Irish Cream Scones with Raspberry Butterscotch Lace Topping

                                     

Shall I be mother?

It is bad luck to have more than one person 

pour tea from the pot,

or so it is said.

Perhaps this is the origin of

the expression

"Shall I be mother?"

meaning, 

Should I pour out tea for everyone? 

Tea and scones

and a lively chat with my daughter, granddaughters 

or friends always makes me happy.

This is the recipe I have been waiting to bake

since we began sifting our way through

Rose's Baking Bible.

Being able to make a decent scone

has eluded me,

even with all the Irish, Scottish and English DNA,

until now.

  

The ingredients are few:

bread flour, baking powder, salt, lemon rind,

raisins (I used currents),  sugar, honey

and heavy cream stirred together.

Quick knead,  patted into an

eight inch circle

and baked for a very short time,

they popped out of the oven 

with the most wonderful aroma.

It was difficult not to tuck in right there

but Rose declared her Raspberry Butterscotch Sauce

"Is to live for!"

on 

Catherine's  post.

So I carried on.

It's always a bit of a chore smashing

raspberries through a fine mesh sieve

and all the rest of  the finicky steps,

but oh so worth it in the end.

Really worth it!

Next time I double it 

at the very least.

The recipe says the Raspberry Butterscotch

can also be mixed into whipped cream.

I opted to make use of the 

left over Devonshire cream

in the frig.

It makes me happy that I can 

finally make a decent scone

with an amazing topping.

It is better than any tea room

scone I have ever had.

Such a surprise.

I never thought this day would come.

 ~

Rose's Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Lemon Almond Cheesecake

Rose's Lemon Almond Cheesecake

Take a whole lot of frozen lemon shells

just waiting for a recipe like this,

a package of store bought lovely soft lady finger cookies,

loads of sour cream and cream cheese,

blanched almonds, turbinado sugar,

about a dozen egg yolks

and this is the result:

an absolutely scrumptious lemon cheesecake

with extra flavor from lemon juice, lemon oil, lemon zest,

vanilla and almond extract (which I doubled).

Zesting frozen lemon rind is so much easier

It was a fairly easy recipe

just interrupted by lengthy chill times.

Oh and that whole wrapping the spring form pan

with foil and submerging in a hot water bath. 

I found the longest roll possible of extra strength foil

which encased the entire pan.

Huzzah!  No water hazard.

Another thing I did was blitz the extra

lady fingers in the mini Cuisinart

and sprinkle over the base of whole ones.

Stirring up a small dose of lemon curd for a

shallow topping was a great touch.

With a dollop of Devonshire Cream,

even better

Forgot to heat the pan before removing the 

sides and smooth with a warm knife.

Too impatient! 

Everyone who has had a slice

loves it! 

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rondo's

It's always fun to find a new treat

so when Hanaa from 

Avid Baker's Challenge

invited me to bake along

I was excited about

this recipe for Rondo's.

They were easy to mix up, 

first the almond filling

which is refrigerated,

and then the pastry dough,

which also is refrigerated.

Rolled out, filled, sealed and baked

in rings, the kitchen was filled

with a lovely aroma.

I used dark Muscavdo sugar and some

of the sugar didn't entirely melt

but it just added to the charm.

I also did not brush with the egg wash 

and adorn with almonds.

I had unexpected visitors

in the form of grandchildren

arrive.

Baked in a four inch English muffin ring.

You can image the chaos.  

They loved them so much 

I was asked if the could take 

them all home!

That says everything, yes?!

The Trellis French Roasted Garlic Soup

Soup's on!

The Melting Potters have set sail with

The Trellis French Roasted Garlic Soup 

from 

The Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia.

This is an incredibly easy tres chic soup to make.

First garlic is oven roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper.

On the advise of my daughter,

I doubled the amount.

We like garlic in this family.

Meanwhile cream is set over heat to

slowly reduce for an hour and half.

I used part half and half with 

whole milk.

It's plenty rich and creamy.

