Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Scones

And just like that, Thanksgiving is here. The bad news is that I can’t seem to hold on to the days that slip further and further into early sunsets; the good news is that I am in full nesting mode, which means lots more baking projects and – of course –  Christmas music! Christmas and early Pearl Jam/STP, randomly. I just need to find the right Pandora station that combines both. Purchasing the yearly no-commercials deal was the best thing I’ve done this year.

I’ve posted before about how much I love the combination of pears and dark chocolate. And when you fold this love into a scone, you get the moist chunks of pear with the crunchy richness of chocolate all in a buttery cakey thing.

Scones are fun because they require little work as far as breakfast pastries go. Just mix everything, pat it into a disk and cut out the pieces. Bake, nibble, smile.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen…I sometimes find problems with her recipes, just like in my own, so I changed a few things here and there. The big thing was making smaller scones so the recipe went further (than just 6 scones).

Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Scones

Ingredients:

• 3 firm pears (about 1 pound – I used Bartlett)
• 1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar plus 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated or coarse for sprinkling
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt plus additional for egg wash
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
• 1/4 cup (3 ounces or 85 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or chips)
• 2 large eggs, 1 for dough, 1 for glaze

Heat oven to 375°F. Peel and core pears. Cut into 1-inch chunks. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange pear chunks on parchment and roast until they feel dry to the touch and look a little browned in spots, 20-30 minutes. Slide parchment paper with pear chunks onto a cooling rack (or into fridge) and cool to lukewarm. Leave oven on. Line baking sheet with another piece of parchment.

Whisk flour, baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar and salt together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Toss in cooled pear chunks, bits of butter, heavy cream and 1 egg (Note: Next time I will cut in the butter first, after the dry ingredients, as the chunks don’t incorporate evenly when added with the pear. Once you work in the butter, add the pear and everything else). With the paddle attachment, mix the dough on low speed until it just comes together. Don’t overmix. Add the chocolate chunks and mix for 5 seconds more. It will look lumpy and messy.

On a very well floured counter, pat out dough into a 6-inch round. Cut into wedges (6-8) and transfer to baking sheet at least two inches apart. Whisk remaining egg in a small dish with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt. Brush each scone with egg wash and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Bake scones until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Perfect with your morning coffee. Store in air-tight container at room temperature. They’ll taste good for 3 days or so.

Enjoy, friends!

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Strawberry Scones

As I mentioned earlier, strawberry season has these fruits coming out of my ears. Strawberry-lobster risotto was one great way to use them, as was the strawberry-rhubarb pie I made last night, the strawberry jam I’m making later this week and these delicious fresh strawberry scones.

Searching for the right strawberry scone recipe, I found that many use dried strawberries, which confuses me. Fresh strawberries create a soft and moist scone that doesn’t resemble the thick, dry variety you can find at Starbucks. And why go dried and extra-sweetened when the real thing is perfect just as it is?

These were so yummy that Grant said they taste like strawberry cobbler – full of berries, and with a crumb that tastes like buttery cobbler. Just fabulous.

Fresh Strawberry Scones

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 c. AP flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• Turbinado sugar, for dusting
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled, cut into pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. plain yogurt
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 c. chopped fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 425 with racks in the middle. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In small bowl, combine egg, yogurt, milk and zest. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and pulse several times, until butter pieces are smaller than peas. Transfer to large mixing bowl.

Add strawberries to flour mixture and toss to coat.

Add wet ingredients to dry and fold together, mixing dough until it just comes together and all flour is hydrated.

Turn dough out on well-floured work surface and pat into large ball.

Cut into wedges or use muffin cutter (as I did), flouring the cutter very well between cuts. Place scones on baking sheet and sprinkle sanding sugar over the top (Turbinado).

Bake until slightly browned on top, about 15 min. Cool on pan a few minutes, then remove to wire racks.

Scones are best served slightly warm.

You can just see how tender and sweet they are from the pictures. Wonderful! Big thanks to my mom for helping me out – I was at Grant’s cabin when I wanted to make these, without Internet, so a quick call to mom got me the dictated recipe.

And the scones matched these pretty poppies we got at the farmers’ market on the way home!

Enjoy, friends! xoxo

Christmas came early this year!

Cranberry-orange scones with an orange glaze

Well, friends, Christmas came a little early this year.

Mom and dad were visiting for the weekend and mom insisted on buying my present now. I told her that I don’t want to buy a KitchenAid stand mixer before I get married – they are too expensive and take up too much counter space and are perfect for wedding registries or first-house warmings.

Well, she declared that she has ‘given up hope’ that wedding bells will ring any time soon. Her lost hope turned into my…

It is brushed nickel with metal attachments and I love it!

The first thing I made with the KitchenAid was Ina Garten’s cranberry-orange scones with an orange glaze. Yum! I have been wanting to make these for years, but didn’t because the thick dough seems to need heavy machinery to mix. In fact, I ended up halfing the recipe and it still yielded nine scones, which was plenty for us.

They are wonderful: light and flaky, with a wonderful orange zest aroma. The cranberries were a nice tart surprise. And the simple orange glaze? Beautiful!

Ingredients (this is the full recipe, so twice as much as I made)

4 c. plus 1/4 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

2 T baking powder

2 tsp. salt

1 T orange zest

3/4 lb. cold unsalted butter, diced

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 c. cold cream

1 c. dried cranberries

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with splash of milk)

Glaze: 1/2 c. powdered sugar mixed with 2 T fresh oj

Oven at 400.

Mix 4 c. flour with sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add butter and mix on low until the butter is pea-sized.

Combine eggs and cream. Add to the mixer on low, mix until just blended. This will be a very lumpy, wet dough.

Combine cranberries and remaining flour, add to mixer on low.

Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead into a ball. Roll to 3/4 in. thick. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter (I used a drinking glass), cut out scones. Gather dough and repeat until all is gone.

Place scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I forgot the parchment and they didn’t stick).

Brush the scone tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20-25 min. until the tops are browned and the scones are firm to the touch. Cool for 15 min. on wire rack, then drizzle with glaze.

I’m sorry to say these are going fast at my house. I am NOT, however, sorry to say that I’ll never look at store-bought scones the same way.

Flaky, buttery, yum

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go gaze at my new piece of kitchen machinery! Enjoy, friends. xoxo