Vanilla Bean Scones

I had been promising the Monkey Scientist for a few weeks that I'd make a nice breakfast one weekend morning, but I kept rushing out early to go to weekend Stroga class and hadn't followed through.  Finally, I came through with a special treat - scones.  This was my first scone adventure, so I'm not sure how "typical" this recipe is, but it certainly was a learning experience.



First of all, grating butter?  I grate all my own cheese, but this was a new one for me.  It makes sense though!  Trying to cut butter into flour is a pain, but mixing in little flakes of butter is easy!  Totally weird, not changing my mind on that, but I think it works really well!



On the other hand, this recipe doesn't cut the pain of layering the dough.  Do all scone recipes have layered dough?  I felt like I was making croissants.  But then when they baked up, I didn't notice the layers at all.  Was all this rolling and folding worth it?  What was I really doing?  I need a baker pro to explain to me a little bit better!





Can I just throw out there that'd I'd love a nice wood pastry board.  Like this one.  It's on my wish list and sometime I'll take the plunge and buy it myself.  My counter is just never clean enough to work directly on, and my cutting boards aren't cutting it (no pun intended).  If you have a pastry board, this is a great recipe to use it for, since you roll out into all different sized square and rectangles.



We really enjoyed these scones.  They were a bit doughy (did I over mix?) and not quite as flakey as they could have been, but delicious nonetheless.  The vanilla flavor was strong throughout and I love the cinnamon sugar topping.  I saved the rest as a quick bite to grab on the way out the door in the morning and they stayed delicious all week.  As much as we've enjoyed waffles and scones, the next weekend breakfast may be an egg dish - I haven't made a quiche in a long time!

Oh! One note!  Save your pod from the vanilla bean after you scrape it.  I have something you can do with it! Stay tuned!



Vanilla Bean Scones
from Pink Parsley

Ingredients
8 Tablespoons cold butter, plus more for brushing
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split open and seeds scraped out (save the pod!)
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

Instructions
1. Grate the butter on the large holes of a box grater onto a plate lined with parchment paper, and freeze.
2. Preheat oven to 425, and combine the dry ingredients. Stir in frozen butter. Whisk together the vanilla bean, yogurt, vanilla extract, and whole milk, and stir into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until just combined. The dough will be crumbly, but that's okay.
3. Turn out onto a well-floured surface, and knead a few times until it forms a ball. Roll out into a 12x12 inch square. Using a bench scraper, fold the dough into thirds, then fold into thirds again in the opposite direction to form a square. Place on the parchment-lined plate, and freeze for 5 minutes.
4. Roll out to a 12x12 inch square again. Carefully roll up, as you would cinnamon rolls. Press the roll into a 4-inch wide rectangle. Using the bench scraper, cut into 4 equal-sized rectangles. Then cut each rectangle diagonally to make 2 triangles.
5. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. At this point the scones can be baked or refrigerated overnight. Brush with melted butter, then sprinkle with sugar. Bake 18-25 minutes, or until golden-brown.

Biscoff and Marshmallow Crescent Rolls

This is the easiest, most delicious recipe I have made for dessert in a long time.  I understand - major shortcut using crescent rolls - but sometimes we all need a little shortcut in life!  This is your go-to, last minute, throw together dessert.  You'll love it!



I had a TOUGH Stroga class the other night, and thought I really earned a little treat when I got home.  I wasn't quite going as far to bake cookies or brownies, but I wanted an upgrade from a single scoop of biscoff spread.  We threw this whole recipe together in about 10 minutes, and baked it up while we ate (we're fast eaters).



When I was telling Jeff about the amazing dessert we'd had last night, he told me they sounded like Balloon Biscuits.  A quick google search taught me that Balloon Biscuits are regional to the school district he grew up in, and that the school still uses the exact same clip art when sharing the recipe with their students as when he went there.  The recipe is pretty similar, but it lacks the key to this recipe's tastiness - Biscoff Spread.



Have you all tried this?  You can buy it at World Market, some grocery stores, online (here in a multipack) or Trader Joe's has their own version, called Speculoos Cookie Spread.  Either way, man oh man is it good.  It's like peanut butter, but instead of peanuts it tastes like those cookies you get on Delta flights.  I bought it thinking I'd bake with it, but I may or may not have polished off a jar just by eating spoonfuls.  I have to admit, I'm pretty proud that I finally used it to bake instead of eating it plain!



