Pumpkin Scones

This post marks my first pumpkin recipe.  Ever.
Of all time.
Up until I made these, I had never even seen a can of pumpkin before, let alone baked with it.

And no, I didn't grow up under a rock...just with parents who aren't big pumpkin people.

And now, thanks, yet again, to Alice's Tea Cup, my life is forever changed.  A Saturday morning baking session with my wonderful fiancé led to a major pumpkin obsession!

These scones were soft, fluffy, spicy pillows of fall flavor.  While I didn't make the caramel glaze to top them (which would have depleted my entire supply of butter), I did discover that a bit of maple syrup takes these treats over the top!  It took all of my willpower not to eat the entire batch of scones right out of the oven, but since I was able to muster some self-control I've been enjoying them for days :)

If you, like me, have never baked with pumpkin before, or if you're already a die-hard pumpkin fanatic, give this recipe a try.  You'll get your hands messy, your kitchen will smell like autumn, and your tastebuds will be oh so happy.

Pumpkin Scones
Source: Alice's Tea Cup
Yield: 10-12 scones

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup ground ginger
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1-1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin puree, such as Libby's (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.  With clean hands or a pastry blender (I use a combination of both), cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract into the well.  Using your hands or a fork (hands are waaaay more fun), combine the ingredients until all the dry mixture is wet.  But don't knead!
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gather it together.  Gently pat it out to make a disk or rectangle about 1 to 1-1/2 inches thick.  Using a 3-3.5 inch biscuit cutter (or the rim of a glass or clean can), cut out as many scones as you can and lay them on a nonstick baking sheet.  Gather the remaining dough together lightly to cut out more scones - make sure you don't knead too much.
Bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let them cool slightly on the baking sheet, then serve with toppings of choice - I recommend apple butter or maple syrup.  Enjoy!
 

Sweet Cream Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy

Most decadent breakfast ever.

As in allowing it to be a breakfast should be illegal.
Deliciously illegal...

 I wasn't born south enough of the Mason-Dixon line to have grown up with this tradition.
Now that I've discovered it, it makes me kind of sad.  Although I'm probably thinner for it.  Hm.
But I kept reading about it and decided I just had to experience it for myself.

Best and worst decision ever.
Best: it's incredible.  Rich, fluffy layers of sweet biscuit - traditionally a southern buttermilk biscuit, which I made and loved, but I then tried Dorie Greenspan's easy-to-make Sweet Cream Biscuits and got my socks knocked off - which just get better when slathered with salted butter and drenched in a chocolate concoction that nearly reaches the decadence of hot fudge.

Worst: I couldn't stop eating them!!!
Which kept me full till dinner, but still - not the sort of thing one in my profession should fill up on regularly.

Which, of course, explains why we made another batch of biscuits and paired them with the leftover gravy the next weekend.
I succumbed to the deliciousness.  Someone please stop me from making more till February?

 This may or may not have been my third one.  In one sitting.

Help.

 Sweet Cream Biscuits
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: about 8 2-1/2-inch biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 to 1-1/4 cups cold heavy cream

Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425˚F.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl with a fork.  Pour about 1 cup of the cream over the dry ingredients and begin to toss them together with the fork.  If necessary, add more cream a spoonful at a time until you have a nice soft dough.  Reach into the bowl with your hands and knead the dough gently just enough to bring everything together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface - I always use a pastry cloth.  Dust the top of the dough lightly with flour and then pat it out to about 1/2-inch thickness.  (Don't turn into me and be a total perfectionist - totally even dough is not that serious ;)  Using a floured biscuit cutter (or clean old can or the relatively sharp edge of a glass) cut out as many biscuits as you can and gently transfer them to an unlined non-stick baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Try to cut them very close together to maximize output from the first go-round.  Gather together the scraps, working them as little as possible to get them to 1/2-inch thickness, and cut out as many additional biscuits as you can. 
Once all possible biscuits have been cut out and transferred to the baking sheet, bake them for 14-18 minutes, or until they're tall, puffed, and golden brown.  Transfer them to a serving biscuit and enjoy as soon as possible!
 

