Ladies and Gentlemen

It's a big weekend. It's the Wimbledon finals and the extra long 4th of July holiday weekend. And Will and Kate are nearly in SoCal. Could you just die? No? Well, fine. But it's a good enough reason to acknowledge the English/American mash-up. Too bad there weren't any Americans in the ladies' or men's (excuse me, gentlemen's) finals...

Is there a better way to enjoy breakfast at Wimbledon (not WimbleTON!) than with a plate of scones? I guess actually being there would be a start...But if you watch from your couch at home, you could make a batch for breakfast and then use the ones that you don't eat (assuming that you don't eat them all!) to make shortcakes for dessert on the 4th. Voila!



Breakfast at Wimbledon - 4th of July Strawberry Shortcakes
(Scone recipe adapted from The Best New Recipe)

Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Filling:
2 pounds fresh strawberries
1/4 cup granulated white sugar, or to taste
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream

1. Make the scones: Preheat the oven to 425˚F. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

2. Use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips, and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps.

3. Stir in 1 cup of the heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form.

4. Transfer the dough, and all dry flour bits, to a counter top and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball. Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle (about 8-inches round). Cut the dough into 8 wedges (or rounds). Brush the tops with the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet.

5. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

6. Make the filling: Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries. Place about one third of the strawberries in a large bowl and smash them with a potato masher, pastry blender, or fork. Add the remaining sliced strawberries and about 2 tablespoons sugar and stir to combine. (The amount of sugar used will depend on how sweet the berries are.) Set aside to macerate at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

7. Make the whipped cream: Chill a large bowl and a whisk in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Place the cold cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in the bowl and whip until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a few hours.

8. To serve: Cut the scones in half (like a sandwich roll) and place the bottom half of the scone (cut side up) on a dessert plate. Top with some of the strawberries and whipped cream. Place the top half of the scone on the strawberries (cut side down). Top with additional whipped cream and a few more strawberries. If there is any juice from the strawberries, drizzle a little over the top of the scone. Serve immediately. Makes 8 shortcakes.

Early to bed

Need a last minute scone recipe to whip up at 4:00 in the morning? (West coasters, you are definitely at an advantage with the 1:00 am kickoff .) I'll be asleep, but perhaps you will be getting up at the crack to see just what the hell Kate will be wearing to the wedding of the century! I'm guessing a wedding dress. But in the meantime, you'll need loads of coffee (or tea if you're trying to be more authentic) and a scone (or three). Try my classic cream scone (or chocolate!) recipe that you can totally throw together during commercial breaks, or, whilst Giuliana or Meredith (or whoever) is trying to fill airtime whilst nothing else is happening. Enjoy!



Cream Scones
(Adapted from The Best New Recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup dried sour cherries, (or chocolate) roughly chopped
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 425˚F. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

2. Use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips, and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Add the dried cherries (if using) and mix just to combine.

3. Stir in 1 cup of the heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form.

4. Transfer the dough, and all dry flour bits, to a counter top and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball. Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle (about 8-inches round). Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Brush the tops with the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet.

5. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 8 scones.


Or make Chocolate Scones

Baking 101

The other day I held a mini-baking class for my friend, Lisa. I didn't think to take photos because I was more worried about the tower of baking pots and pans crashing onto us (an empty oven is prime storage real estate) while we were trying to prep our recipe. We managed to bake without any major organizational disasters and made basic cream scones from the recipe that I posted here.

It was interesting to see the process through the eyes of someone who doesn't normally bake. I discovered that the most challenging parts of the scone recipe were cutting the butter into the flour mixture (because why would anyone ever do that otherwise) and shaping the dough into one giant scone in order to cut it into individual pieces (the dough has a tendency to be a little crumbly until it is gathered together). Both steps could worry the novice baker that they might not be doing something right.

