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Chocolate Raspberry Scones

10/15/2015

Chocolate Raspberry Scones are a delicious addition to a buffet.

Norfolk Scones are scones made in two layers with a fruit filling, usually currents. Since so many people love the flavors of chocolate and raspberry,I decided to give that a try. Fresh raspberries are best of course, but we rarely have those around, so I use Solo Raspberry Cake and Pastry Filling or thick raspberry preserves. I posted a picture on Facebook recently and got an enthusiastic response, so I'm posting the recipe here. It appeared originally in More Breaking Bread with Father Dominic.

I once worked on a PBS pledge drive in Milwaukee and made these live on camera in an unfamiliar kitchen set, then served them to the volunteers as they were answering phones. So you should have no trouble making them at home. My buddy Greg made the (slightly exaggerated) comment: “These are so light and so good that you could eat them until you were violently ill, and you wouldn’t really mind.” The lightness comes from using buttermilk instead of heavy cream, a suggestion I received from a Breadhead to whom I owe my thanks. I have even made these with powdered buttermilk (look in the same aisle as non-fat dry milk) and they turned out just as light and delicious as the ones made with the fresh product.

Chop the chocolate chips in a blender or food processor if you have such—I just use a heavy chef’s knife. They should still be granular rather than powdered. And if it’s a hot day, put them in the freezer to firm up, or you’ll end up with a gooey mess! You can substitute strawberry preserves for the raspberry, but fresh strawberries don’t work very well in this recipe.

Chocolate Raspberry Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) of chilled butter
½ cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped fine
½ cup raspberry preserves or cake filling
OR 1 cup of fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and lightly grease a baking sheet or cookie pan. Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium size bowl and stir thoroughly. Cut butter into small pieces. Using a pastry blender or two sharp knives, blend butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in chopped chocolate chips. In another small bowl, whisk buttermilk and egg together until well blended. Pour into dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just moistened, but do not overmix. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 8 or 10 strokes. Divide in half, and on a lightly floured surface, pat each piece into a flattened 8” round. Lay one round on the pan and spread the top with the raspberry preserves or fresh raspberries. Lay the second round on top. Using a large knife or metal spatula, cut dough into 8 wedges, wiping knife after each cut. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until round is firm on the edges but still slightly soft in the middle. Cool on a wire rack, then cut apart before serving.

God bless and happy baking!

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Cheddar Chive Drop Biscuits

10/13/2015

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Today when I walked into the kitchen after school, as usual I took a peek at the menu for supper: creamed chicken over cheddar biscuits. Unfortunately I knew, with some dread, what that meant: tiny, dry hockey pucks from the freezer, loaded with partially hydrogenated blandness.

Not on my watch.

So I rolled up my sleeves and banged out Biscuits of Victory and a batch of Cheddar Chive Drop Biscuits. These latter are very similar to the ones everyone loves at Red Lobster. Except way better and way cheaper and they're done in about 30 minutes. Drop biscuits are a breeze and you don't need a rolling pin or biscuit cutter. A Pastry blender is useful, however, and I recommend the one with metal blades rather than wire. The recipe calls for shortening, but I used butter because that's what I had in the house.

God bless and happy baking!

Cheddar Chive Drop Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free baking mix
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 to 4 Tbs. chopped fresh chives
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup milk
¼ cup shredded sharp white or yellow cheddar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir dry ingredients together in a medium size bowl. Cut in vegetable shortening using a pastry blender or two knives. Add milk and stir until just blended. Drop by tablespoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool slightly and serve warm. Makes 12 biscuits.

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Breadhead Breakfast Countdown Day #113/120

10/12/2015

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Chocolate Mint Muffins

We’re getting down to the wire on my cookbook deadline, or as my publisher and I put it, “about to cross the goal line.” I don’t like to use the word “deadline” because it gives the impression that you have to kill yourself to get there, but “goal line” suggests the crowd going wild as you spike the ball and do your signature touchdown dance in the end zone! Only a few treats left, mostly tested recipes that just need a decent photo.

