Scones

It's Saturday morning. It's cold and gray and drizzly, and your daughter has a soccer game at 9. So you haul yourself out of bed a while before you really want to, and you make scones.

Fortunately, these scones 1) come together before the oven has preheated and 2) are really delicious. They're not exactly Power Bars, but at least Julia went off to her game with something warm in her stomach (and this cake) and the knowledge that while I'm not a good enough mother to accompany her to the soccer field (I turn into Deranged Soccer Mom within 50 meters of my offspring playing), I'm at least willing to get up and make something nice for breakfast.

So, to the scones. Unlike some recipes, these have egg and egg yolk in them, which makes them nice and tender. Note also that while the recipe calls for currants, Maida says you can sub out candied ginger and/or walnuts. That was a nice touch--though I'm sure I would have enjoyed the currants.

The butter hits the flour. Again, Maida says you can use some whole wheat flour here, so I did. It's all about appearances.

Here they are, made in France. One of the things that make these scones so easy is that you drop them rather than roll and cut them.

I suppose I could have made 12 daintier scones. Oh, well.

Ten minutes later--golden brown and ready to eat.

It's funny that in 1985, Maida wrote about how scones were all trendy and ubiquitous. Not much has changed. But she adds, and I agree, that no bakery scone is as good as the one you make at home and eat fresh from the oven.

Here's the recipe. Make it and brighten your day.

Scones

2 c. (8 oz.) sifted flour (I used 3 oz. whole wheat and 5 oz. all-purpose)

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. (1.8 oz.) sugar

6 T. (3 oz.) cold butter, in small dice

1/4 c. (1.25 oz.) currants (and/or minced candied ginger and/or chopped toasted walnuts)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 c. (4 oz.) milk

More sugar--regular or raw

Heat the oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone. In a medium bowl measure the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar; "whisk" with a pastry blender until combined. Add the butter and cut it in to make rather large crumbs. Add the fruit/nut combination you've chosen, the egg, egg yolk, and milk, and mix lightly with a fork until the mixture comes together--don't overmix this. Scoop out 9 to 12 scones with a large spoon and place an inch apart on your prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with the sugar and bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Eat hot from the oven and hope for victory.

Blueberry Applesauce Loaf

I'm hoping in the next few weeks to do a lot of Maida's recipes involving summer fruit--especially peaches and blueberries. While peaches are readily available in France, they are especially delicious here in California; blueberries, on the other hand, are not a very common fruit in France, at least not as common as they are here. So summer fruit, here I come!

Dad had about half a Costco-sized container of blueberries in his fridge, and we had a visit to my aunt coming up, so I decided to make this blueberry applesauce loaf. Of course my planning was a bit off--a couple of hours before we were supposed to leave for Fran's house, I pulled out my cookbook and realized we were missing some key ingredients. Fortunately, Trader Joe's is not far away (how I'm enjoying that!), and I could make a quick run for pecans and whole wheat flour. Soon the oven was preheating and I was mixing up batter.

The recipe says it makes two small loaf pans. Well, Dad and Sharmyn have a large loaf pan. They also have lots of muffin pans. Thus I made a large loaf and 6 muffins. That served our needs nicely: a loaf to take, plus muffins to have for breakfast.

I made the mistake of mixing the batter in the food processor: after all, it was out and I had used it to chop the pecans. It worked great until I realized I had to mix in the blueberries without chopping them into smithereens. Oops--more dishes to wash.

Mmmm...blueberries and pecans. I'm pretty darned sure I used more than the two cups of blueberries called for in the recipe.

Blueberry batter.

The finished product in some impatient hands (note that these will stick even in a silicone mold. Butter it!)

The verdict: Good but not great. There was lots of blueberry and pecan flavor, but the cake was perhaps just a bit too hearty. In any case there's still a bunch left, which to me means that it's far from irresistible. But if you have a lot of blueberries and are looking for a breakfast treat that's not too sweet or too rich, this might be the recipe you want to try.

Blueberry Applesauce Loaf

6 oz. toasted pecan pieces

2 large eggs

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. mace (or nutmeg)

1/4 c. salad oil or melted butter

1 c. (7 oz.) sugar (you'll need a bit more for sprinkling later)

(1/2 t. vanilla)

1 c. (10 oz.) unsweetened applesauce

2 t. lemon juice

2 c. (about 7 oz.) fresh (or frozen) blueberries

2 c. (8 oz.) sifted flour

1 c. (4.5 oz.) sifted whole wheat flour

Heat the oven to 350. Get out two small loaf pans, or a normal loaf pan and some muffin cups. Grease them. Grind half the pecans into a fine powder in the food processor and coat the pans with the pecans. If you have more than you need, mix those nuts with a couple tablespoonsful of sugar and set them aside.

