Scones - Part II

I love my scones - in a bid to make them a bit healthier, I've played around with America's Test Kitchen recipe for their cream scones. I know they've tested it and all but I do like to cut the butter, sugar and cream to reduce my calorie intake. I have to admit that they don't taste as rich but they are still good :) with less calories!

Simple Scone Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar ( I reduced it to 2.5 tbsp)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

5 tbsp unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes and chilled

1/2 cup raisins/cranberry/chocolate chip etc (optional)

1 cup heavy cream ( I used 3/4 cup cream, 1 egg + milk if needed to top up to 1 cup of liquid)

1. Heat oven to 425 F. Adjust the oven rack to the middle. Bake for 12-15 min or till just nicely light brown.
2. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in food processor to combine.
3. Scatter butter on the top and pulse. Mixture should be coarse with a few larger lumps of butter.
4. Transfer to a large bowl and pour in raisins/choc chips etc and mix.
5. Stir in cream, egg, milk mixture till dough begins to form.
6. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead until it forms a rough slightly sticky ball.
7. Knead the dough out into a 2cm sheet and use a cutter to cut out as many scones as possible.
8. Place the scones close on the baking sheet(so that they rise intstead of spread) lined with parchment paper.
9. After 12-15min, cool on wire rack for 10min at least before digging in.

Honey Cake, Katsutera, Castella

I just got a jar of fireweed honey and a whole lot of other thoughtful things that remind me of home....courtesy of D's friends. Honey seems to be the cure all food - mixed with other natural foods, honey can apparently cure arthiritis, lower cholestral, colds etc and I hear honey is supposed to help weight loss too :) So I go in search of a honey cake recipe. I found one on Just Hungry which describes the method in great detail.

Honey Cake

8 whole large eggs (55g each)

300g sugar ( I used 200g)

200g all purpose flour

10oml milk

4 tbsp honey (I used 5 tbsp), plus 1 extra for brushing the cake

BB loves his honey and can't wait to taste the cake.

Chocolate, Hazelnut Meringue Cake

Chocolate, Hazelnut and Meringue - what's not to love? I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart website and immediately itched to try and make this cake.

For the cake:

10 tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

6 large whole eggs, separated

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted and cooled (I used Callebaut)

1 1/2 tbsp espresso or vanilla

1 1/2 tbsp rum (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

For the meringue

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned,roughly chopped

1 tbsp cornstarch

4 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

Use a good chocolate as you can taste it in the cake - use about 55-60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate, that should be perfect.  I used a 70% cocoa chocolate and it was too heavy and dense.