So I’m back to our little retreat cabin at Lake Thunderbird (near Henry Illinois), with its tiny sink, reliable oven, and back wall of windows that creates beautiful light for food photography. It’s Columbus Day, no school, so the abbot excused me from my monastic duties to come here last night and all day today to bake and take photos. I made chocolate mint muffins last night (recipe HERE) along with a batch of white bread.

A Pyrex Bake-A-Round and a portion of the resulting loaf

I baked the white bread in a vintage Pyrex Bake-A-Round, a glass tube in a metal rack which produces a cylindrical loaf of bread. I’ll be honest here: I have no idea why anyone would want perfectly round slices of bread. Hamburger buns, maybe, but the apparatus is so bulky and fragile that it hardly seems worth the effort to store the thing. That being said, it’s still one of my favorite piece of bakeware, no longer available except at garage sales and on eBay. And those round slices are ideal for French Toast Custard Cups.

French Toast Custard Cups

You can plenty of recipes for larger French toast casseroles, and they usually serve six to eight. But what if you’re single---do you have to host a brunch before you get to try that recipe? Or what if you have the whole family over for the holidays, but not everyone likes French toast? So I developed these individual serving casseroles, so you can make as few or as many as you like. Keep your eyes open at second-hand shops for soup bowls with handles—they are just the perfect serving size. You can find the recipe HERE.

The photos for those two recipes took up my morning, which exhausted my camera batteries, so I ran into town for a fresh set, dropping off samples at a local family and at the police station. Then it was back to the cabin to make Sunday Brunch Waffles. This past summer I found a brand new Cuisinart waffle iron at Goodwill for a whopping $5, and I’ve been using it ever since to make sourdough multigrain waffles every time my sourdough starter needs to be renewed.

The convenience of pancake mixes and frozen waffles make them ordinary breakfast foods these days, but my Grandma Tootsie taught me how to make waffles with whisked eggs whites, and the result is the lightest waffle you’ve ever savored. The ones I made today are certainly not to be considered health food---four eggs, three-quarters a cup of oil, topped with butter and syrup---which is why I named them to suggest a special Sunday treat.

Next on my list was Tropical Scones. I spent about two weeks in “The Scone Zone” testing scone recipes almost every day, much to the delight of the brethren and the lay faculty of our school. Scones are ideal for our busy modern schedules, because they can be mixed and baked in about 30 minutes and can be flavored sweet or savory. You can use just about any kind of dairy for the liquid; milk, cream, and buttermilk are the most common, but sour cream and yogurt can be used as well. Seeing coconut yogurt in the store inspired me to develop a scone recipe with tropical flavors. They are best served warm with a dollop of apricot chutney.

I finished off the day with a retest of Baked Chocolate Donuts. I used to make baked donuts with yeasted dough but that took more time than most people have in the morning, so I developed a baked cake donut recipe that can be done in half an hour. My first version, however, made too much batter and overflowed the pan, so I cut back on the amount of flour and buttermilk to make less batter. The results were much more satisfactory. The cookbook will have a recipe for mocha frosting, but I made these with a chai tea glaze instead. We had some containers of sweetened chai tea left over from a fundraising event, so I put a cup in a saucepan and simmered it until it was reduced to about a quarter cup. While it was still warm I whisked in a cup of powdered sugar and a pinch of salt, which yielded a scrumptiously exotic glaze for the chocolate donuts.

Now I have to pack up all my equipment and head back to the abbey. There are still a few recipes left to test, but it’s fourth and goal to go!

God bless and happy baking!

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Tomato Basil Scones with Italian Sausage Gravy

10/9/2015

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Fall has arrived and the garden is winding down. The last of the tomatoes are in and the flowers beds are looking a little worn out, exhausted even. But the herb garden is as lively as ever, so I decided to capitalize on the bounty to make tomato basil scones. This breakfast book has me in "The Scone Zone" lately. My first attempt was the zucchini tomato scones pictured to the left, which had a savory aroma and flavor, but the zucchini was so wet that the scones were doughy and a bit heavy.

Tomato Basil Scones---fresh ingredients make a difference, but use canned/dried if you have to.

