I baked in pans this weekend.  No, there’s nothing wrong with my baking stone.  I just have freezers full of baguettes, miches and other hearth breads.   Also, I was (and am always) craving scones (using Breadsong’s technique).  My wife was urging me to make another whole grain-y sandwich bread.  And I wanted a good accompaniment for Pollo Cacciatore.  So, it was scones, Hamelman’s Oatmeal Bread and Reinhart’s BBA Focaccia.

Lemony-Cranberry Flaky Scones

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Breadsong wrote about flaky scones a couple months ago (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21414/flaky-scones-flavor-variations).  I had done a couple variations before (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21496/people-who-live-glass-houses-shouldn039t-stow-scones).  This time, I wanted to try a tart and fruity variation.  I looked at some lemon scone recipes to see different approaches to getting lemon flavor in scones.  Some use lemon zest, some use lemon juice, and some use lemon extract.  I used all three. 

I also added some dried cranberries, soaked in water overnight. I squeezed out the excess water in a sieve, but the dough was still too moist.  So I added some flour in the mix.  Next time I’ll reduce the other liquids.  The scones came out with the same wonderful texture as before, moist on the inside and crispy on the outside.  But they didn’t rise up quite as much.  And they could have had a stronger lemon flavor.  So next time I’ll use more lemon zest, or maybe candied lemon peel.

I followed Breadsong’s technique.  Here’s the formula I recommend, with the adjustments I mentioned above:

1 cups (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ Tbsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp kosher salt

scant 1/4 cup golden brown sugar

2 ½ Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries (soaked overnight in water, excess water squeezed out)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Just less than 1 cup heavy cream (185 grams)

 2  Teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Half-and-half (for brushing)

But even though they could be improved, these scones were dang good.

Hamelman’s Oatmeal Bread

Having enjoyed making –and eating-- AW’s whole wheat bread last week, I decided to try another partially whole grain sandwich bread.   I chose the Oatmeal Bread from Hamelman’s Bread: with 25% whole wheat flour and 75% KAF Sir Lancelot.  Believe it or not, I made this bread exactly per the formula, with no variations.  Believe it?  Well, ok…I did substitute molasses for 1/3 of the honey, just because we love the dark, rich flavor.

The dough was fermented for one hour after mixing and kneading, stretched and folded, then refrigerated.  It almost tripled by morning.   Seriously gassy! 

 It proofed about 2 ½ hours since it had to get to the temperature the yeasties like.   The home-baking formula for this bread in Bread made enough for two loaves in 9 x 5 pans and six 3-ounce rolls.  The bread has a wonderful tenderness and a wholesome oatey-wheaty flavor.  It was excellent for a dinner of turkey and cole slaw sandwiches. This is a real good sandwich bread and I’ll bake it again.

BBA Focaccia

Monday night we are having dinner at home with a friend of a friend, who is a writer for the New York Times, and a serious foodie.  In fact, she wrote a wonderful book about the history of Chinese food in the U.S., called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.  I’ll be serving Pollo Cacciatore, my variation on an excellent recipe Brother David shared.  I think one needs Focaccia to sop up the delicious gravy.

Since we are traveling back to SF from our North Coast getaway on Monday, and since the Pollo Cacciatore is best re-heated the second day, I made both the chicken and a Rosemary-Garlic Focaccia Sunday.   Well, more accurately, the Focaccia dough was mixed, fermented, folded, shaped and slathered with garlic-rosemary oil Saturday evening, and retarded in the fridge overnight.

I looked at a lot of Focaccia recipes and the BBA formula seemed like a good place to start.  I figure, if I’ve got the book, I might as well use it.  This dough is a monster—sloppy and hard (but fun) to manage.  After the third fold and a one-hour rest, it was like a big jiggly pillow.  It easily expanded to fill the 17 x 12 sheet pan.  When it had warmed a couple hours the next morning, it had serious eruptions.

I’ve never seen bread bubbles quite so large.  Like volcanos.

The crumb is airy and tender and the flavor is outstanding with a strong, but not overpowering rosemary and garlic flavor.

We also made fresh pasta today to eat tomorrow with Pollo Cacciatore and re-heated Focaccia.  Gonna be good.

All in all, a good cooking and baking weekend.  We also got some good hikes in, and enjoyed the varied animal and bird life of the North Coast.  Including a rare sighting of a Flicker right on our meadow.

Happy Presidents’ Day to you all.

Glenn

Hi!

I need to prepare scones a head of time (over night) and bake them in the morning.

I found some recipes allow it, some don't because of leavening.

The ones that allow it aslo have b. powder or soda so how can it be??? it's not the leavening makes all the difference?

Thanks!

Ma Baker

plain scones

currant scones

 Scones

2 cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ cup soft butter

2/3 cup milk plus or minus

1 egg

 sift flour and baking powder together. Blend in soft  butter.

 Beat egg and add to milk and stir into flour with a knife, do not stir to much.

 Turn dough onto counter and knead 10 times, just enough to tidy the ball of dough.

 Roll lightly to about ¾  - 1 inch,  cut with cookie cutters place on dry cookie sheet 

 And bake at 425  till nice and golden on top 12/15 minutes.

