Banana Scones with Chocolate Chips

I got on a scone kick a couple of weeks ago.  I stumbled across this recipe for strawberry scones, and they were so good, I decided to try them again with bananas and chocolate chips.  Well, let me tell you, they were yummy!  Next time, I want to try shredded apples and cinammon chips...doesn't that sound good too?  The possibilities are endless! 

However you decide to make your scones, the basic recipe I found is now my "go-to" favorite.  I honestly don't think I will ever stray away from it.  Scones are best eaten the day they are made, but they will keep for 2-3 days on the counter.  Take my advise...make a batch, eat some, and freeze the rest.  Reheat in the oven, toaster oven, or microwave, and they will taste freshly-baked. 

Banana Scones with Chocolate Chips

3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk
1 medium, lightly speckled banana, not too soft, not too firm
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Additional sugar to toss fruit and sprinkle on top

Dice the banana and toss with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Use a pastry cutter or your hands to work in the butter until it is evenly distributed into the flour mixture, with a few small, pea sized bits of butter visible. 

Make a well in the middle of the mixture, and add the buttermilk all at once.  Gently stir dough together (the hands are the best tool for this job!), until everything is moist.  Add in the bananas and chocolate chips, and again, very gently knead the dough just until it comes together.

Dump the dough out onto a floured work surface.  Use just enough flour to keep the mixture from sticking but try not to overdo it...too much flour makes tough scones. 

I learned that lesson when I accidently sprinkled one batch too liberally with flour...they baked up beautifully, but the scones were slightly tough and chewy, instead of soft and flaky. 

Pat dough out carefully into a circle, about 3/4" thick.  You can sprinkle the top with a bit more flour if it's too sticky. 

Cut into 8 wedges...you can make 2 discs of dough, and cut them to make mini-scones if you'd like. 

Carefully transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet, keeping them about 1/2" apart.  If any chocolate chips or banana bits are peeking out, gently push them back in so they don't fall out during baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Pull the sheet out, and sprinkle each scone with a bit of sugar...it makes a nice, crunchy topping. 

Continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the scones spring back when touches, and are lightly brown on top.   Watch them carefully...they will overbake easily, and dry scones are not good! 

When they're done, wait a couple of minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely.  Serve the same day, or freeze and reheat as needed. 

Of course, my Rebecca LOVED these scones, as did Gabriel and my hubby.  Oh, and I did too. ;-)

And in case you're wondering...here's a pic of the strawberry scones I made first.  I'm tellin' ya...they were good.  So good, they disappeared in less than 2 days.  I'm not going to tell you how many I had.  Nope...not gonna tell! :-)

Scones take no time to make, and it's fun to try different fruits. Blueberries, diced peaches, raisins, are some other ingredients I'd like to try. And you don't have to stick to sweet scones. How about some savory combinations, like ham and cheese, rosemary and garlic, or blue cheese and walnuts? If you try something different, let me know...I'd love to hear from you. I knowI'll be on a scone kick again soon!

God Bless your table tonight! 

Wordless Wednesday-- Homemade Wheat Bread

Broccoli Cheese Soup with Rosemary Parmesan Bread

I am kicking myself for not making this before we had our first cold snap last year.  After that, the broccoli succumbed, and I had to buy broccoli at the store to make this soup...boo hoo!

But, in order to ease my sorrows, I made some homemade bread to go along with the soup, and one slice instantly soothed all my woes about store-bought broccoli. ;-)

I know some people are intimidated by making bread, but if you have a bread machine...break it out and let it do all the work for you.  I let the bread machine do all the mixing and rising (except the final rise), and baked it in two loaf pans.  Sometimes my dough collapses during the final rise in the machine, and I end up with a short, slightly dense loaf...which irritates me to no end.  Having the final rise and baking it in loaf pans eliminates that problem, plus I don't get the indention at the bottom of the bread from the mixing paddle. 

I'm posting this now so you can make this tomorrow for Ash Wednesday...pics will follow shortly!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups half-and-half

3 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

salt and black pepper to taste

4 cups broccoli florets

1 large carrot, diced

2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a stock pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and saute until tender. 

Whisk in the flour and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes. 

Gradually whisk in the half-and-half until the mixture is nice and smooth.

 

Add the chicken broth, bay leaves, and nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper. 

Lower the heat to medium/medium low, and simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until the soup thickens.

 

Stir in the broccoli and carrots and simmer another 20 minutes. Make sure it's a gentle simmer, or you risk scorching it on the bottom of the pot. 

Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Puree the soup in a blender in batches (or use an immersion blender like I did) until creamy and smooth.  There will still be visible flecks of broccoli and carrot.

