Flaky Cream Cheese Scones

I have been looking forward to making scones

more than any other recipe in 

The Baking Bible.

Ever since Starbucks introduced 

Mini Vanilla Scones

into our lives

we have become scone loving nutters.

My maternal and paternal great-grandparents

were from England

yet oddly, scones were never made on either side 

of my family of enthusiastic bakers.

Biscuits, however, were.

Gorgeous, perfect breakfast biscuits. 

For two such similar things,

I find it peculiar scones were never served with tea.

And we drink a lot of tea,

with milk and sugar.

Something that never ceases

to amuse people. 

These are Flaky Cream Cheese Scones that almost weren't.

After assembling the ingredients 

I was having a quick look on the Alpha FB site

and saw Tony's mention of finishing the scones

without the Raspberry Caramel sauce.

What sauce?  There's sauce?

While looking for the elusive sauce, I discovered

I was all set to make the wrong scones.

Back to Trader Joe's. 

Chilled butter, cream cheese, flour, sugar, baking powder,

salt and mixed dried blueberries, cherries and golden raisins.

I like this dried fruit mix at Trader Joe's.

Rose then called for softly whipped cream and honey to be

stirred in.  This is a step I have never seen in any other

scone recipe and it's brilliant.

Patting the dough into a disk via a cake pan,

wrapped and chilled,  they were ready for

The Bake

after slicing into wedges.

This really is an incredibly easy recipe.

So far they've been a huge hit,

and that's before the sauce.

Who could wait for sauce 

with these warm out of the oven?

Should have made the sauce first!

Pureed reduced raspberry syrup with creamy caramel mixture.

Stirred together they make a wonderful drizzle.

Folded into whipped cream, 

well in what we have come to expect

as typical Rose fashion,

it takes these scones right over the top.

I feel quite accomplished

being able to turn out a flaky scone

along side all my favorite

British shows.

I have a long history of

scone envy.

I was once told the secret to making a 

good scone is cold hands.

With Rose's recipe,

that is luckily not a requirement. 

The leftover raspberry caramel whipped cream

is excellent frozen.

A light, fluffy, ice cream.

Woody's Black and White Browiies

This is the brownie that could easily be on 

one of those late night commercials for some

gadget or another~

"But wait!  There's more!"

When I first saw we were making brownies on Marie's

site, I was so relieved.

Ahh, good, a quick and easy recipe.

Just what I need.

"Not so fast", warned my daughter.  "This is after all a Rose recipe." 

Still, brownies, how complicated could they be?

And then I read the recipe.

This definitely was not going to be a Q and E.

What can I say?  I fell off the baking mojo.

Having my daughter with her new baby here for two weeks was wonderful

and truthfully, a three month old doesn't leave a lot of time for 

things like baking.

Rocking took center stage.

What wasn't wonderful was she came to pick up her eldest daughter

who spends the summer with us.

I miss the hubbub that only a teenager can bring.

I miss her smile, her infectious laugh,  

her presence.

In short, I haven't felt much like baking.

Assembling the ingredients got me focused.

Going through the freezer looking for pecans,

I found a bag of frozen dreamy creamy frosting.

Bingo!

So really, this did turn into a somewhat Q & E.

Once the brownie base was made, I whipped the thawed

Dreamy Creamy and spread it over the top,

turning the leftover into truffles.

After sufficiently chilled,

it was time to make the ganache,

one of my favorite things to do.

And that's it! 

Perfect Peach Galette

These are the few pictures 

of the peach galette.

The day it was made, the flavors were

amazing.  By the next day, they waned

and everyone wanted extra sugar and a bit

of cinnamon sprinkled over the top.

The crust was also much better the first day.

Other than that, this was a fun recipe to make.

I can't wait to try it with apples.

~

The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rootbeer Beer Bread

This month's Bread Bible recipe is

for Rose's Beer Bread.

I really can't stand beer; the taste, the smell,

the fumes at twenty paces.

So when I asked the gal at Trader Joe's 

which beer was less like beer,

she excitedly said 

Not Your Father's Root Beer!

I was a bit confused but she assured me 

it was indeed real beer..

With 5.9% alcohol content

it qualified.  

So I bought a bottle for my 

daughter and I to make the beer bread.

It was an easy dough to mix up with

very few ingredients.

I followed Kim's advice and checked it early.

It baked fifteen minutes less than 

called for and still was over done.

The rootbeer beer gave it a slightly

sweet flavor that lends very well with 

different jams. 

~

The Bread Bible

by 

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf

Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf

from 

The Baking Bible

by Rose Levy Beranbaum

I really didn't know what to expect with this recipe.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like and

truthfully, wasn't that excited.

I found wheat gluten at my regular market, still had

walnut oil from one of the recipes, Swedish Apricot Bread maybe?

The rest of the ingredients were simple enough.

So when the first Alpha Baker postings started to show up,

I was intrigued.

And now, pleasantly surprised.

It's really good!

The crust and texture are nice.

I did brush the top with walnut oil

when it came out of the oven.

I like it with cream cheese and jam.

Curious to see what it will be like tomorrow toasted.

It was so easy to make,