Cornmeal Currant Biscotti

Not your traditional twice-baked biscotti but nice, fat, plump diamond shaped tea cookies.  These will only last a week on your shelf, but given all the leftover holiday treats lying around, I could have used the one month shelf life of regular biscotti. (Truth be told these can be molded and baked like regular biscotti but I wanted to sample these not-so-traditional ones.)

These are tasty little tea cookies with a higher butter content and a nice crackly corneal texture.  I used raisins instead of currants, and I like the contrast of the soft raisins and the crunch of the cornmeal.  Despite these attributes, I don't think I will make these again; I have too many other biscotti recipes that I favor.  But then again maybe I will, as Rhiannon loved them.

And Rhiannon… she loved these cookies!

Brioche x 2

It took brioche to bring me back (after the chaotic summer that was just starting during my last post).

I swear there is nothing better for me to make, bake, eat and eat again, than brioche.

I think its the texture.  And the chewiness.  And the slight sweetness.

For the first brioche recipe, the brioche served as the base of a custard tart, topped with a sabayon and poached plums.

For the second, the brioche was twice baked, to use up those stale leftovers of brioche laying around (as if).  The stale bread is dunked in orange vanilla syrup and topped with an almond cream.  Brioche plus almond cream might just be better than brioche itself.

For the rest of the book, I will try to keep up and make up what I have missed from the Baking with Julia cooking group.  But there are no guarantees without brioche.


Rhiannon eating her favorite: honey toast.

Buttermilk Scones

Scones are one of those things I had a love affair with about a decade ago.  I could not go into a coffee shop and not get a scone.  Well, I actually could, but it was very difficult to do so.   At one point in this addiction, I realized I was spending way too much money on these pastry nubbins and decided to make them on my own dime.  It took fiddling with a few recipes here and there, before I settled on one that satisfied my coffee shop cravings.  Simple enough, one of the key components for me in a scone is the crackly top sprinkled with turbinado sugar.  Another is the crumb- dense but flaky at the same time (is that even possible?).  This one from Baking with Julia comes pretty close.  The buttermilk lends a tenderness to the scones I appreciate, yet does not weight it down.   The butter flavor comes through and the added lemon zest brightens everything without being "lemony".   It may just rekindle my old flame. 

Perfect with peach jam.

Rhiannon approves of this one.

Danish Braid

This recipe took me awhile.  I had it on my "to-do" list for the past two weeks but somehow it eluded me.  Things kept getting in the way or rather things were always higher on the "to-do" list, exciting things such as laundry or sorting through winter clothes.  I was having a conversation about this with one of my friends today; how the things I like to do or want to do, often get shoved down on the priority list or maybe not even purposefully shoved down but circumstantially bumped.  I am uncertain how to remedy this for the long term (the answer I am sure, is far greater than the scope of this blog) but yesterday and today I decided to put this at the top of the list and get it done.

The recipe actually requires three recipes or three components: the danish pastry dough, the fruit filling and the "other" filling.  I decided on an apricot filling (I was short on apricots so added in cherries as well) and the almond filling.  The dough I made a day or two ago and just used a pastry cutter to cut in the butter instead of the recommended food processor.  Thank goodness at this point, I took the time to read some of my fellow bloggers' blogs as I would have skipped all the turns (the rolling and the folding) required for this dough.  

The final turn.

Once the dough was chilled and ready, it all came together rather easily.   Fillings were spread into the center, diagonals cut and braided over, egg wash applied and sprinkled with sugar  (I didn't have the almonds).   A short rise and into the oven.  

I imagine this to be a crowd pleaser (I didn't have a crowd to feed it to this time round).  It looks quite fancy and tastes like a perfect breakfast pastry.  And the best part is, I have another dough sheet all ready in the freezer ready to go, for the next time my priorities get rearranged.  

Rhiannon, now 2!

Blueberry Muffins

Awhile ago, we lived in Telluride, CO, and living near us were two of our dearest friends.  They were the reason we moved to the boxed in canyon, dead end street town.  Not to say anything disparaging about Telluride, as it is indisputably one of the most beautiful towns in the lower 48.  But food is difficult to come by there.  We traveled to not so nearby Montrose every other week to stock up on goods.  Despite this, our friends never seemed to be short on food, delicious food at that.  If we stopped by their house in the morning, it was par for the course to have fresh waffles or my favorite, fresh, huge blueberry muffins.  

Within a year of our arrival, both couples soon moved from Telluride, we to Portland and they to Austin.   But I have never forgotten those muffins.  I got the recipe and even bought oversized muffin tins to replicate them exactly.  They are nothing extravagant but just right.  They have the perfect crumb and density that I crave in a muffin. 

So, looking at the blueberry muffin recipe in Baking with Julia, I was reluctant to even try it.  It requires a few more steps than the normal muffin recipe and it even states the muffins turn out with a flat top, not at all like my giant overstuffed muffins of Telluride.  

I tried it anyway.  It turned out just fine.  But that's just it, fine.  The crumb is light and cake-like, maybe too light for me, as I am not a big cake fan.  So for cake lovers these may be the perfect recipe.  

As for me I will stick with my friends' recipe.  

Rhiannon on a BC Ferry

This blog participates in Tuesday with Dorie baking group.  See the link for others' experience with this week's recipe.

Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

For this post, my blog should be named "Baking with Quinn", Rhiannon's older brother.  This simple recipe was one my son could almost do on his own.  Almost.  It did require him to wash his hands multiple times about which he was not too excited; he would have preferred to keep them eggy and buttery and sugary.  So here he is mixing the shortening with the flour and sugar, some of which would become the crumb topping.

And here he is beating the eggs.  He preferred using a spoon and a fork for this.

And fast forward a few steps (literally a few, as there weren't too many steps to this recipe) and here he is filling the muffin tins.

After 25 minutes in the oven, here they were ready to eat.  Simple, easy muffins.  Simple flavors, too.  Nothing extraordinary but solid.

He didn't even make a big mess:

We did this recipe while on a weekend away to Central Oregon with some friends.  My friend Mark volunteered to clean up some of the mess we did make.  And Rhiannon got some much needed time in the dry desert.

For the recipe check out Alisa's blog at easier than pie.