In the large bowl of a mixer (or in a bowl with a whisk), whip the eggs with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and mace. Mix in the oil, sugar, and vanilla, then the applesauce and lemon juice. Then stir in all but a tablespoonful of the flour. Mix that remaining spoonful of flour into the blueberries; mix them and the non-ground pecans into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans and sprinkle it with the nut/sugar mixture. Bake for 25 minutes for the muffins; 50 minutes for the loaf. A toothpick should come out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and unmold. Serve this fresh, preferably warm. Maida warns that this doesn't keep well, and I believe she's right. If you don't want to eat/give this away quickly, freeze it and try not to forget about it.

Hollywood Honey "Cake"

Yesterday was the hottest day we've had so far this year: it was up in the high 80s. For France, little northern un-air-conditioned France, that's hot. Fortunately, we live in an old stone house. We were actually quite comfortable. Which is why I felt perfectly comfortable about baking.

Yesterday was also a national holiday (Pentecost Monday, to celebrate the separation of church and state), which meant that the stores were closed. That meant that I needed a recipe that could be made with ingredients I had on hand. Since I had no eggs, this was the perfect one. In theory, I was supposed to make a blueberry sweet bread this go-round, but blueberries are not in season. In about a month, I will be making a cavalcade of seasonal fruit desserts.

But let's stay focused on this bread (I'm not quite sure why Maida calls it cake). It's dead simple. It takes 5 minutes and no mixer to put together. Note the healthy ingredients: whole wheat flour, raisins, nuts. No butter or eggs. I'm sure it's quite low-cal. Not.

OK, here's my oven. Note the 30-degree variations. I found on the iPhone that 275 F is 135 C. Fortunately there's a 130 on the oven. But who knows if it's really 130...

But my "cake" baked up fine, except for the funky volcano thing. And what's with the powdery white residue? Is it extra baking soda? Ashes from the Icelandic volcano? That needed to be scraped off. It was weird.

But inside, it's all chewy, sweet health-foody goodness. Claire of course wouldn't touch it because it involves raisins, but I was able to find some takers for most of it, and I think they appreciated it. I enjoyed it toasted and spread with cream cheese for breakfast, and I think it would also set off a Brie really nicely. It's a bit sweet (especially so since I made a math error and ended up putting 6.5 ounces of honey instead of the 5.9. Always use the calculator, Maria!), but not cake sweet. More like raisin bread sweet.

So if your kitchen is not too hot, you like raisins, and you're looking for a healthy breakfast treat, give this one a try!

Here's the recipe:

Hollywood Honey Cake

3.5 oz. (3/4 c.) raisins
3.5 oz. (1 c.) walnuts
1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour
2 c. (11 oz.) unsifted whole wheat flour
Scant 1 t. salt
3/4 t. baking soda
2-1/2 t. baking powder
1-1/2 c. (12 oz.) milk
1/2 c. (5.9 oz.) honey (or a touch more)
Heat the oven to 275. Get out a loaf pan and grease it. You won’t need a mixer for this recipe—just a large-ish mixing bowl.
If your raisins are dry and puny like mine, soak them in boiling water for a few minutes while you get the rest of the bread ready. If they’re large and soft, I think you can skip this step.
Chop or break the walnuts into medium-sized pieces.
Put the flours, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into your mixing bowl and whisk them well to distribute the leavening. Now add the milk and honey (I can’t say enough about measuring honey by weight!) and stir well. Add the (drained) raisins and walnuts. That’s it!
Pour that into the loaf pan and put it in the oven. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes—check after an hour (mine took about 1 hour 10 minutes). The tester you put in should come out completely clean and dry.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a rack and let cool completely. Slice and enjoy—it’s good for you!

Pecan, Peanut Butter, Banana Bread: Nutty as a fruitcake

Dad uses this expression, "nutty as a fruitcake" a lot, and it's never made sense to me. Why would a fruitcake be nutty? Wouldn't it be fruity? Wouldn't a nut cake be nutty? Well, this Pecan, Peanut Butter, Banana Bread is a nutty fruit cake. Very nutty indeed.
My girls have a favorite after-school snack: bananas spread with peanut butter and often rolled in chocolate chips. So I figured this bread would be popular with them. In fact, I added some chocolate chips to half the batter and made muffins out of that. Very yummy. Those are already gone.
Opinions vary on the balance of the ingredients here. One family member who wants to remain anonymous said that she doesn't really like pecans or walnuts or whatever, but that they taste good with all the banana and peanut butter and chocolate. I personally feel that the pecans dominate--in a good way, since I love toasted pecans--and that the banana and peanut butter are just kind of background flavors. Which is OK, but if you want banana bread, you should try Elise's. Simple and perfect (especially if you add coconut and/or chocolate chips).