My second try, minus the zucchini, was much more satisfying, and I love the deep orange-y salmon color. Because decent tomatoes are in short supply most of the year, I used canned crushed tomatoes for the liquid and and sun dried tomatoes for a burst of flavor. Fresh herbs are a bonus but dried will do. It may seem odd to use an 8 x 8-inch pan for scones, but it makes the soft dough easier to manage and produces neat portions.

These scones are delicious by themselves, or with a little garlic butter, or next to a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup, but smothered in Italian sausage gravy they raise breakfast to a whole new level. Any sausage gravy recipe will do (HERE's a good one) but use Italian bulk sausage--the sweet/hot variety makes an especially scrumptious gravy that pairs well with the tomato and herbal flavors.

I still have some other scone recipes to test, the most interesting being a tropical treat made with coconut yogurt, dried pineapples and dried mango. A savory recipe with ham and smoked Gouda is in the works as well. Stay tuned!

God bless and happy baking!

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Sausage Roll-Ups

10/5/2015

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Sausage Roll-Ups are an easy appetizer or brunch item.

For family potlucks, my mother often makes sausage roll-ups. These savory appetizers are a snap to make, and much of the prep can even take place the night before, so having them for breakfast or brunch isn't much of a chore. They can be made with any kind of bulk sausage: garlic, sweet hot Italian, maple, sage and onion, etc.

We're fairly certain my mom got the recipe from Pillsbury, since it uses their crescent rolls in a tube. My friend Julie refers to their biscuits as "whomp biscuits", since you peel the label off the tube and "whomp!" it on the edge of the table. You can certainly try that if you want, but allow me to say this: you can make exquisite homemade biscuit dough with far less fuss and get a much better result. Besides, as adorable as he is, Poppin' Fresh creeps me out a little. I just don't like to see my food animated. And we're almost the same age but he's virtually unchanged in appearance, which makes me wonder about all those preservatives.

So we're going to start with a basic biscuit dough. I say "basic" but what I'm really referring to is BISCUITS OF VICTORY! For many years I was unable to make a decent biscuit, but I finally found and adapted a recipe that worked for me every time. Hence, the epic name, which must be pronounced in a heroic voice like the voice over on Super Friends. The recipe for the dough is HERE, directions for the roll-ups are below.

Sausage Roll-Ups
One batch of Biscuit Dough
1 pound of bulk sausage, uncooked

Prepare biscuit dough. On a well-floured surface, roll dough out to 15” x 24”. Crumble sausage and spread evenly over dough (an offset spatula helps). Starting from the long side, roll up jellyroll style. Cut roll in half crosswise with a sharp knife. Wrap each half in waxed paper or parchment and again in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425° F. Lightly grease two 9 x 13-inch baking sheets. Remove wrapping from dough and cut into 1” slices. Place rolls cut side down on baking sheets and space them evenly. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until sausage is cooked and rolls are golden brown on the edges. Serve warm.

Sausage Roll-Ups drizzled with honey--the perfect combination of sweet and savory.

I like to eat mine drizzled with honey or maple syrup, but for something a bit more savory, sprinkle the tops with finely shredded asiago cheese or a mixture of mozzarella and Parmesan as they emerge hot from the oven. You can make the jellyroll and slice immediately, but they are harder to slice that way and tend to spread out more when baking. But either way they are delicious and will disappear quickly from your buffet table. I've also had success baking them the night before and reheating the next day. Just let them cool completely on the pans, cover the pans with aluminum foil and refrigerate. Reheat the next morning, covered, at 375° F. for five minutes, then uncovered for another five to seven minutes until heated through.

One last comment: these are not a heart healthy bread! The dough is loaded with butter and sausage of course can be laden with fat, salt and calories. That's why my family only served these once or twice a year. But my oh my are they good!

God bless and happy baking!

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Chocolate Raspberry Scones

Cheddar Chive Drop Biscuits

Breadhead Breakfast Countdown Day #113/120

Tomato Basil Scones with Italian Sausage Gravy

Sausage Roll-Ups

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