All's well that ends well. I think that Lisa was surprised at how quickly it all came together and that she owned all of the necessary tools to make the scones, except for a pastry blender which you can pick up for a few bucks. The one pictured below is from Williams-Sonoma and sells for 10 bucks, but you can find one for a little less.


From Williams-Sonoma

I decided to try out this chocolate scone alternative because a.) I had never had a chocolate scone before and b.) there can never be enough chocolate at breakfast. They turned out to be quite delicious though, dare I say, they could stand to be MORE chocolatey! I do love the idea of wrapping and freezing the scones individually for baking in future weeks. I think I might do that in the future when I make my regular scone recipe. Also, I think that I would cut these square scones into triangles so that you get 12 scones rather than only 6. They are pretty massive and must be about a million calories each. That's just my unprofessional opinion. Off to the gym!



Chocolate Scones
From Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
5 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate, chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 large whole egg + 1 large egg yolk
½ cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Sanding (or demerara) sugar, for sprinkling

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Fold in the chocolate.

2. In a small bowl whisk together the whole egg and ½ cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in, working in all directions and incorporating crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, until the dough just comes together.

3. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and gently pat into a 18-by-3 inch rectangle about 1-inch thick. Using a sharp knife or a pastry wheel, cut the rectangle into six 3-inch squares (you may cut these squares in half into triangles to make 12). Place the squares about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until the dough is very firm, at least 1 hour or overnight. (At this point you can freeze the unbaked scones in a resealable plastic bag until ready to bake, up to 3 weeks. I wrapped each individually in plastic wrap and placed in the plastic bag in order to bake one at a time at a later date. You can then place the frozen scones directly into a preheated oven.)

4. Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolk with the remaining tablespoon heavy cream; brush over the tops of the scones and sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. Bake, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the sugar on top of the scones turns golden all over, or a cake tester inserted in the center of a scone comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. They are best eaten the day they are baked. Makes six to twelve.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning breakfast: Chocolate chip scones and a latte made from my V60 dripper

Sour Grapes (or Cherries)

Sour Grapes!

You leave such a bad taste.

Sour grapes!

I don't need you anyways!

I love that song. It might date me but I don't care. That song solidified my decision to buy a mountain bike while I was in college. I notoriously comparison shop until no more comparisons can be done. When it came down to the final decision on my Trek, all the bike dude had to say was, "The color's Sour Grape." Umm...Sold!!!

Basically, I like everything sour, not just my bikes or music. I guess a sour grape would technically be a raisin, but I hate raisins. Sour cherries on the other hand...amazing! Fresh sour cherries have a very short season so might I suggest, dried sour cherries. And might I suggest stirring them into your baked goods.

With all of the weekend trips that people take during the summer, one tends to need hostess gift ideas (if you are a thoughtful guest!). I think that fresh baked scones make an amazing hostess gift. The thing is, these scones taste best the day of, so if you make them the day before, just pop them into a 350˚F oven for 5 - 10 minutes just before you serve them so that they can warm up and crisp up. OR...you can just wake up a few minutes before your hosts and whip them up fresh for everyone. They don't take very long to throw together and your hosts will be SO impressed!

This is a classic cream scone recipe. I used the recipe from The New Best Recipe for this batch, but The Joy of Cooking has an almost identical recipe which is equally good. Regardless, you shouldn't be frightened of making scones. You don't need a rolling pin or any special tools. And they don't have to look perfect. Irregular shapes and craggy edges are what make scones unique. I originally made these to enjoy during Breakfast at Wimbledon. I hope you enjoy them!

Sour Cherry Cream Scones

(Adapted from The Best New Recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup dried sour cherries, roughly chopped (or other dried fruit)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Sugar

1. Heat the oven to 425˚F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

3. Use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips, and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Add the dried cherries and mix just to combine.

4. Stir in 1 cup of heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form.

5. Transfer the dough, and all dry flour bits, to a countertop and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball. Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle (about 8-inches round). Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Brush the tops with the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet.

6. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.