OK, a note about the ingredients. I'm starting to enjoy composing these shots. I admit to having emptied my freezer and at least half-filled a suitcase with nuts and dried fruits that are difficult to get in France. Thus the Trader Joe's pecans. Not pictured are the Louisiana pecans that I used up. They were in larger pieces and contributed more to the bread, I thought.
Check out the tiny jar of Skippy that cost 3.40 Euros ($4.66 according to my currency converter). You could probably buy the economy-sized twin pack for that much in the States. Oh, well. Also check out the nutmeg--"Muscade." You buy the whole nutmegs, and they come with this adorable tiny nutmeg grater. Very convenient.

So here are all the ingredients mixed together. I'm about to add a handful of chocolate chips for the muffins.
The batter hits the oatmeal-encrusted pan.
The oatmeal makes the bread look so healthy, don't you think?
Look at all those dominating pecans. Crunchy and delicious.

Here's the recipe, if you want to get nutty:

Pecan, Peanut Butter, Banana Bread

6 oz. pecan halves or large pieces
3 oz. (6 T.) butter, room temperature
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. vanilla (optional--I added some because I like it)
1/2 c. (4.5 oz.) smooth peanut butter
1 scant cup (6.5 oz.) dark brown sugar
2 large eggs (mine were medium, and the bread turned out fine)
2-3 bananas (8 oz. peeled), mashed with a fork to a chunky paste
1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour
1 c. (4.5 oz.) sifted whole wheat flour
1/4-1/2 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Heat the oven to 375. Get out a loaf pan and some muffin pans--or if you happen to have two small loaf pans (maybe the disposable aluminum kind), that's what Maida calls for. Grease whatever pans you are using and sprinkle them with wheat germ or dry bread crumbs or oatmeal. Set them aside. When the oven is preheated, or just about, put the pecans on a baking sheet and toast them for about 7 minutes. Set aside to cool while you make the batter.
Cream the butter with the baking soda, salt, and nutmeg (and vanilla) until fluffy. Then add the peanut butter and beat that well. Gradually add the sugar and give that a good long beating--at least 2 minutes--and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. If you're using a hand mixer, your arm should hurt at this point. Feel the burn!
Beat the bananas into the mixture until they are nicely incorporated, and then add the flours on low speed (or by hand) just until everything is just about smooth. Then add the pecans (and optional chocolate chips) by hand. Distribute the batter among the pans you've prepared--I got 1 loaf and 4 large muffins--and put them in the oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes. When it goes off, turn the oven down to 350 and set the timer for another 10 minutes if you've got muffins; 35-40 minutes if you've got loaf pans. In other words, muffins should take a total of 20-25 minutes; the loaves will take a total of 50-55 minutes (but I would check after 45 in case your oven runs hot like mine). In any case, when a toothpick comes out clean, you know the bread is done. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a folded towel in your hand (good tip, Maida!) and then onto a rack. Let cool as long as you can stand it, then enjoy!

Eating an elephant

One of the quirky features of our local public radio station is a call-in show called the Gestalt Gardener. The host, a good-old-boy hippie, cajoles listeners to "just chill" about their gardens. Do you have spots on your roses? Take off your glasses! And when someone calls moaning about all the kudzu or mimosas or other weeds in their garden, he tells them, "Do you know how to eat an elephant? Just take one bite at a time."
So why do I bring this up? Well, mostly because Maida prefaces her recipe for Peanut Banana Bread with a story about how she developed a recipe for an elephant meat omelet (involving peanuts and bananas) as a publicity stunt during a GOP convention. Well, double yuck to that. Fortunately, the banana bread is yummy.
I also thought of it because this blog and keeping up with it can seem like eating an elephant. Except one with a lot of chocolate frosting. I don't have Alicia's insane schedule and still it seems like a lot to do sometimes. But at least each bite of this elephant have been delicious so far (except for that nasty chocolate cake).
I can't find my pictures of my banana bread, so you'll have to take my word for it. I made this for breakfast Saturday morning, and I first had to go to the store for peanuts, so I really didn't feel like waiting around for 1 hour and 15 minutes for a loaf to bake. Therefore, I made six mini-loafs and six muffins, and that worked out perfectly. The muffins still took a good half hour, though.
This is a nice banana bread--the peanuts give it an extra zing. I bet it would be really good with some coconut added. And Alicia will be happy to note that the raisins don't have much of a pronounced presence. So don't be afraid to take another bite...

