Food Friday: Back to Basic Baking

Have you been enjoying the Harvest Moon? Wowser. It was so bright on Wednesday night that it felt like our back yard was a used car lot. Autumn is on its way! It is getting cooler and I am returning to the kitchen with some renewed enthusiasm. Cooking and baking and sharing meals is what humanizes us, after all. Luke is all about his dog kibble. But we like to have something warm now, with candles and conversation, and maybe a sweater.

I have inched into some baking. I stumbled on some bargain-priced raspberries the other day. I ignored carbon footprints and country of origin concerns. I didn’t care is they had been trekked into the U.S. by pack mules – they were so cheap that I could built a special little weeknight dessert around them. I baked a batch of simple scones and whipped up some cream. Not exactly clotted cream at a high tea in a posh tearoom in London, but it was a mighty fine dessert and it reacquainted me with the oven, which since May has only seen regular use for Friday Night Pizza.

A couple of days later I varied the scone theme a wee bit and I baked some biscuits for breakfast. I even cooked some bacon! Can eggs be far behind? Two days later, once the biscuits disappeared, I baked a pan of corn bread. I am on a gluten-rich, carb-full roll. We will be plumper this fall, but sweaters help mask the joy!

Back to Basic Baking Scones

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Stir first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas. Freeze 5 minutes. Add 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

2. Turn dough out onto wax paper or lightly floured surface, gently press or pat dough into a 7-inch round (mixture should be crumbly). Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Place them a couple of inches apart on a baking sheet, which you will have cleverly lined with parchment paper, God’s gift to the amateur baker. Lightly brush the tops of the scones with some of the cream that is left. I sprinkled some granulated sugar on top – and then remembered that I had some fancy “Sparkling Sugar – Bright White” left over from Christmas cookie decorating. Rats. I hope I remember for the next batch. If raspberries are still on sale…

3. Bake at 450°F for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden. Monitor carefully so you do not scorch their tender bottoms! Now whip up your cream and add a healthy dollop to each scone wedge and top with a handful of raspberries. Yumsters. Some people add raisins or cranberries to their scone recipes – heresy, I say.

Garden & Gun has the easiest recipe known to any kitchen for the best biscuits ever –

“2 cups of Southern soft-wheat self-rising flour
1 ¼ cups well-chilled heavy cream”

This appeals to me on so many levels – not exactly out of the Bisquick box, yet just as easy and delicious!

Here are the details: https://gardenandgun.com/article/miracle-drop-biscuits

I love Garden & Gun for brilliant ideas like this, its lush photography, silky paper, and Roy Blount, Jr. He will even eat nutria! https://gardenandgun.com/article/end-of-the-line-meaty-issues

Thanks to our clever friends at Food52 we have a perfect cornbread recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/12638-magically-moist-cornbread. This will be nice to whip up for the holiday breakfasts which aren’t all that far away!

Bon Appétit had these easy-to-bake cookie recipes on Facebook the other day. I guess everyone is thinking about comfort foods. I am going to try a couple of these this weekend and will report back to you next week!

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/desserts/slideshow/easy-cookie-recipes/?slide=1

“Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.”
-Carl Sandburg

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