Chocolate Gravy
Source:  Sprinkle Bakes
Yield: about 2 cups

Ingredients:
4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups whole milk
4 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan.  Pour in the milk and whisk vigorously to combine.  (There's your justification for eating this - whisking workout!  Just repeat it like a mantra until you believe it.  Or get on the treadmill or something.)  Heat the mixture over medium-high heat until it begins to bubble.  Turn the heat down to medium and stir constantly until the mixture thickens to gravy-like consistency - don't obsess too much about this part since it will thicken up a bit more as it cools slightly.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.
Allow the gravy to cool slightly, then transfer to a gravy boat.  Serve warm with biscuits and/or any other breakfast foods you want to dip in it :)  Enjoy!

Vanilla Bean Scones and the Best Birthday Ever

I am exhausted.

Between the crazy heat that's hit the NoVA area, the loud energetic kids I'm working with, and the whirlwind of a birthday weekend I had, I am just plain wiped!

But ohhh was it ever worth it...

Quick backstory: my birthday is smack-dab in the middle of July, a.k.a. Vacation Season.  Growing up, most of my friends were naturally on vacation on my birthday, and when they weren't away I had something going on out of town that kept me from having an actual birthday celebration.  The vast majority of my birthdays have been spent with my parents and have involved minimal hoopla.

This year was different :)

Jon flew down from Buffalo Saturday morning, so I got to see my fiancé for the first time in two months, which was nothing short of amazing.  Then, my family - complete with the "extended family" of my best friend Jenni and her mom - drove down to Staunton, VA for a weekend at a bed and breakfast.  After a lovely Italian dinner (and free tiramisu, complete with birthday candle), Jenni and Jon and I went out on the town so I could get my first drink at midnight.  Spending the night out with the two of them was everything I wanted!
The next day, after a delicious breakfast, a walk around the gorgeous little town, and gelato for lunch (I LOVE how anything goes on your birthday!), we went to the Blackfriars Theater, home of the American Shakespeare Center, to see The Importance of Being Earnest.  Earnest is my favorite play, and the production definitely did not disappoint - I laughed hysterically the whole time!  Then came dinner at a delicious farm-to-table restaurant, followed by the 2.5-hour drive home...through most of which I slept.  It was definitely the best birthday I've ever had, and overall an amazing, if exhausting, weekend.

Since being back at home, I haven't had much energy to get back in the kitchen, and being totally out of it, I forgot to take pictures of the zucchini fries I made (I'll try to make them again soon - they were fantastic!).  But before we left for Staunton on Saturday, I made these Vanilla Bean Scones as a treat for Jon to enjoy after his flight.

This makes three recipes I've posted from Alice's Tea Cup.  Since June.  Yeah.  I just can't get over how good everything from that cookbook is!  (And they have countless more amazing recipes that they didn't share, so you really have to drop by one of their locations next time you're in Manhattan.)
These scones are the perfect sweet treat to justify having for breakfast.  They're buttery, tender, chock full of gorgeous vanilla flavor, and perfectly sweet.  Serve them alongside some eggs and a fruit salad and you'll be oh so happy :)

Vanilla Bean Scones
Source: Alice's Tea Cup by Haley and Lauren Fox

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1-1/4 cups cold buttermilk (I used low-fat)
2 or 3 vanilla beans, seeds scraped out and pods reserved
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream (for brushing)
1/4 cup sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  With clean hands or a pastry blender (or both, if you're me and your butter was still frozen!), cut the butter into the dry mixture until the butter is fully incorporated and the mixture has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.  Combine the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean seeds in the cup in which you measured the buttermilk.  Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour the buttermilk mixture into the well.  Combine the ingredients until the entire dry mixture is wet - but don't knead!
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Gather the dough together and lightly pat it out to a rectangle about 1-1/2 inches thick.  Using a dough cutter or a sharp knife, cut the dough into wedges measuring about 3-1/2 x 4 inches and lay them on a nonstick baking sheet.  If there is any remaining dough, lightly gather it together to cut out more scones - try not to knead too much!  Brush the tops of the scones liberally with cream and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake the scones for 12-18 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool just until they can be handled.  Enjoy!

