Come here often? If you do, then what you are probably thinking right now is along the lines of, “what’s with this chick and scones? Isn’t this, like, her third post about them? Is she obsessed?”  And if that’s what you think, you should know, you’re just scratching the surface of my OCD about this particular baked good. 

Biting into my first Veselka scone raised the bar for all other scones that I have encountered since. They have a cumbly, flaky texture with the crisp outside that gives with the lightest touch, and each crumb literally melts on your tongue. They pair with coffee like no other pastry I’ve known. It’s hard for me to do them justice, but this scene sort of sums it up.

The day I started commuting on the F train, it became necessary to place a personal ban on stopping at Little Veselka (the adorable satellite version of the restaurant that is right next to my stop) on the way to work, because I know the limits of my own willpower and that even one innocent stop for coffee would become a slippery slope, leading to the inevitable, “Hmm, why don’t any of my pants button?”

In short, I’m on a quest to find the secret and keep trying new recipes to just find a hint as to what makes the Veselka scone unlike any other. Anytime I don’t have ingredients for anything else in the house, or lack the inspiration to figure out something different, I seize the opportunity to test another scone recipe.

This time I decided to experiment with this recipe by Dorie Greenspan, because I had not yet attempted a cream scone, and thought that perhaps that ingredient would be the holy grail I was searching for.  The recipe was easy to follow and included a neat cutting technique that involved shaping the dough into circles and then cutting the circles as you would a pizza. Ms. Greenspan also provides a good primer on what to watch for when integrating butter and flour for optimal flaking (she likens the texture to that of a gravel road – the perfect analogy).

They also baked up beautifully and were delicious (they really were. Top notch.) and flaky as promised. I would have called them my favorite, if not for my obsession. They just didn’t do that melt-in-your-mouth crumble thing that I can’t get off my mind. And so – cue the sad violins – I press on. Having exhausted recipes from all of my trusted sources, I’m thinking that I’ll be needing to bring out the big guns – leaf lard anyone?

Cream Scones
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 large egg

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbs granulated sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

¼ tsp salt

5 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled

¾ cup moist, plump currants (I used dried cherries, because it was all I had in the pantry)

 Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

 Stir the egg and cream together.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. Add currants and toss a few times to integrate.

Pour the egg and cream over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, come together. Don’t overdo it. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that’s about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place it on the baking sheet. (At this point, the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don’t defrost before baking- just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.)

Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and firmish. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for them to cool to room temperature.

For Valentine’s Day, what do you get a man the day after you return from a lovely tropical vacation and you’re bursting with the amazing food that you’ve consumed after a week of restaurant dining?  You get him bacon. In the form of a savory baked good – you know, baked with love.

Too exhausted to go forage for groceries, too weary of eating out (yeah I know, poor us, world’s tiniest violin playing in the background), we woke up starving the day after our flight home. It happened to be the day after Valentine’s day, and I had just cancelled our standing reservation for the Mermaid Inn, because we’ve had enough fresh fish to last us a year.

So I dragged myself from bed and made these scones for Brian, in honor of Valentine’s Day. They were quick and fool-proof. I had bacon in the fridge leftover from a few weeks back. It was begging, BEGGING to be used. 

I made a few modifications to the original recipe, which called for 4 strips of bacon (I used 6), heavy cream (I used light buttermilk, which, unlike heavy cream, is low in fat and with all that cheddar, you’ll never miss it), and cream brushed on top before baking (I opted to sprinkle with a little shaved Parmiggiano Reggiano).

The scones delivered the one-two punch of bacon and cheddar, spiked with the bite of fresh scallion. The texture was less scone and more biscuit-ish, with a moist center due to the cheese in the dough. I thought that they were good enough, Brian was way more over the moon about them, which is really all that matters to me.

Bacon Cheddar Cheese Scones
Adapted from a recipe by Emeril Lagasse on Food.com 

6 slices bacon, chopped

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup light buttermilk

Parmiggiano Reggiano shavings

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a medium skillet, cook the bacon, stirring, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Into a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter, cheese, green onions, and pepper with a pastry blender or fork, and work just until it starts to form lumps and come together. Add the bacon. Add 1 cup of the cream and work just until it becomes a sticky dough, being careful not to overwork.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat until it comes together. Form into 2 rectangles approximately 4 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Cut the rectangles into imperfect wedges. Transfer to baking sheet with a spatula, leaving 1/2-inch space between each wedge. Shave some Parmiggiano Reggiano over the tops and bake until golden brown, 22 to 23 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the baking sheet. The original recipe recommends serving these warm, we preferred them after they were completely cool.

It’s a working weekend in our household, which means that Brian was off to the office shortly after the alarm this morning, and I have been looking for ways to procrastinate on the elephant-in-the-corner project that is sitting in my laptop bag, smelling like a scary deadline. Rather than hit the ground running on that, I opted to bake for Brian’s team, who are working on a cool, top-secret project this weekend. To show my support for the team, I made some muffins that I thought would appeal to a group of programmers – the highly caffeinated kind. 

It is my responsibility to warm you ahead of time that these muffins received mixed reviews all over. Brian tried them right out of the oven and didn’t care for them – in fact, his exact words were “these taste like I’m eating a used coffee filter”. With that kind of review, I almost chucked them in the garbage. Later, I tried one myself and found their wispy mocha flavor and soft, fluffy texture to be sort of delightful. Then Brian told me that one of his colleagues thought so too. In conclusion, these are either your kind of thing, or they are not. We think maybe that they are better when they have had time to cool completely.

I used our Bialetti espresso maker to make strong espresso coffee for the recipe. Because these muffins were spur of the moment, I used an ice bath to accelerate the cooling process.

