Lemon Poppy Scones

My morning stash of breakfast muffins is finished! Alright, they lasted over three weeks, but still! In need of a new breakfast item, I decided to make scones, both because I haven't made a batch in ages and because I love everything about them. I love their triangular shape, their craggy, coarse, crumbly consistency, their Scottish heritage, their versatility. Take any basic scone recipe, drop in some add-ins and flavorings and you have a scone wonderfully tailored to your personal taste. The batch of scones I made was lemon-poppy. Inspired by my lemon-poppy cake, I added some zest and extract and two tablespoons of poppy seeds to KAF's basic scone recipe. I know this is a classic combination, but I must say, it's delicious! And it tastes exactly like the cake in this form. Somehow the tartness of the lemon is rendered delicate and mellow by the addition of dairy. It's heavenly. I also love the visual pop that the poppy seeds add. For this recipe, I used milk and a combination of margarine and shortening. Take care to make sure everything is cold and that the dough is cold as well before going into the oven or else risk having a melting bubbly mess in the oven. Even if this does happen, I can assure you they'll still be delicious. Scones are best eaten fresh but I stashed the lot of them in the freezer to pull out as needed.

Lemon Poppy Scones

adapted from KAF Baker's Companion

3 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp lemon zest

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon extract

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

8 tbsp cold margarine, or a combo of margarine and shortening

Preheat the oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Place all of the dry ingredients in a bowl,

and whisk until combined.Add in the fat. I grated in my margarine, so it looks kinda cool.

Rub it in with your fingers or a pastry blender until coarse crumbs are formed. Don't go too far, you want nice flaky scones.Place the liquid ingredients in measuring cup,
and mix to combine.
Pour this over the dry ingredients,
and using a spatula fold the ingredients together until almost all of the flour is completely moistened. Take care not to over mix. If this mixture isnt cold, chill it.
Divide the dough into two equal portions.
Pat into circles.
Cut each circle into eight wedges. My dough was too warm and soft for them to separate, but they separated after the baking.
Bake until theyre light golden and have puffed up about ten-thirteen minutes.
Break them up and set on a wire rack to cool!

Twix Bars

The dulce de leche is finally finished! It ended up happily sandwiched between shortbread and chocolate in what is classically known as Millionaire's Shortbread. Because it does have all the elements of a Twix bar, I took the liberty of renaming them so that I wouldn't have to explain what Millionaire's Shortbread is to the girls. What I liked about these is the contrast between the crunchy shortbread cookie and the smooth, creamy caramel and chocolate toppings. My very first taster, R, wheedled me into giving her the first tasting and she quite enthusiastically raved about these. The truth is, with such a killer combination of flavors here, it's hard to go wrong. They are also incredibly easy to assemble, especially if you're not making your own dulce de leche. This recipe comes from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. The only change I could possibly think to make is to add a bit of salt to the shortbread layer, an ingredient surprisingly missing. The cookie is fine without it but the salt would much improve it. No cookie should ever be without salt! Cut these rich cookies into small squares and serve. I'm just wondering.... is it too soon to restock up on the dulce de leche?

Twix Bars

slightly adapted from Baking for All Occasions

Shortbread:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6 ounces cold margarine, sliced

Filling:

A heap of prepared dulce de leche, depending on how thick of a layer you want

Chocolate Topping:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 ounces margarine

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment. Set aside.
In a bowl, place the flour, sugar and salt.
Whisk to combine.
Add in the margarine. Combine with your hands or a food processor until the mixture has coarse crumbs and much of the flour is absorbed.
Pour the mixture into the pan,
and press it in as evenly as you can. If you remember, (I did not!) prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.
When the crust has cooled, spread the dulce de leche in an even layer over the bottom. Refrigerate until set and cooled.
Place the chocolate and margarine in a pot or microwave safe bowl.
Heat until almost melted. Stir until smooth.
Pour this onto the caramel layer.
Spread until smooth. Chill this mixture until the topping is set.
Cut, plate and serve!

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Happy November! This month holds the birthdays of eleven students- that's a whopping number! In their honor, I decided to make a birthday cake to celebrate. (The inspiration really came came from my sister- her birthday was a couple of weeks ago and for it I made a chocolate layer cake with espresso neoclassic buttercream. I have been wanting to make another layer cake ever since. The November birthdays were the perfect excuse!) The first place I looked for layer cakes was obvious choice, Sky High-Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. The book has all sorts of recipes for three layer cakes in all sorts of tempting and delicious flavors. I chose the simple but delicious Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Frosting to begin with. The cake came together pretty easily. I only substituted vanilla bean paste for regular vanilla and used all purpose flour instead of cake flour. I baked the three layers the night before assembly and frosted the cake when I came home from school then following day. The frosting was easy to to whip up in the food processor. I added some more vanilla bean paste and espresso to the recipe to heighten the chocolate flavor. Stacking the cakes and frosting were so much fun! I felt so professional! I even whipped out my piping tips and piped shells around the sides of the cake and rosettes on top. So proud! I sent texts to all the birthday girls and they were all so surprised! They all loved the cake. And there was so much to love! The huge cake was delicious and tender with good vanilla cake flavor, but not too sweet. The frosting provided a nice sweet contrast. It fast disappeared. Until next month!

