Cranberry Scones

I made these mini scones for a breakfast at work the other day.  Scones have a bad reputation of being hard, dry, and really unappetizing.  Good scones are flaky and buttery.  They have heavy ingredients like butter and cream in them, but they shouldn't feel heavy.

The trick with these is to use really cold ingredients.  The butter, cream, buttermilk, and eggs should all be straight out of the fridge so they're as cold as possible.  And don't overknead the dough for these or you'll get hard bricks!

I had made the ginger lemon scones that were in the Flour cookbook, but I wanted to make something different this time so I just left out the ginger, added some dried cranberries  and did a lime glaze instead of a lemon one.  You can make these in any size that you want.  I have a set of different sized biscuit cutters, so I made these ones small since I was feeding a bunch of people at work.

Cranberry Scones with Lime Glaze
Adapted from Flour

For the scones:
2 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped into small pieces
14 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1/2 cup cold heavy cream
1 cold egg

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2-3 tbsp lime juice


Instructions:


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cranberries until combined with paddle attachment of stand mixer.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, cream, and egg.  On low speed, pour into flour mixture and mix until just combined, 20-30 seconds.  It's ok if there's some flour in the bottom of the bowl.

4. Turn bowl over onto lightly floured counter surface.  Turn dough over lightly a few times until loose flour is combined.  Don't knead the dough hard, just press the flour in lightly.

5. Press the dough out until it's about 1 inch thick all around.  Use biscuit cutter (3 inch for regular size scones, 1 inch for mini bite size ones) to cut out scones.  Gather dough scrapes together and press out more until all the dough has been used.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes for large scones, 15-20 minutes for small ones.  Bake until golden brown on top/edges.  Put on wire rack to cool.  Cool completely before putting the glaze on or it will just melt off the top.

7. Mix the confectioner's sugar and lime juice in a small bowl.  Drizzle glaze over tops of the scones.  Let the glaze solidify for a few minutes before eating.

French Breakfast Puffs

These muffins might not sound like anything that great on paper...or rather on screen. Cinnamon and sugar coated muffins...seen it, right? Kind of like a coffee cake muffin? Wrong. These are uh-mazing! An unassuming cake-like muffin with a hint of nutmeg transforms into a sweet, sugary crusted but delicate treat after being dipped in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

These also hold up well for a few days. The sugary crust stays crusty and the inside of the muffin stays moist and soft if you keep these in a sealed container. They're best warm though. I dare you to eat just one.

The original recipe from the Pioneer Woman says this recipe makes 12 muffins, but I got 18 or 19 out of it.

French Breakfast Puffs

From The Pioneer Woman

Makes 12-18 muffins

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg

1 cup Sugar

⅔ cups Shortening

2 whole Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 ½ cup Sugar

3 teaspoons Cinnamon

2 sticks Butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly grease 2, 12 cup muffin tins.

3. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl and set aside.

4. In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again.

5. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

6. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

7. While muffins are baking, melt 2 sticks of butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon.

8. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Apple Wheat Muffins

These muffins are probably the best baked good using wheat flour that I've had. Normally you think wheat flour and you think it'll be dense or dry, but these are anything but. They're super moist and have a real delicate crumb.

Apple Wheat Muffins
From http://www.smittenkitchen.com/

Yields: 15-18

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon (use good strong cinnamon!)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour a muffin pan or two and set aside.

Mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon) and set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.)

Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks last.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top.


Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 - 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cinnabon Clone - A love at first taste recipe

Need a recipe that will instantly make someone fall in love with you? Or ensure that someone you're already with will love you forever? Well, this is it.

I saw a recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ recently for a "clone of a Cinnabon." Allrecipes can be a hit or miss site since anyone can upload recipes, but I like that it has a ton of traffic, so you can sort the good recipes from the bad by the ratings and reviews from other people. This recipe had a perfect 5 star rating from over 2,500 people. That's usually a good sign.

These are definitely a weekend kind of project, there are a few steps, a bunch of dishes, and a few hours involved in the whole process. But I've made cinnamon buns from scratch before and some from a King Arthur Flour kit, but this recipe takes the cake. If you click through to the allrecipes site, please, whatever you do, do not click on the nutrition information button. These are worth the calories.

Clone of a Cinnabon
Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clone-of-a-Cinnabon/Detail.aspx

For the dough:
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1. Combine all ingredients in stand mixer bowl fitted with the dough hook attachment. Turn on low to medium speed and let the dough hook do its thing. The dough hook is wonderful, no messy kneading by hand, it does all the work for you. Just remember, don't lock the mixer down since it will jump a little while kneading.

2. Once combined into a smooth dough, transfer dough to a mixing bowl that's been sprayed with oil. Cover tight with plastic wrap and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour. I usually put the bowl on the back burner of our gas stove where it gets some heat from the pilot light. But any other warm spot will do: top of your dryer while you're doing laundry, the top of your fridge. Or leave just out at room temperature for a little longer.

3. Wait until dough has doubled in size. It should go from this:

To this:
4. Lightly flour a spot on your counter, flip the dough out, then take a rolling pin and roll out to about a 16x21" rectangle. Cut off any uneven edges.

For the filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
5. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. A trick I learned today: if you have some brown sugar that's rock hard, put it in a microwave safe bowl, cover the hard pieces with a damp paper towel and microwave for about 30 seconds. Don't microwave too long or the sugar will melt.

6. Spread 1/3 cup butter on dough evenly with a butter knife. Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly. Make sure your dough is not too close to the edge of the counter, otherwise, when you go to roll it all up, the brown sugar/cinnamon will fall out the end all over the floor. Yes, I learned this the hard way. I am a very messy cook.

7. Start at one end and roll up the dough. Cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased (Pam spray, not butter) 13x9 pan and place back in your favorite rising spot for another half hour until rolls have almost doubled and fill the pan.

8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

9. Bake rolls at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until just golden brown on top.

For the glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

10. While the rolls are baking, beat together all glaze ingredients until smooth in a mixer with a whisk attachment. The consistency will resemble cake frosting more than glaze.

11. Spread the glaze evenly on warm cinnamon buns. Then, enjoy!