Vegetables prepped.

Leeks, celery and onions softened in butter.

The garlic cloves are then added in.

This is cooked together for a bit

and the aroma really starts to kick up a notch.

Meanwhile, cubed potatoes are tipped into

stock and brought to the boil.

The vegetables are added and cooked

together with the potatoes.

At this point I got out my immersion blender

and blitzed everything together right in the pan

instead of pulsing in a food processor. 

Blitzed again with the addition of the reduced milk,

 and seasonings adjusted.

Rose instructs to strain the soup but

we like texture so I left it rustic.

It is still very silky.

What fun to cook from Rose's book

that has been sitting on my shelf forever!

I've never roasted garlic before or used leeks

so already I've learned something new.

~

Rose's Melting Pot

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

King Cake

A long time ago,

I ordered a King Cake

expressed shipped from New Orleans.

Even with over night shipping,

it was a bit worse for wear 

but still good.

My husband was a Fed Ex manager

back then and nearly free shipping was one of the perks.

I can't remember why I thought 

this was a good idea or even where

I got the idea, 

never having been to New Orleans.

My kids were quite young then

but it made an impression.

My now grown up son asked if I would make

a King Cake.

He recently visited New Orleans on business.

So I gave it a go

with 

King Arthur's King Cake recipe.

My assistant took over the all important

task of frosting and shaking the sprinkles.

It was a fun dough to work with

and smelled heavenly with the addition

of lemon oil and fresh nutmeg.

The KA version was filled with sweetened cream cheese.

See what happens 

after baking along with fellow

Bread Bakers for a few months?

Enough confidence 

to tackle another yeasty bake.

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rose's answer to Chocolate Chip Cookies

I guess when one is a world famous cookbook author,

it must be a constant parade of 

Do you make? Would you make? Could you make?

Marathon dual Rose baking day 

with cookies and Sweet Potato Bread

So it is with these chocolate chip cookies.

Clarifying the butter to beurre noisette 

and not burning it to beurre noir,

is a crucial step.

Toasting the walnuts is another.

Using Tony's posted video for garlic skin removal

by shaking in a glass jar,

I tried it with walnuts.

Works very well!

Tipped into the bowl

a lovely dough takes shape 

with Muscavado sugar, regular sugar,

flour, baking soda, salt, vanilla and egg.

Mistakenly bought instead of chocolate chips,

they were a lucky accident 

and added to the dough with walnuts.

Wrapped for a night in the frig.

I forgot to flatten the first batch.

Side by side with the flattened batch.

I prefer the unflattened ones;

nice and cakey. 

Great flavor, too.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Sweet Potato Loaf

It's always amazing to see a dense lump of

dough transform into lighter than air bread.

This is exactly what happened with

Rose's Sweet Potato Loaf.

After an over night cool rise in the frig, 

sponge dough met a baked sweet potato and butter.

The dough had difficulty incorporating all the flour, 

remaining very dry, so I added

more sweet potato.

Probably because I used a different brand of 

unbleached flour.

When it became silky and sticky

as Rose described

it was off for a warm rise.

This recipe had several warm risings,

interspersed with a few folds.

The dough was soft, airy and very sticky.

I resorted to rolling it straight into the bread pan

from the bowl.

I knew the shape would not be correct

but  didn't want to deflate it too much.

Once again, 

waiting an hour for bread to cool,

is quite difficult.

The curiosity consumes me!

I want to see what the crumb looks like

and how it tastes.

Spread with Lyle's Golden Syrup,

this Sweet Potato Loaf is amazing!

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum 

Lemon and Cranberry Tart Tart

I am exhausted by this saucy little tart.

In theory it is very simple to make;

an almond butter crust shell 

filled with lemon curd and cranberry sauce.

It took me all day!

Devonshire Cream would have

been the perfect topping

but I didn't think of it,

my daughter did.

It's too late to run out for some tonight

but tomorrow I will.

I used whipping cream instead.

This recipe would make delightful

mini two bite tartlettes.

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum