Cranberry-Orange Cream Scones

The other type of scone that I made was a more traditional scream scone with a biscuit texture rather than a cake texture. They were still light and fluffy and moist though, not dry and cracking like I often see of scones purchased from a bakery. These scones I made fresh on Sunday morning, rather than the blueberry scones which were done ahead of time. Both types were gobbled up by our friends for breakfast so I would say they were both a success!

Cranberry-Orange Cream Scones
From Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted cutter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
1 tsp grated fresh orange zest
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup heavy cream

Directions
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in food processor to combine, about 3 pulses. Scatter butter and orange zest evenly over top and continue to pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some slightly larger pieces of butter, about 12 more pulses. Transfer mixture to large bowl ad stir in dried cranberries. Stir in cream until dough beings to form, about 30 seconds.

Turn dough and any flour bits out onto floured counter and knead until rough, slightly sticky ball forms, 5 to 10 seconds. Pat dough into 9-inch round and cut into 8 wedges.

Place wedges on prepared baking sheet. Bake until tops or scones are lightly golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Scones

Continuing with my HP weekend recipes, we are now onto Sunday morning's breakfast. I made two different kinds of scones. These blueberry scones I was able to make earlier in the week, freeze and then bake them directly from frozen. They have a great crunchy exterior with the sugar on top and a nice soft interior loaded with blueberries. You could also substitute other berries like blackberries in this recipe with great results as well.

Blueberry Scones
From Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients
16 tbsp unsalted butter (2 sticks), each stick frozen
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Directions
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove half of wrapper from each stick of frozen butter. Grate unwrapped ends (half of each stick) on large holes of box grater (you should grate a total of 8 tablespoons). Place grated butter in freezer until needed. Melt 2 tablespoons of remaining ungrated butter and set aside. Save remaining 6 tablespoons butter for another use. Place blueberries in freezer until needed.

Whisk milk and sour cream together in medium bowl; refrigerate until needed. Whisk flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest in medium bowl. Add frozen grated butter to flour mixture and toss with fingers until butter is thoroughly coated.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture and fold with rubber spatula until just combined. Using spatula, transfer dough to liberally floured counter. Dust surface of dough with flour and with floured hands, knead dough 6 to 8 times, until it just holds together in ragged ball, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Roll dough into approximate 12-inch square. Fold dough into thirds like a business letter, using bench scraper or metal spatula to release dough if it sticks to counter. Lift short ends of dough and fold into thirds again to form approximate 4-inch square. Transfer dough to plate lightly dusted with flour and chill in freezer 5 minutes.

Transfer dough to floured counter and roll into approximate 12-inch square again. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over surface of dough, then press down so they are slightly embedded in dough. Using bench scraper or thin metal spatula, loosen dough from counter. Roll dough into cylinder, pressing to form tight log. Arrange log seam side down and press into 12 by 4-inch rectangle. Using sharp, floured knife, cut rectangle crosswise into 4 equal rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally to form 2 triangles and transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until tops and bottoms are golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

TO MAKE AHEAD:  After placing scones on baking sheet, either refrigerate them overnight or freeze for up to 1 month. When ready to bake, for refrigerated scones, heat oven to 425 degrees F and follow baking directions above. For frozen scones, do not thaw, heat oven to 375 degrees F, brush the tops with melted butter and sugar and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Short Rib Shepard's Pie

I have never been a big fan of shepard’s pie until I saw this recipe. Traditional shepard’s pie is made with ground beef and the texture was something that never really caught my fancy. The use of short ribs slow cooked in red wine and then shredded was a much more pleasing texture to me. And the flavor that the short ribs had was out of this world. I think everyone at dinner wished I had doubled the recipe because they could have eaten at least another serving each. The only thing I plan on doing next time I make this recipe is to add more vegetables to the filling so it doesn't feel like it is only meat topped by fluffy and crunchy potatoes.

This recipe does take quite a long time to make, but I had a roomful of happy faces tell me it was definitely worth it!

Short Rib Shepard’s Pie

From Cooking for Friends

Ingredients:

4-5 lbs boneless beef short ribs

Sea salt and ground pepper

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 carrot, chopped

3 ½ cups dry red wine such as Syrah

3 bay leaves

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

4  cups, or as needed beef stock

1 ½ lbs Yukon gold potatotes, peeled and quartered

¼ milk

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1 egg yolk, beaten

Directions:

Season ribs with salt and pepper and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to overnight. Bring to room temperature and season again with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat a large sauté pan over high heat until hot. Add olive oil and heat until shimmering. In batches, sear ribs on all sides, turning as needed, until well browned. Transfer to a Dutch oven. Pour off all but 2 tbsp fate from sauté pan and return to medium heat. Add onion, celery, garlic and carrot and sauté until beginning to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add wine, bay leaves, and thyme, raise heat to medium-high, and boil to reduce wine by half. Add stock, bring to a boil, and pour contents of pan over ribs. They should be just covered with liquid; add stock as needed.

Cover tightly and braise in oven, adding stock as needed to maintain liquid level, until a fork slides easily through meat, about 2 ½ hours. Skim off any fat from surface, let ribs cool in liquid until they can be handled, then remove ribs from pot and pull meat from bones. Shred meat into bite-sized pieces, return to Dutch oven, and discard bones.

While ribs are cooling, in a saucepan, cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, dry in pan over low heat, then pass through ricer back into warm pan. In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter until mixture is steaming. Pour into potatoes, add egg yolk and fold to mix well.

Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Transfer contents of Dutch oven to a 9x13 inch baking dish or divide among 6 – 8 individual gratin dishes. Cover top(s) evenly with potatoes. Bake until topping is golden, 35-40 minutes. Serve at once.

Rock Cakes

Hagrid’s rock cakes were always so hard they were nearly inedible. It turns out that his two mistakes were over mixing his dough and cooking his cakes for too long. If you are careful to keep both of these things in mind, you will create a cookie that is very soft and delicious. Keep in mind though that these are best served the day they are made, preferably within hours of baking. They do lose some of their soft and chewy texture the longer they sit. The original recipe called for raisins but I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins in my batch.

Rock Cakes

Adapted very slightly from The Unofficial Harry PotterCookbook

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted cold butter, cut into chunks

1 large egg

½ cup whole milk

1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a large cookie sheet (or use a silicone mat). Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. With your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture reaches the consistency of wet sand.

Beat the egg together with the milk and pour it into the flour-butter mixture. Fold it together using a spatula to form a stiff dough. Fold in the dried cranberries. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the bottom are golden, rotating the pan midway through baking.

Harry Potter Weekend

Joe and I along with a group of our friends are very big Harry Potter fans. Very big Harry Potter fans. We have all read the books and seen the movies multiple times. We decided it would be fun to get together for an entire weekend to watch the movies and play some Harry Potter trivia. For Christmas, Joe bought me the Harry Potter cookbook so I thought it would be fun to create a menu for the weekend that centered around food themes that appeared in the books and “British” food.

We all had a blast and got through most of the movies in a 36 hour period. It was such a success that our friends are begging us to do it again.  We have met some new people that haven’t been exposed to Harry Potter so we will have to initiate them into the wonderful world of HP in the near future.

We served lunch, dinner and dessert on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. The menu included:

Saturday Lunch

Chicken salad with tomato on cocktail rye bread

Egg salad on cocktail pumpernickel bread

Fresh and smoked mozzarella with fresh tomato and basil on a baguette with balsamic vinegar

Cucumber sandwiches filled with cream cheese mixed with craisins, walnuts and cinnamon

Rock Cakes

Saturday Dinner

Short Rib Shepard’s Pie

Saturday Dessert

Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream

Sunday Breakfast

Cranberry Orange Scones

Blueberry Scones

Bacon

Sunday Lunch

Split Pea Soup

Recipes to come in future posts so stay tuned!