For the love of baking

Assorted goodies for a neighbor’s birthday party

Many of us pursue baking simply for the love of it - I know I do. Believe me, I know how fortunate I was back in 2006 to attend pastry school in both Florence and Paris. As a new career and later-in-life endeavor, it was exciting, emotionally charged, exhausting at times and well worth it.

Though I’m both “home schooled” and professionally trained, it’s not a search for fame or fortune that keeps me in the kitchen. Trying new things, reading about how others approach their craft, tweaking a recipe to create a different flavor combination all help to keep me coming back for more.

I find the process - planning, prepping and baking all the way to tasting and sharing - so calming and rhythmic. Even cleaning up, when all is said and done, is its own rite. Everything washed/dried, organized and stored in it’s own place, ready for the next baking adventure.

Just a few frequently used tools

Apricot blueberry danish

Cooling challah

Fresh berry tarte

Caramel knots

The remaining content is taken from a post I first published on March 14, 2022 in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I posted it right on the heels of another post, and I suspect many of you who tend to follow this blog may have missed it.

“If pastry could change the world” still captures what baking means for me and so many others. Enjoy!

Valentine feuilletés

If everything could remind us of love . . . . .

If we could all share fresh bread, cheese and wine . . . . .

If a simple and delicious apple tart could make each day better . . . . .

If a bright, flashy, chewy macaron could shout “Be Happy”! . . . . .

If croissants could bring us together as one, multi-layered as we are . . . . .

If a buttery scone could make us giggle with delight . . . . . .

If creamy profiteroles could smooth out all the kinks amongst us . . . . .

If a shortbread sandwich cookie could hug each and every one . . . .

If caramelized Kouign-amann could roll us up in a big warm embrace . . . . .

Don’t you think the world would be a better place?

Here’s to all the bakers out there everywhere. Cheers!!

Summer beauty

Bacon cheddar corn scones

So much sweet corn this year - gotta try something a little different. Why not savory scones!

Steve’s been buying up batches of ears, cutting the kernels off and freezing a lot of it, but he’s also grilled some ears and cut off the grilled kernels for adding to stir fries, frittatas, fried rice, corn chowder - you name it!

I went with a slight variant of my cheddar scone recipe and added grilled corn kernels and bacon bits to the mix. A small pinch of cayenne gives it the right hint of heat without being overwhelming (you can always add more if you’re into the heat factor). If you’d like to make these, here’s a PDF of the recipe fully written for this particular project.

Remember - cold butter and cold cream/egg, work quickly and efficiently to bring it all together.

Place dry ingredients into a large enough mixing bowl to accommodate your hands; work cold butter into the mix by flattening the butter between your fingertips and “flaking” the butter into the flour mixture. Leave visible pieces of butter which will help achieve a light and tender crumb.

Place grated cheese (I like a combo of gruyère and cheddar), corn kernels and bacon on top of the dry ingredients. Pour the cold cream/egg mixture into the center and toss it all with a fork to moisten. Bring everything together quickly with a bowl scraper then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface to gently knead a few times to incorporate any dry bits.

This recipe yields about 900 g of dough. I divide it in two, form each half into a 5”-ish round about 3/4 inch thick and cut into 8 wedges for a yield of 16. I happen to prefer the petite sizes, but if you’d like larger scones, cut each round into 6 wedges (yield 12) or even 4 (yield 8) for a pretty generous sized serving. It’s all up to you.

Once the scones are placed on a parchment lined sheet pan, brush with a little milk and sprinkle more cheese on top.

I pop the tray into the freezer and place a second sheet pan in the oven while heating to 400ºF.

Place the scone pan onto the heated sheet pan, bake 10 minutes, rotate trays and bake another 10 minutes until nicely browned. Reduce oven temp to 375ºF half way through if browning too quickly. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times - all ovens are different!

Enjoy slightly warm or cool fully before serving. Hint - a drizzle of honey adds a nice touch.

Crispy outside, moist and studded with goodness inside. You bet.

Work your own wonders with fresh sweet corn. Time’s a wasting!

Happy autumn!!

If pastry could change the world . . . . .

If only everything could remind us of love . . . . .

If we could all share fresh bread, cheese and wine . . . . .

If a simple and delicious apple tart could make each day better . . . . .

If a bright, flashy chewy macaron could shout “Be Happy”! . . . . .

If croissants could bring us together as one, multi-layered though we are . . . . .

If a buttery scone could make us giggle with delight . . . . . .

If creamy profiteroles could smooth out all the kinks amongst us . . . . .

If a shortbread sandwich cookie could hug each and every one . . . .

If caramelized Kouign-amann could roll us up in a big warm embrace . . . . .

Don’t you think the world would be a better place?

Mid-July update

Seeing Queen Anne’s lace in bloom is a sure sign of summer’s march into August and beyond. Still plenty of time for outdoor enjoyment, fresh air and sunny skies.

As we come to grips with the fact that (whoa!) it’s already mid-July, would any of us have foreseen all that’s happened in the past four months?! No sir.

Lately we’ve had quite a string of hot days, punctuated over this past weekend with pleasant days, cool nights and clear, low humidity skies. Baking is happening in waves, and now seems as good a time as any to share a few of the things I’ve been making in recent months.