When you need a quick and easy recipe that even your kids could make, the Solon School District had the right idea and Picky Palate perfected it.  Buy crescent rolls.  Fill them with marshmallow and cookie spread.  Cover them in butter and cinnamon sugar.  Devour.  Just make sure you put a Silpat down or you could destroy your cookie sheet! I have a feeling you know just how sweet and fantastic these will be.  Just make sure you get a nice work out in first!





Biscoff and Marshmallow Crescent Rolls
from Picky Palate

Ingredients
One 8 count roll of Crescent Rolls (I used store brand)
8 tablespoons Biscoff Spread (or Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Spread)
Approximately 80 mini marshmallows
1-2 tablespoons melted butter (I used closer to 1)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper. (Please don't skip this step!)
2. Unroll crescent rolls into 8 triangles on prepared baking sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of Biscoff spread onto the center of the wide end of the triangle. Top Biscoff with about 10 mini marshmallows then roll crescent up starting at wide biscoff marshmallow end. Space each crescent about 1 1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
3. Brush melted butter over each crescent with a pastry brush. Stir together the sugar and cinnamon then sprinkle evenly over crescents.
3. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown. Marshmallows will ooze everywhere. Once removed from the oven, take a plastic knife and bring warm oozed marshmallow back around each crescent.
4. Let cool for 10 minutes then serve warm.

Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls

There is something so absolutely wonderful about baking bread.  The smell of yeast when you first bring it back to life. The texture of dough that has just finished rising.  The aroma that fills the apartment while it bakes.  The warm steam that rises as you break a roll open.  It's something magical.



And yet, it's been so long since I last baked bread.  It's such a shame.  The truth is, I just don't eat that much bread in a regular week.  Not to say I'm not a huge carb-loader, but pasta tends to be my gluten of choice.  But, with the holidays coming up, I wanted to try some dinner roll recipes that we could use for Thanksgiving.



I decided to halve this recipe because I knew it would probably just be the two of us eating them.  Let me rephrase... I decided to halve this recipe so I wouldn't eat 30 dinner rolls in one sitting.  Because, believe me, I would have.  (By the way, half a large egg = 1/8 cup scrambled egg)  Half of the recipe actually only made a dozen rolls instead of 15, which was great because I only needed to make one batch (I only have 1 muffin tin). I also decided that I would top some of them with fun spices - some with garlic salt, a few with cinnamon sugar, and even one with smoked salt from Trader Joe's.




All of the rolls came out absolutely amazing.  The cinnamon sugar was by far my favorite - next time I'd probably put cinnamon sugar in the butter that you use to coat the muffin tins as well.  I served them with Roasted Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo that I had hidden from myself in the freezer.  Don't you love when you do that?  I liked sopping up the soup with the bread - so tasty.

The best part about these rolls is the clover shape.  It looks absolutely adorable, but it also makes the rolls easy to peel into thirds.  It made a perfect excuse to keep eating more - "oh I'm just going to have 1 more clover of a roll!"  It seems perfectly reasonable to leave behind 2/3 of a roll when it splits off so nicely!  I should also mention that I used bread flour instead of AP flour, simply because I was all out of the regular stuff.  I don't think it affected them at all, so feel free to use whichever you have hanging around.  Either way, you should definitely make these.  (Just make sure you account for enough time for the first and second rise!) I promise you won't regret it!



Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls
from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:
4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons salt
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed
melted butter for brushing

Instructions:
1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (with an attached dough hook), combine warm water, yeast, olive oil and 1 tablespoon honey and mix with a spoon. Let sit until foamy, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Add warm milk, remaining honey, egg and butter, and mix on low speed until just combined, then add in 2 cups of flour and salt. Mix on low speed, gradually increasing to medium as flour becomes incorporated.
3. Slowly add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, stopping at 5 cups. Knead the dough on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, then check to see if the dough is sticky. If it is too sticky, add a bit more flour and knead until it becomes smooth, but you want some stick to it. Remove dough from the bowl and form into a ball with your hands, covering with a bit more flour until it is no longer sticking to your hands.
4. Brush a large bowl with melted butter. Add dough to the bowl, turning once or twice to cover in butter. Place a towel over top and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours.
5. Punch dough down, then transfer to a floured workspace. Tear small pieces of dough off the larger piece, and roll into balls slightly larger than one inch wide. You will end up with about 90 dough balls. Brush a muffin tin with melted butter, then add 3 dough balls to each tin. Cover and let rise again, in a warm spot, for about an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the tops of each clover with a hefty glug of melted butter. Bake for 11-12 minutes (mine actually took closer to 20 minutes), or until tops are just golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter again, repeating the brushing another few times as the rolls cool (I actually skipped this step and they were buttery enough!) Remove from the tins and serve.