I was pretty excited to use my awesome new set of measuring cups for the first time this morning. Here is the 1/3 cup being used for the first time to measure sugar.

In addition to coffee, this recipe also calls for dehydrated, instant espresso. These muffins have some serious buzzzzzzzzzz.

The batter is really easy to make. I recommend that you start with some leftover coffee (very strong) from the day before. I also recommend melting your butter first thing, so it will be cool by the time you are ready for it. Also, the recipe calls for baking for 20 minutes, but pay attention, these took only 15 in my oven.

These muffins may or not be your thing, but they are easy and really worth trying, just in case they are. 1 out of 2 computer programmers agree.

Coffee Break Muffins
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp instant espresso powder 

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup strong coffee, cooled

1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

½ tsp vanilla

preheat oven to 400 F.

Mix together first five ingredients in a large bowl to combine—add brown sugar, making sure to break up any lumps.

Whisk together wet ingredients. Add to dry mixture just to combine—do not over mix. Lumps are perfectly acceptable in muffins.

divide evenly into lined or greased muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes (start watching around 15) or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Let the pan cool on a rack for 5 minutes before carefully removing the muffins. It is suggested that you allow the muffins to cool completely before eating.

Saturday morning I work up with a nasty headache from an overindulgent holiday celebration the night before. I was delirious and sort of flailing about in the kitchen – just getting the coffee on was a challenge. I needed some delicious and buttery carbs to settle my stomach and quiet my throbbing head, but I couldn’t imagine leaving my house in such a state. Luckily, these cherry scones not only fit the bill on account of their being flaky, buttery, and satisfying, they also were easy to make in my, ahem, less-than-with-it state.

As scones go, these are nearly perfect if you love your scones flakey and buttery, with just a touch of sweet from the sugar on the top and tart from the cherries. 

These were extra-special because the only butter I had in the fridge was Plugra, a European style butter with a lower moisture to fat ratio (read: higher fat) that I generally use when baking pie crust, making caramel, or for spreading on good bread. Using regular, unsalted butter will yield great results too.

The original recipe calls for cream, but I opted for whole milk. I’ve done it both ways and barely noticed that the cream was missing.

Coat the chopped, dried cherries in flour before adding them to the dough. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom when baking. It’s a tactic that is especially good for thiner batters – like those of muffins or quick breads.

Add the cherries and mix the dough just enough that they are evenly distributed.

Form the dough into a long, flat rectangle and either roll or form with your fingers until the dough is uniformly 3/4 inch thick. Use a sharp knife or pastry scraper to cut the dough into rough triangles.

Brush each scone with egg wash and sprinkle generously with coarse raw sugar.

Arrange the scones on a parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheet, leaving about an inch between each one. Mine took 20 minutes to cook, but be sure to start watching them at around the 17 minute mark. 

If you felt the way I did that morning, you would understand what torture it was to wait for 20 whole minutes. Plus, I recommend that you allow these to rest for at least 15 minutes before eating. They are well worth the wait.

Cherry Scones
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten 

4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup raw, coarse sugar for sprinkling
 
2 tablespoons baking powder 

2 teaspoons salt 

3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced 

4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten 

1 cup cold milk

3/4 cup small-diced dried cherries

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 4 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in the cold butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. Combine the eggs and milk and quickly add them to the flour and butter mixture. Combine until just blended. Toss the dried cherries with 1 tablespoon of flour, add them to the dough, and mix quickly. The dough may be a bit sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface and be sure it is well combined. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough. Cut into squares with a 4-inch plain or fluted cutter, and then cut them in half diagonally to make triangles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush the tops with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are fully baked.

Cranberries are mysterious fruits! These tart little guys are too often associated only with the gelatinous blob that graces the table come Thanksgiving. This is really a shame because they are a delicious addition to a variety of dishes, desserts, and baked goods. 

This morning when I awoke, the bag of cranberries that I bought a few weeks ago (yes, they keep almost forever in the fridge) was calling my name. It was way too cold to go outside, so I had no choice but to make muffins. Really, no other choice. (Errand credit to Brian, who did brave the elements once I realized we were out of sugar).

Chopping cranberries can be a bit like herding cats – but it’s not hard to figure out a system of pushing them along the cutting board and under the knife. Please note, you should not use a nice cutting board for this task – cranberries stain pretty much everything they touch.

Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs together using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or flat wooden spoon. Be sure to allow the butter to soften first, and periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Sift your dry ingredients together with a whisk and then add them, a half cup at a time, to the wet ingredients.

Mix the vanilla into the milk and then add it to the batter. Continue to mix until fully integrated, but no longer than that. Fold in cranberries and divide evenly into muffin cups.

Check on the muffins about 20 minutes into baking – in my oven that was all it took, although the directions say 30 minutes. 

Nothing like a good muffin on a cold weekend morning. 

Fresh Cranberry Muffins
adapted from Martha Stewart Living 

Makes 1 dozen

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped and mixed with a little sugar
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a standard 12-cup muffin pan and dust with flour, tapping out excess; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Working over the bowl, toss blueberries in a fine sieve with about 1 1/2 teaspoons flour mixture to lightly coat; set aside the flour mixture and the chopped cranberries.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a handheld mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. Mix in vanilla.
3. With the mixer on low speed, add reserved flour mixture, beating until just combined. Add milk, beating until just combined. Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the cranberries. Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. If desired, in a small bowl, mix together remaining 1/4 cup sugar and nutmeg. Sprinkle sugar mixture on top of muffin batter.
4. Bake, rotating pan halfway though, until muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn muffins on their sides in their cups, and let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.