Here's the recipe I made.
Banana Peanut Bread

1 stick (4 oz.) butter, room temp
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 scant cup (6.5 oz.) brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
3 large eggs
3 large ripe bananas (12 oz. peeled), mashed
1/3 c. (2.6 oz.) sour cream (I used light)
1-3/4 c. (7 oz.) sifted flour (I used half whole wheat)
1 c. (4 oz.) salted peanuts, coarse chopped (honey roasted might be nice here)
(1/2 c.[1.4 oz.] coconut)
1/2 c. (2.5 oz.) golden raisins

Heat the oven to 325. Grease 6 mini loaf pans and put papers in six muffin cups (you could probably get about 18 muffins at least out of this instead). Beat together the butter, baking powder, and baking soda until it's light and creamy, then gradually beat in the brown sugar and beat that for 1-2 minutes. Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl as needed. Then add the bananas and sour cream and beat until just barely mixed. Add the flour and mix that in until it's just incorporated. Finally mix in the peanuts and raisins (and coconut, if you want). Scoop the batter into the pans you have prepared and bake the muffins about 25-30 minutes; the loaves will take 40-45 minutes. Let cool on a rack for about 5 minutes before popping out and enjoying with a nice cup of tea.

Banana Carrot Loaf

Classes start tomorrow, so I figured I had better get my banana carrot loaf baked right away. Since it was clean out the refrigerator night, I could dedicate my cooking time to baking. There were a lot of dirty dishes (carrot grating plus banana smashing plus raisin steaming plus flour sifting plus dough mixing), but the recipe wasn't hard, and we just scarfed down a good third of the cake without trying. No pictures--I couldn't make it pretty for the camera.
Cakes like this can make me nervous, because all that fruit and stuff can make it too wet and heavy and "healthy tasting." Healthy tasting is good for a salad, but usually not so good for a cake. And I courted this problem by doing Heidi Swanson-like stuff like subbing in half white wheat flour and using part walnut oil for the canola oil. But no worries: this is no lightweight cake, but it's got just the right texture--moist without being soggy. (By the way, did you know the word "moist" is one of the most-hated words in English? I guess these people don't bake...)
As I mentioned, I made a few changes: I used half white wheat flour. I ran out of canola oil, so I used a couple of tablespoons of butter, a couple of tablespoons of walnut oil, and the rest canola. The walnut oil gave it a nice nutty edge without being too much. I bet coconut oil would be really good in this too. I also added a glug of vanilla just because I love it. But I left in the raisins. Which makes me wonder--are you still a raisin hater, Alicia? Are you going to leave the raisins in your banana bread and in your Indian pudding? Do your kids eat raisins?
Julia, after she had just inhaled about a piece and a half of this, complained that the raisins took a perfectly good cake and made it "all health foody." Raisins, she proclaimed, suck the life out of grapes. A girl after your own heart. I found that steamed golden raisins were delightful in this. I guess it's just a matter of personal taste.
Finally, another plug for weighing. I find that it's so much more convenient and accurate than measuring for things like carrots and bananas. Fortunately, the Cake Bible has weight equivalents for almost everything. Take the carrots. My cup of grated carrot (3.5 oz.) came from one large-ish carrot, when Maida calls for about 3 medium carrots. It would have made a huge difference if I had used 3 of my carrots! And since I only had frozen bananas, it was a lot easier to weigh out 8 oz than it would have been to thaw and mash until I had a cup.

This is the recipe I made:

Banana Carrot Loaf

1 c. (5 oz.) golden raisins
1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour
1 c. (4 oz.) sifted white wheat flour
1 T. cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
2 large or 3 small eggs
1 scant cup (6.5 oz.) dark brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
3/4 c. salad oil (or 1/2 cup salad oil plus 2 T. melted butter plus 2 T. walnut oil)
1 cup (8 oz.) mashed ripe banana
1 c. (3.5 oz.) grated carrots

Heat the oven to 350; spray a loaf pan. Put the raisins in a microwave-safe bowl, add a tablespoon of water, cover, and zap for a minute on high. Let that cool. Sift together the dry ingredients (I would do the sifting because cocoa and baking soda both like to clump) and set them aside. Now crack the eggs into the big bowl of the mixer and beat until they're combined. Add the sugar, vanilla, and oil and beat until that's all well incorporated. Now add the banana, carrot, and raisins, and again beat until incorporated. Finally add the dry ingredients and stir that carefully until it all comes together. Pour that into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted all the way down comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 15 minutes, then unmold and let cool on a rack. Give it at least an hour to cool before you slice into it, inhale it, and complain about raisins.