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Frosting

from Sky High

Cake:

4 whole eggs

2 yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

3 cups cake flour

2 cups sugar

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter or margarine at room temperature

Frosting:

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

6 tbsp half and half

1 tbsp vanilla or vanilla bean paste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut out parchment rounds. Grease the bottom of three nine inch cake pans. Place one round of parchment in each. Grease the paper and the sides of the pan. Set aside.
Place the eggs, yolks, vanilla and 1/4 cup of the buttermilk in a bowl.Blend and set aside.
Place the dry ingredients in a bowl,
whisk and set aside.
Add the remaining buttermilk and margarine to the flour,
and with the mixer on low, blend. Raise the mixer and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the egg mixture to the bowl in three additions. Scrape down the bowl as necessary.
Divide the batter among the three pans.

Bake the layers for 28-32 minutes until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Let the layers cool in their pans for ten minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, place all of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.
Process until smooth. Instant chocolate frosting!
Place one cake layer on a serving plate or turn table. Dollop frosting onto the layer and spread to cover.
Top with another layer and repeat.
Top with the final cake layer. Apply frosting to the top and then a crumb coat to the sides. Finish frosting with the remaining frosting. Smooth out the sides as best as you can.
I piped shells and rosettes just for fun.
Have fun with it and enjoy!

Black and Whites

I'm finally back from the Golan! I must say that it is absolutely beautiful up there. We spent time hiking and sight seeing, including rafting on the Jordan River and a boat ride on the beautiful Kineret. I continue to be astonished and in awe of Israel every time I see it and this time seeing the mountains and terrain of the Golan Heights, including a view of the snowcapped Hermon mountain was absolutely breathtaking. I could live there. Anyway, on to the post. It's been pretty rare that I make something from my childhood and on the first go, it hits the nail on the head in perfect imitation of the memory. The first time it happened was with the Italian Scali Bread. The second was a couple of days ago when I made these Black and White Cookies. Generally most commonly associated with New York delis, these to me are just a mainstay of any Jewish bakery. I always loved the thick, opaque frosting. How you could pull it off without damaging either the frosting or the cookie because it was so thick. I especially loved the vanilla, although now that I think of it, they were pretty cloyingly sweet. Still I have a fond place for them in my memory, and sadly, they don't really exist in Israel. I stumbled across this recipe in my recipe files when I was trying to downsize. Having all the ingredients on hand, I decided to make it. The batter pretty much comes together quite simply, with the buttermilk giving it that perfect background tang. I was nervous that the cookies were too pale, but they set up perfectly. The most challenging part of this recipe was frosting- not that it was challenging. Rather, it was a bit messy. I cant give an exact recipe for the frostings because I just threw together some sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and water until I was pleased with the consistency. Then I added enough cocoa to the remainder to get a chocolate frosting. I added a tiny drop of lemon to the vanilla frosting based on some recipes I had heard of though I must admit, when eaten plain it was rather unpleasantly lemony. Thankfully, on the cookie, the flavor was perfectly balanced. It just... worked. And the chocolate frosting was exactly what I remembered. The whole cookie was simply perfect. I cant wait to make these again, in their regular jumbo sizes. These cookies met with rave reviews, even landing in one of my girls' top two! I was pretty impressed with these myself. The next challenge? Making them parve.

Black and Whites

from Gourmet

Cookies:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup well shaken buttermilk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Frostings:

Powdered Sugar

Corn syrup

Water

Vanilla

Cocoa Powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.Place the flour, leavening and salt on piece of parchment. Whisk and set aside.

In a measuring cup place the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir and set aside.
Place the margarine and sugar in a bowl.
Cream until light and fluffy.
Add the egg,
and beat to combine.
Add the dry ingredients a third at a time,

alternating with the buttermilk.
Here is the final batter.
Scoop with a small muffin scoop onto the baking sheet leaving room for spreading. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden.
Remove to a rack to cool once set. Assemble the frostings.
Spread one half of the cookies with the vanilla frosting. Allow to set.
Frost the other halves with the chocolate frosting. Allow to set completely. Enjoy!!!