The muffins are best when eaten on the same day they were baked, however if you’d like to make them the day before, make sure to let them cool completely and store in an air-tight container.

Roasted Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo

Finally the fall is here!

You know how I know?




I made soup!  I haven't made soup in months!  And my soup, it has PUMPKIN it in!  It truly is October, even if it feels like April outside.  (Although I'm sure when I'm in Minneapolis in a little over a week, I'll freeze my little tushy off!)




I came up with this soup on my own, though I consulted all sorts of recipes for ways to roast pumpkin as well as techniques for preparing lentils, meats, or squash in soup.  Everyone has their own ways of doing it - roasting the pumpkin or not roasting, pureeing or leaving everything whole, and even timing varied widely.  In the end, I just did what worked best for me.



I really enjoyed making my own recipe for this soup. I had a vision of exactly what I wanted, and I accomplished it.  I was hoping for a soup that was spicy and savory, yet sweet, and full of protein so that it would be filling.  I love lentils, but I'd never tried to use them in soup and I'm so happy with my results!




If you're interested in making your own soup recipe, check out this guide on Simple Bites.  It's definitely a skill worth learning.  Homemade soup is so much tastier and healthier than anything out of a can!  Almost any seasonal produce can go right in!  I love any excuse to use my immersion blender, so squash in the fall makes my favorite soups.



This soup came out so amazing.  I brought some leftovers to work and everyone was wandering towards me, asking what they smelled.  It was very filling and the flavors were complex.  I'm not sure how I feel about the pureed meat (that sounds disgusting) but honestly it didn't bother me in the final soup.  I actually love the texture of the blended soup.  If you're not into that sort of thing, you can probably just add it in at the end, after you blend the lentils and squash, or leave it out all together (although in that case, I'd add some chiles to increase the spice level).  I thought it was just perfect as is though!




Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo


Ingredients
1 small pie pumpkin
1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cinnamon sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb chorizo, casings removed and crumbled
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed and sorted
7 cups vegetable or chicken stock

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds and stringy insides.  Slice into 2-inch wide crescents.
3. Spread butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon sugar over the foil on the baking sheet.  Rub the pumpkin on both sides in the butter mixture.  Arrange in a single layer and bake 20-30 minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking time.  When they're cooked, remove and discard skin and chop pumpkin.
4. Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the chorizo and cook thoroughly. Remove to a separate bowl with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger to the pan.  Season with salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves.  Allow to cook until soft, about 10 minutes.
6.  Add pumpkin, then lentils, then stock.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer until lentil are tender, about 30 minutes (may take more or less time depending on the type of lentils used).
7. Puree using an immersion blender.  Serve immediately (just don't burn your tongue!)

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

After my wonderful meal of roasted carrots and cornish hen, my roommate and I decided to stay in to watch movies.  Which, of course, meant we needed cookies. I was hoping 2 nights in would help me kick this chest cold!

I just discovered a wonderful new blog.  I added it to my google reader and I think I starred almost every single one of the recipes that popped up.  Everything looked freaking awesome.

Over the holidays, I made gingerbread biscotti several times.  Biscotti are so easy to make, they last a long time, and they're GOOD!  So I decided to try a Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti for roommate movie night, especially because Tracey got the recipe from joy the baker, who has never let me down.  The only adjustment I made was to use some whole wheat flour because I think it holds up really well in biscotti.

And these did NOT let me down.  YUM.  Best biscotti I've made yet :)  (roommate even agreed, better than the gingerbread biscotti!) Fresh out of the oven they were soft, but once they cooled and were hard they were still really good dipped in some of my favorite tea.

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti
adapted from tracey's culinary adventures via joy the baker

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the egg and then the egg yolk, beating well after each addition.  Mix in the vanilla.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until everything is incorporated and the dough comes together.

Divide the dough in half.  On the prepared baking sheet, shape each half into a log that is 9 inches long and 1 1/2-inch-wide.  Space the logs at least 4 inches apart.  Brush the tops and sides of the logs with the beaten egg.  In a small bowl combine the cinnamon and sugar for the topping, then sprinkle about 2/3 of it generously on the logs.

Bake until the logs are golden and slightly firm to the touch, about 40-45 minutes.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven but maintain the oven temperature.  Once the logs are cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife to cut each log into 1/2-wide slices on the diagonal.  Place the biscotti cut-side down on the baking sheet and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar topping.  Bake the biscotti again until pale golden, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove and cool on wire racks.