 It is better to at least double the recipe, and add 1/3 sugar to dough if you want sweet scones

  these can be ,made with  added cheese, sugar, chopped black olives and sautéed onion,

all kinds of choices

We were reading Nigel Slater's "Eating for England",

You are faced with a plate of scones, a pat of butter, a dish of jam and a pot of clotted cream. [...] You have either butter or cream, never both. At least not when everyone is looking. It is generally accepted that the jam goes on first, followed by a teaspoonful of cream. Others insist it is the other way round.

-Nigel Slater, "Eating for England"

And we suddenly neeeeeeded to have scones. Luckily for us, not everyone was looking: we had all three condiments on our scones. Butter first, next cream - maybe more than a tablespoon, THEN jam. Mmmmmm!!! Scones with butter, "cream" (made with yoghurt and goat's cheese) and black currant jam. What could be finer?

The scones want to split in half; the crumb is very tender. The hint of nutmeg and addition of currants differentiates scones from our baking powder biscuits.

Recipes here:

• scones
• "cream", a reasonable facsimile for clotted cream made with yoghurt and goat's cheese

-Elizabeth

Hello,

I would like to share my scones with you guys, hope some of yous get some inspiartions from it, as its quick, easy and great with a cuppa.

in the oven

cooling on wire rack

with jam and clotted cream

    This is the recipe I use for afternoon tea and cream tea scones.

Ingredients:

• 600gr self raising flour
• 120gr unsalted butter
• 3tbsp caster sugar(may need more)
• About 2-2.5 cup milk (luke warm)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 egg

 Method:

• 1. Mix flour and sugar,salt together.
• 2. Add the butter and mix for 3-4 min on spped 2 (Kitchenaid) then add milk.
• 3. Mix until you get soft,smooth and elastic dough.
• 4. Roll out into 1cm thick then cut out with a cutter.
• 5. Brush with lightly beaten egg.
• 6. Bake in moderate oven until golden.
• 7. Cool on wire rack, serve.

Happy Baking!

Zoltan

I milled a couple of pounds of soft wheat into pastry flour today to bake these scones.  This is my first try at these using home-milled flour.  I think they came out quite nice.  (My apologies for the poor pictures.  My wife is the pro photographer, but she's asleep!)

and

I used the recipe from Crust and Crumb by Peter Reinhart, and just like everyone else that bakes this recipe, I always have to add nearly twice the liquid to get the dough workable.  It was no different this time with home-milled flour than it has been in the past with AP flour.  I think the taste is richer though with the fuller flavor of the home milled flour.  I made these with dehydrated blueberries, straight from the bag, but they came out nice and moist, albeit a bit chewey, without soaking or boiling them first. 

My wife requested the square shape instead of the traditional pie slices because they are easier to stack for freezing.  I'm baking most of these for a family gathering this coming weekend, and there will not be enough time later in the week to do much baking.  So a short freeze, then a warm up in a hot oven Sunday should make them (almost) good as new.

OldWoodenSpoon

It is my girlfriends birthday today so I decided to make her a special breakfast! I had eyeballed the butter scones from Advanced Bread and Pastries before but seeing as how they are so rich I didn't want to make them save for a special occasion. Here in sweden a scone is more akin to Soda Bread than the sweetish style scones you get in Britain och America.

I managed to make them up the day before without my girlfriend noticing and refrigerate them overnight so that I could bake them for here first thing in the morning. I think they turned out pretty good, and my girlfriend did like them so I'm set!

I have also finally taken the plunge and aquired a Pullman pan for myself, maybe a 1.5kg loaf of tasty toast bread is too much for a two person family but maybe a 2.5kg loaf of Vollkornbrot might not be enoguh? hmm.. might have to share any attempts at Vollkornbrot with friends or there will be leftovers for ever! Here the pullman pan Is shown beside my regular breadpan.

and here is how a loaf of sourdough sandwich bread turned out, tasty! This is the same bread I have blogged about earlier, with a formula developed by me. Unfortunately the picture is insanely yellow, but that is due to poor lighting when I took the picture.

This is a secret too, but I have also made two mini cheesecakes for tonights dinner wich I am making for my girlfriend, hope that they are tasty..

Scones have become a popular item in our house these days. Henry, another member of TFL was kind enough to share his recipe with me and his scones are wonderful too. These scones are incredible and contain no butter but rely on the heavy cream for the fat content. They will melt in your mouth! Rich and silky and they freeze well. This batch was inspired by the last of my wonderful fresh blueberries. How I'm going to miss them till next year. But I have these scones for now and will be content. Life is good!

Has anyone made the cream scones recipe found in Crust and Crumb by PR? I made them for the first time today and had to add more cream. One cup wasn't going to bring any moisture to the flour at all? With one cup I could barely get a shaggy mess started. Just curious as to whether anyone else had had the same problem.

Thanks,

Eli

These are really good!:

http://ilforno.typepad.com/il_forno/2003/12/snack_scones.html

And you could take them in several different directions by adjusting ingredients.

PMcCool