 

Return the soup to the pot and stir in the cheese over medium heat.  Add a little bit of water (up to 3/4 cup) if you think the soup is too thick.  Serve immediately and garnish with more cheese if you'd like.  In our house...we always put more cheese on top!

Rosemary Parmesan Bread

Makes 2 loaves (or a 2 pound loaf in a bread machine)

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1/4 ounce envelope)

4 teaspoons olive oil

4 cups bread flour

2/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

4 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy.  If you don't see lots of little bubbles, either 1) your yeast is too old, or 2) you water was too hot, and you killed the yeast.   If this happens to you, start over with new water and another packet of yeast. 

Once your yeast has been activated, stir in 1 cup of the bread flour, and dump into a large bowl. 

In the pan of your bread machine (or a large bowl if you're doing this entirely by hand), combine the olive oil, the remaning 3 cups of bread flour, parmesan cheese, rosemary, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Add the yeast/flour/water mixture and set your machine according to the manual's directions.  I used the "basic white" setting. 

If you're hands on...dump the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes until it's nice and smooth.  Lightly oil the bowl you just used, place the dough in it and turn it over to coat.  Let rise in a warm, draft free place for about an hour, or until double in volume.  One neat trick is to preheat your oven for 30 seconds, and then turn in off.  Quickly place the bowl of dough in the oven--now you have a warm, draft free place for the dough to rise. 

At this point, you can let the bread machine finish your bread for you, or you can punch it down, let it rise again until double in volume, and then punch it down a second time.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the bread in progress...I tried to take some, but they just didn't come out right...too dark inside the bread machine!  And it wasn't easy to keep washing my sticky hands off to try and get a pic...so please forgive me. 

Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.  Divide the dough in half, and place the 2 portions into the prepared pans.  Let rise one last time for about 30 minutes or until double in volume.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on top.  If you tap the top of the bread, it should sound hollow. 

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  Or wait about 20 minutes to slice and serve warm. 

Update:  Would you believe  Christina ate this soup?  Our little girl who will not eat a single vegetable, green, orange, yellow, or otherwise gave it a taste at dinner, and said,

"Mommy, this is YUMMY!"  She gave it 2 big thumbs up and ate the entire bowl!  When I told David, he was really suprised too. 

So if your child avoids veggies like the plague, maybe this soup will change their minds.  I'll be making this more often for sure...I am still amazed Christina loved it!

God bless your table tonight!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I've been wanting to make these for a while, but 5 weeks of bronchitis held me back. I kept thinking about flour and my germs flying all over the place, because I knew I'd be coughing while I tried to bake.

So I'm sorry it took me a few days to get this post out. These biscuits were simple to make--just like regular baking powder biscuits, the only addition being a couple of spices and roasted, mashed sweet potato. Roasted the sweet potato brings out all its flavor, and natural sweetness.

If you don't have a biscuit cutter, a clean drinking glass or 15 ounce soup can will work just fine. Try these biscuits with a bowl of soup, or roasted pork, grilled chicken, or just some butter and honey. You'll see I made a double batch in the pictures, but one batch makes about 12 biscuits.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 medium sweet potato (about 14 ounces)

1/4 cup cold buttermilk

2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for patting and cutting biscuits

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

pinch cayenne pepper

pinch ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 black pepper

1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prick the sweet potato in several areas, and place on a foil-line baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours, or until the sweet potatoes are completely soft.

When cool enough to handle, peel away the skin (it should come off very easily), and mash the flesh in a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk until well combined, and set aside.

David has discovered a wholesale spice store, Penzeys just down the street from his new office. I've already gotten smoked paprika, Mexican vanilla, whole coriander, and whole nutmeg, thanks to my darling husband :-). I used my microplane grater to grate the nutmeg. I'd heard freshly grated nutmeg was better than ground, and truly...it is. It smells so amazing too! Here's what whole nutmeg looks like, in case you were wondering.

Back to baking! In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, cayenne, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Now we need to incorporate our fat. I usually cut the butter up, and put it in the fridge while I'm gathering the dry ingredients, so it stays good and cold until I'm ready for it.

I should mention you can use a food processor to combine the butter and the dry ingredients, but I love to mix dough by hand...getting my hands dirty makes me feel like a real baker ;-).

Using a pastry cutter, 2 knives, or your hands, gently work the butter into the flour mixture. Overworking the dough will make your biscuits tough, so use a light tough. It should look like cornmeal, with pieces of butter no bigger than a pea scattered throughout.

Now gently work the mashed sweet potatoes in until the dough comes together, kneading it a few times if necessary...

when it's all done, it should be a pale, orange color...and rather sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface, and pat it out to about 1 inch high...this will make nice, high biscuits. At this point, you can preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Using a 2 1/2 inch round, dip it in some flour, and cut out the biscuits. It's important to push down firmly and lift the cutter straight back up, without twisting. This helps the biscuits rise nicely while they bake. Don't forget to dip the cutter into your flour after each cut.

