine by me.
I skipped the currants here (I didn’t have any), but they aren’t really necessary anyway…especially when there’s jam. Also not strictly necessary (but crazy delicious!), one of my favorite things about British-style tea service is the thick cream you spread on along with jam. I found some of that Luxury Clotted Cream in a local shop, and shelled out for it in anticipation of these guys.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Cafe Lynnylu, as it was Patricia’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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