Cinnamon oat crunch scones

A number of projects were done with an eye toward becoming blog posts and are currently in their draft phases. I’m working on them bit by bit, often side tracked by various other at-home activities that seem to take precedence. Time has taken on a much different sense, don’t you think?

Some of these goodies go into the freezer for future enjoyment, some are shared with neighbors and family and some go into the occasional pastry order that pops up every now and then.

Chocolate hazelnut swirl brioche loaf

Gateau renversé aux cerises (cherry upside down cake)

Mixed berry mascarpone trifle

Swedish cardamom buns

Baguette

Croissant

Stay tuned! Baguette! Brioche! Swedish buns! Yippee!!

Meanwhile enjoy summer, be kind and helpful. It works.

Roasted strawberry ice cream and ginger shortcakes

This is strawberry shortcake at it’s best! Roasted balsamic strawberries churned into a deelish ice cream, paired with fresh strawberries and ginger scones. Oh boy!

Recently I was perusing Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Bread Bible” (I can’t remember exactly why!) when I came across “Rich and Creamy Ginger Scones”. I had forgotten that she includes a section on quick breads, muffins, biscuits and scones in this wonderful bread tome of hers.

Never one to deny myself a new scone experience, since I had crystallized ginger in my cupboard (still working through the pantry!) and heavy cream in my fridge, I definitely wanted to give these a try.

It also just so happened that I had purchased some strawberries at our local Meijer supermarket that wouldn’t necessarily be considered primo, if you get my drift. I decided to roast them up, purée em and make strawberry ice cream. The strawberry ginger shortcake idea was born.

When you hear the terms scones, shortcakes and biscuits, one can’t help but ask “What’s the diff?” They’re pretty similar all-in-all although some have egg, some not; some heavy cream, some buttermilk or other dairy like yogurt or even ricotta; some softer self-rising flour like Lily White (i.e. biscuits) and some with a flour twist like replacing a portion of all purpose flour with spelt or whole wheat pastry flour. LOTS of options.

Most shortcake recipes I’ve used or reviewed contain flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cold butter chunks and cream, all put together with a light touch. The word short refers to the fact that the butter coats the flour to prevent gluten strands from lengthening (hence short), keeping the product flaky, light, crispy and delicious all rolled into one!

Let’s make the principal players.

To roast the berries hull and chunk up about a pound of strawberries, toss them with a tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of brown sugar (light or dark, it’s up to you) and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. I used a Silpat but parchment is fine too. Roast them at 375ºF for about 20 minutes until dark and syrupy, stirring them a couple of times. Note to self - punch up the balsamic and pepper next time.

Let the berries cool then either mash them with a potato masher or purée them if you’d like them a bit more refined. I made my usual ice cream base and blended in the berry mash while chilling the base over an ice bath. I let the strawberry blended base mature in the fridge for a couple of days before processing and freezing.

On to the ginger scones. The primary difference in this recipe from the one I normally use is more butter (170 g vs 113 g), twice as much sugar, no egg, same amount of cream (but whipped!), a teaspoon of ground ginger, zest of a lemon and the addition of 113 g finely diced crystallized ginger.

To get ready, whip the 180 g/3/4 cup cold heavy cream to soft peaks and cube the cold 170 g/6 ounces of butter - hold both in the fridge. The mixing steps are the same as for your typical scone, biscuit or shortcake: blend in a medium mixing bowl 260 g/2 cups all purpose flour, 66 g/1/3 cup turbinado sugar, 14 g/1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, zest of a lemon and 1/8 teaspoon salt; rub and flatten the cold butter pieces into the dry ingredients to a mix of coarse crumbs and visible pieces of butter; add in the crystallized ginger; fold in the whipped cream. You got it!

Remember the key to scone mixing is cool, quick, decisive - don’t over handle the dough. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and give a few quick kneads to bring it together.

I like the way RLB divides the dough in half, forms 2 six-inch rounds about 3/4” thick, then cuts them in either 6 or 8 pieces depending on the size one prefers.

Heat the oven to 400ºF with either a baking stone or a sheet pan on the middle rack. The scones go onto a second sheet pan, parchment lined, brushed with cream and sprinkled with raw sugar then placed in the freezer for 15 minutes or so to firm them up and keep that butter COLD!

Don’t forget that you can take it to this step and freeze them for baking another time. I love plan ahead projects.

Pop the baking sheet onto the heated sheet pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. I usually give them 10 minutes, rotate the tray and check again in about 8 minutes. If they seem to be browning too quickly I turn the oven down to 375ºF.

These have an ethereal quality -crispy outside, light and flaky inside, just the right amount of ginger and oh so good.

I’m a firm believer in eating scones, shortcakes and biscuits the day they’re made, otherwise freezing them the day they’re baked to preserve their like-fresh quality. This time I did a little test: I took 4 baked scones out of the freezer, loosely wrapped them in parchment paper, left them at room temp and the next morning gave one a 5-8 minute warm up in a 300º oven. Still SO GOOD. Crisp out and light in, a match made in heaven.

I repeated this over the following 2 days and found they continued to offer that just baked enjoyment. For THREE days, they sat wrapped in parchment at room temperature and did not disappoint. Amazing.

Steve and I enjoyed the combo of roasted strawberry ice cream, great quality fresh berries that we happened upon at Kingma’s market and of course the perfect ginger scones. Thanks Rose.