Rich and Sweet Berry Scones and Award

These scones are pretty fun to make because you can pretend that you're making puff pastry because of the folds you need to make. They weren't too sweet and sprinkling some sugar on the tops is a good idea. I did not brush the tops with butter because I felt that it was unnecessary, and I only topped one scone with sugar. The sugar topped scone was less prone to browning. It also made for a prettier scone. While I baked these scones, butter leaked out. I don't think that's supposed to happen, but I don't know what I did wrong. Anyway I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Also, this past week I received an award from Lena from Frozen Wings. I didn't get around to writing this post until now, but I would like to thank her for giving me my first award. It really means a lot with me and I would like to share it with several other bloggers. Please read more to find out who got the awards. Also, please check out Lena's blog; she has many beautiful bakes and delicious food. Thank you again Lena!

Rich and Sweet Berry Scones

Simple Drop Biscuits

I made these biscuits quite a while ago. This recipe is really simple and it doesn't even take long to make these biscuits. Their rich taste, soft interior and crispy exterior make you want to eat one after the other. I got the recipe from my baking book and I rewrote the instructions. I did follow the recipe to a tee, other than brushing the top with butter part.

Simple Drop Biscuits
Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Makes 12
Set A
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt

Set B
1 cup buttermilk, chilled (I substituted with one cup milk and 1 tbsp vinegar mixed and set aside for 10 minutes before using)
8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and slightly cooled (around 5 minutes), plus extra for brushing around 2 tbsp

Have the oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 475*F.

In a large bowl, whisk together set A. In a medium bowl stir together the refrigerated buttermilk along with the melted butter that was semi cooled. Keep on stirring until there are clumps of butter. Don't worry, this is supposed to happen so that the biscuits will be nice and fluffy.

Now, stir Set B into Set A using a rubber spatula so that the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and the flour is just mixed in. Don't overmix.

With a greased 1/4 cup, scoop out the dough onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet around 1 1/2 inches apart so they don't stick together. Bake for around 12 to 14 minutes so that their tops are golden brown and make sure that halfway through baking you rotate the pans.

After they are done baking, you can choose to brush the biscuits with melted butter. Let them cool on a wire rack, around 5 minutes then serve warm.

Scones

I love making scones. I don't like how much fat they have because it's scary, but I have to admit, they taste really good. I made my first scones ever by using my Williams-Sonoma Sweet Treats cookbook. One of the blogs that I am following is Baking Bites, and if you aren't following it now, I recommend you to follow it. There are a plethora of recipes on that site that you will love. While browsing through the recipes, I happened to chance upon this scone recipe which, coincidentally, is exactly the same as the recipe from my Sweet Treats book. The only differences were the blueberries, lemon juice, zest and glaze. The proportions are all the same, but instead of blueberries, dried cranberries were used, and instead of milk, heavy cream is used.

Dry ingredients being mixed together.

Sugar is added.

Get the butter ready.


This time I used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream and milk. The evaporated milk was leftover from the egg tarts; I had just the right amount left. :)


Butter is about to be incorporated with the dry ingredients.

Dough after evaporated milk has been added.


Crasins.



Dough is rolled out into a rectangle...

then cut into pieces diagonally.


After baking.

Oopsies, accidentally burnt the bottoms. :) That always happens to me.


Right side up.

The texture of this type of scone.


Notes:
If the dough is still not totally smooth, add a bit more milk/heavy cream or w/e it is that you are using. If you add too much heavy cream to it, the scones will be burned easier when baking.

The milk/evaporated milk will result in a more bread like scone while heavy cream will make for a richer and a "crispy" crust.

I bake my scones at 375 F or less b/c of my oven, however, I need to extend the baking time to make sure the middle is cooked through.


Round scones with too much heavy cream = burnt bottoms, yes I know, again. :)

I also shape my scones into triangles or circles, it's personal preference.

Lemon Blueberry Scones
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, chilled
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into 6-8 chunks and add to flour mixture, tossing to coat. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until mixture is sandy and butter is well distributed, with no pieces larger than a big pea.
Add in milk, lemon juice and lemon zest and stir until dough comes together.
Either keeping the dough in your mixing bowl, or turning it out onto a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 1 minute. Flatten dough and add blueberries. Knead gently for 30-60 seconds to distribute them. Divide dough into two balls and press each into a disc about 3/4-inch thick. Use a knife to divide each disc into quarters and place scones on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 17-22 minutes, until scones are golden brown.

Lemon Glaze (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth, then drizzle over still-warm scones before serving.

Just to clarify, I always check the blog's copyright rules to make sure that it is ok to post up the recipe on my blog. Posting up a recipe on x3Baking makes it easier to look at it.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. My adapted version is shown below. The instructions are very similar to the original recipe with a few personal touches. When I first started baking banana bread, the most time consuming part was mashing the bananas. Just mashing them would take me 20-30 minutes! After that, everything else was easy. Now I have discovered an easy solution, and that is to mash the bananas with a fork. If you don't have ripe brown-speckled bananas, but still want to make banana bread, all you have to do is bake your yellow bananas in the oven at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit and they will quickly ripen. I learned this tip from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Just know that you can't do that with green bananas, it just doesn't work.

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/4 cup butter, melted
* 3 bananas, mashed
* nuts to taste, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Line two 7x3 inch loaf pans with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In one bowl, whisk together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix in slightly beaten eggs, melted butter, and mashed bananas. Pour into prepared pans. Sprinkle coarsely chopped nuts on top of the batter.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes or so, until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I sprinkle the nuts on top because you toast the nuts that way and you can actually taste it. If you mix it in with the batter, the nuts will be lost inside. Hope you enjoy this recipe. :)
The consistency of the batter will look like this.


The finished product.





I just love taking pictures of them. :)