**NOTE: In my experience, the scones often take several minutes more than 12 to finish baking at 425˚.  I plan to experiment in the future with bumping the temperature up another 25 degrees to see if they puff up and brown better.  If you try it, let me know how they turn out!

Good Ol' Independence Day. And scones!

So...Happy Independence Day!  Belated.  Whoops.

It's become a bit of a family tradition to spend the weekend of the Fourth out at our vacation home in West Virginia, and let me tell you...this place is beautiful.  It's the house I wish I could take everywhere in the country with me.  Heck, I'd plant this place in the middle of New York City!

The logs would be a mite incongruous with the rest of the city's architecture, but it would be worth it.










The kitchen's gorgeous too, and perfect for photos...I miss that kitchen already...

This time around, the company included my parents, myself, and my brother Rob and his new wife Colleen.  It took me about two weeks to narrow down dessert options, but based on the weather, people's tastes, and with the help of the best cookbook ever, I came up with a solution eventually.

Rob and Colleen love strawberry shortcake, and Rob has a killer recipe for it (which I may beg off of him and post in the future), but I decided to try it with a twist.
A patriotic twist, naturally.

The base I chose for the shortcakes was a strawberry white chocolate scone.  I made one tiny change to a recipe from Alice's Tea Cup, my favorite restaurant / bakery in New York, so I expected that they would be delicious.

Good gracious, was that ever a good choice.

Even without the toppings, the scones were incredible!  Flaky but not at all dry, buttery to boot, and chock full of bits of tart strawberry and sweet white chocolate, these made the kitchen smell amazing and made me do my happy dance.
But we had to gild the lily, so we split them in half and filled them with mascerated strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream.

[Disgraceful secret: The grocery store was out of heavy cream so we cheated and used the stuff from a can.  For goodness' sake, whip your own, preferably with some sugar and vanilla.  But the canned stuff was a viable enough solution.  Particularly the extra-creamy...guilty pleasure in a can.]

The best part?  Totally versatile.  Swap out the white chocolate for milk or semisweet chocolate chips, ditch the blueberries for a more classic shortcake, use raspberries instead of strawberries...anything goes!  And anything would be divine.

White Chocolate Strawberry Scones
Source: barely adapted from Alice's Tea Cup by Haley and Lauren Fox
Yield: 10-12 scones
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups hulled and quartered strawberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips (brand of your preference - I used Toll House)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (I used low fat)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream (for brushing)
1/4 cup sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Using two knives, a pastry blender, or extremely clean fingertips, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.  Add the strawberries and white chocolate chips and mix till they are evenly distributed throughout the dry mixture.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour the buttermilk and vanilla into the well.  Combine until all the dry mixture is wet - do not knead!
Turn the mixture out onto a well-floured surface and gather the dough together, sprinkling some flour over the top.  Gently pat the dough to make a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Using a dough cutter or a sharp knife, cut out wedges measuring about 3 1/2 - 4 inches and lay them on a nonstick baking sheet.  If necessary, gather any remaining dough together lightly to cut out more scones - just don't knead too much.  Brush the tops of the scones liberally with heavy cream and then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake the scones for about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

To serve shortcake-style, allow scones to cool for approximately 10 minutes.  While they cool, mix together approximately 8oz sliced strawberries, 3/4 pint of blueberries, and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar together in a bowl and allow to mascerate.  In a chilled bowl using a mixer with chilled beaters, whip 1 pint of heavy cream with 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract to stiff peaks.  Once scones are sufficiently cool, slice in half lengthwise and place two halves on a plate.  Scoop a healthy amount of berries onto the bottom half, top with whipped cream, and top with the top half of the scone.  Enjoy!