Place the dough rounds on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Push the dough scraps back together, again...try not to overwork the dough, and continue to cut out biscuits until all the dough is used up.

Bake the biscuits at 425 degrees for 15-17 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown and deep brown on the bottom.

These biscuits taste best just slightly warm...the kids loved them with some butter and honey ;-).

I hope you give these a try...they're a really nice change from the usual. And...they smell FANTASTIC coming out of the oven. Gabriel hung around the kitchen for a good 10 minutes after the first batch was done, hoping and begging for a taste...and of course, Mommy obliged!

God bless your table tonight!

Wheat Rolls Like Grandma Made

I am sorry it's taken me so long to post this. Easter came, the week afterwards was really hectic, my in-laws came into town, and whew...I've just been TIRED.

This recipe makes the best rolls ever. I found the recipe on the Internet some years ago, and they are a cinch to make. Even if you've never made bread before, you cannot mess these babies up...seriously...unless you are from another planet, and therefore...not human. It does take time...the dough needs to rise 3 times, but these bake up soft, light, and are perfect with roast chicken, split open for mini-sandwiches, or with a hot bowl of soup.

I have tried this recipe with both all-purpose and bread flour (which can be found in the baking aisle right beside the other flours). Either one works fine; I used bread flour because I had it on hand.

You can also make 2 loaves of bread or 16 sandwich-sized buns instead of 24 rolls as I did. The dough is very versatile--so make whatever you'd like :-). I was in a hurry, really wasn't paying attention, and ended up making 30 rolls instead of 24 (oh well!..that's what having 4 kids does to you I guess!)

Light Wheat Rolls

2 packages (o.25 ounces each) active dry yeast

1 3/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Additional 1/4 melted butter for the bread and greasing the pans

In a small bowl, combine the warm water and yeast. Let stand for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast is foamy and there are bubbles on the top. If you your yeast doesn't look like this:

then either your yeast was too old, your water was too hot, or both. You'll have to dump it out and start over again. But it's okay...just relax!

Now, in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast mixture, sugar, salt, butter, egg, and whole wheat flour. Let it go for a couple of minutes on low speed. You don't want to beat this to death...otherwise you'll develop too much gluten from the flour and your bread will be tough.

Add the all-purpose flour, a 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. You may need an additional 1/4 of flour, but don't add more, even if the dough feels sticky. Too much flour will make your bread heavy...and that's no fun.

Turn the dough out into a lightly greased bowl (non-stick cooking spray works fine)...

cover with a clean kitchen/tea towel, and let rise until double in volume, about 1 hour. This is what it will look like after 1/2 an hour.

Here's a trick to getting your dough to rise on a really cold day (like it was today). Turn on your oven and let it preheat for ONE MINUTE. It doesn't matter what temperature you set it at, but only leave it on for ONE MINUTE. Then turn it off, put your dough in, and shut the oven door quickly so the heat doesn't escape.

This gives your dough a nice, barely warm place to rise. Here's what the dough looks like after one hour...it should be doubled size, and very fluffy looking.

Punch the dough down...

cover it, and let it rise again for about 1/2 an hour. It should look like it did after the first rising.

After 1/2 an hour, punch the dough down again, and turn it out on a lightly floured surface. Let rest for about 5 minutes.

While the dough is resting, grease 2 dozen muffin cups (that's 24 for all you non-math majors like me) with the melted butter. Yes, you could use cooking spray or margarine, but why? Butter is better people, okay, trust me. And don't tell me your not going to split these open later and slather them with butter anyway. So why not start now?

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Divide each piece again, and then divide the quarters into 6 equal pieces. Got that? We're dividing the dough into 24 pieces. You can use a little bit of flour on your hands if you need to keep them from sticking to the dough. I'm sorry I couldn't take pics of the process, my hands were covered in flour :-).

Take each piece and gently pull the edges together. The underside will look like this...

and the top will be nice and smooth, like this...

Place into the grease muffin cups.

Continue with the rest of the dough until you have all 24 muffin cups filled.

Cover and let rise one last time for about 45 minutes, or until doubled in volume.

Brush each of the dough balls with some melted butter. Do this very gently so you don't deflate your dough.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

You should have just enough melted butter left to brush each roll one more time. I know...I know...but it's SO GOOD!

Pile the rolls into a basket and serve warm.

Everyone in our house LOVES these rolls...when I served them with the Tortellini Soup, Gabriel had one bowl of soup and 3 rolls, lol!

I hope you try these out...once you do, you'll see it's not so hard to make your own bread. And BTW, these can be frozen and reheated in the oven or microwave, and they'll taste like they were just-baked.

God bless your table tonight!