August 3, 2010
I’ve been on a baking kick lately, which is highly unusual for me as I much prefer the less-precision-required art of cooking to the scientific act of baking. However, I had a container of blueberries that were getting just past their grab n’ eat stage, and I thought scones were the perfect way to use them.
This is a recipe from my go-to cookbook, The All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It’s not a fancy cookbook or specific to any type of cuisine or diet or chef, but it’s got all the basics in there as well as good pictures. I also like that since it was my mom’s copy, it has notes from her written in the margins and inside cover.
If you buy it, yours won’t have these lovely notes until you lend it to my mom for a year or so.
So, where were we? Scones! I didn’t take pictures of the how-to process, because it was a spur of the moment decision to make them. And in fact, it wasn’t until the FINAL piece was left that I remembered to grab my camera.
This is the basic scone recipe, you can add whatever fruits or nuts you might desire after you’ve mixed all the other ingredients together.
2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick), cut into pieces
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
1. Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine flour, 2 T of sugar, baking powder and salt. With pastry blender or knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Note: I don’t own a pastry blender and have never been very successful at the two knives thing. I usually use my hands here, and try not to over mix.)
2. In one-cup measuring cup, mix milk and egg yolk until blended with a fork. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in milk mixture. Stir until combined.
3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5-6 times, until smooth. With lightly floured hands, pat into a round cake. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet.
4. With a lightly floured knife, cut dough into 8 wedges (do not separate wedges). In a small cup, lightly beat egg white. Brush scones with egg white and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake until golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes. Separate wedges, serve warm or cool on a wire rack.
Stats: 260 cals, 5g protein, 30g carb, 13g fat, 1g fiber, 360mg sodium.
I feel slightly bad that my Mom just emailed me for this recipe….because she would have it if I hadn’t stolen her book. Sorry, Mom. Next time I see you… I’ll make you some scones. xoxo
February 8, 2010
When I was in high school, I worked in a coffee shop alongside the Erie Canal. My favorite part of working there was the weekends when we’d whip up these delicious breakfasts including Belgian waffles and the yummiest frittatas. At the time, I didn’t eat asparagus (what was I thinking?) so I partook in the frittatas every other weekend when they featured broccoli.
Last night I had roasted a bunch of asparagus for dinner, and had a good amount leftover, already cooked. I had a feeling that soggy asparagus wouldn’t be so delicious on day two and wondered what to do with it. Suddenly it hit me… Shannon’s Frittata! (Shannon was the name of the owner of the coffee shop, and appropriately, the name of the shop itself.) It’s been almost 10 years since I made that frittata and all I could picture was swirling loads of heavy cream into the egg mixture and layering cheese slice upon cheese slice. No wonder those frittatas were so scrumptious!
I set about trying to make it with a few tweaks (starting with the fact that I didn’t have any heavy cream on hand!)
I whipped up 3 eggs and 2 egg whites, and added about 3/4 cup of skim milk. Then I added a splash of half-and-half for some creaminess. I added the already cooked asparagus. If you were starting from scratch, just sauté them with a little bit of olive oil – this recipe will work with any veggies, and is a great way to use up leftovers. I poured the combo into a pie pan sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. To this, I added two slices of Swiss cheese that I tore into little pieces and sprinkled throughout. A heavy shake of pepper and we were ready to go!
Into the oven at 350 F, the frittata cooked for 40 minutes. It’s done when the edges get a little bit brown and if you shake the pie tin, the eggs don’t wiggle too much.
This dish will keep for days in the fridge, and you can just cut out a slice and reheat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. I paired it up with a homemade latte for a delicious, filling breakfast! (Yes, it was homemade even though the cup looks otherwise… I have a habit of rinsing out and refilling my cups two or three times… until the cardboard starts to fall apart.) Yum!
Stats from my favorite calorie counter, based on 3 egg + 2 egg whites, 3/4 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup half and half, 1 T olive oil (counted for my roasted asparagus earlier), and 2 oz swiss cheese. Not sure how much asparagus I used, it was about half of a grocery store “bunch”): 95 calories, 6 g fat (2.5 g sat), 6 g protein.
October 11, 2009
I don’t bake very often, but these are a favorite of my sister Katie, who was born on Halloween so I like to her indulge her with these. They are a fall favorite in our house. You can add in walnuts or dark chocolate chips for something extra, if you want.
Ingredients for Pum'kin Cookies
Ingredients:
2 c all-purpose flour
0.5 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, softened
1.5 c white sugar
1 c pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
How To:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
Leveling off the flour
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
Drop by rounded tablespoons
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven.
If you want to add even a little bit more decadence, you can make a glaze from powdered sugar and water and drizzle a little bit on top. A splash of vanilla extract or cinnamon in the glaze works too.
Stats: I make them pretty small, and made 4 dozen cookies from it. Without any of the extra add-ins, each cookie is 70 calories. You can use this website if you use any add-ins or you make more or less than me, to recalculate.
The perfect treat to go along with my Pumpkin Latte!
Gobble 'em up!
April 13, 2009
I came across this recipe for making homemade energy bars and I really liked the idea – I love the convenience of grabbing bars (especially on those 5 am mornings) but I’m always a little wary of some of the hard to figure out ingredients in many of them. So, I gathered up all the goods and got to work.
Ingredients. Nothing here you can't pronounce.
They were pretty easy to make – in fact, I don’t even own a food processor (the last man standing on my wedding registry! sad!), but everything mixed together just fine in my blender. Once I got the wet ingredients, I dumped everything into a bowl and mixed with a wooden spoon.
Bar Batter. Yummy!
I was surprised at how thin they were, it almost didn’t cover my 9″x13″ pan (as recommended by the recipe.) The recipe says it makes 20 bars for 133 calories each – for me it made 16 bars, though I guess that depends on how you slice it! At 16 servings, they were 166 calories each. You could play around with the pan, serving sizes, thickness, calories, etc to make them to your liking.
Finished Product!
It had a texture I would best compare to a chewy scone – pretty dry, but also chewy and had a great nutty flavor. I loved having a bar with a glass of milk, and a small serving of fruit (grapes or some berries) for breakfast. Was it worth making them myself? I didn’t find their taste to be better than Odwalla (my usual bar of choice), although they are lower calorically. But, I love to bake. And I’ve learned that many of my baking experiences turn into nonstop eating experiences (the smell! who can resist cookies out of the oven?) so it was nice to actually bake something that was healthy… Plus, they were so filling, I found I really wasn’t tempting to just sit there and eat piece after piece. The most compelling reason for me to make these again vs. buying store bought bars would be the control I have over the ingredients – it’s a nice change of pace to eat “convenient” food and know that there’s nothing questionable hiding within!
