Blueberry Drop Scones

When I was young, I owed very little.  All my precious things could be put in a shoebox.  They were some stickers I exchanged with my friends, some letters from friends, some cassett tapes and sheet music with songs I loved. I told myself at that time that, they were the things that would be taking with me if there was a fire at home. 

As you grow older, your belongings grow with you as well. Besides the basic necessities, I have all these things spread around the house.  I'm amazed that during the last 20 or so years since I started to earn my own money, how much properties I have accumulated. Piles and piles of clothing, shoes, books, magazines, cds, dvds. Some of the stuffs are hiding in the corner of the closet, some tend to form clutters around the house. I looked around and began to wonder, how much of these stuffs I truly treasure, what are the stuff that I would be taking with me if there was a fire in the house.  I realized that, I still have just a shoebox of things. The shoebox may be a little bit bigger, like the one for boots. All the stuff I loved when I was a kid should still be in the box. Plus additional items from friends and family.  That's it!  I seem to have spent a lot and own a lot now, but in the end, only a shoebox of things is all I need to keep!

The blueberry scones I made today is quick, simple, and no fuss cooking.  It's a drop scone and no shaping and cutting of the dough is required.  I have been making this for several years and N doesn't seem to get tired of it. With the use of buttermilk, minimum amount of butter (2 oz) is required but the dough remains moist.  I wish everyone will try this!

Blueberry Drop Scones
Adapted from recipe of Tyler Florence from Food Network 

Ingredients

1    cup all purpose flour

1    cup whole wheat flour

1    tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar 
1/2 tsp salt

2     oz (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2"

cubes

3/4 cup buttermilk*

1     egg

2     cup fresh or frozen blueberries*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Sprinkle and toss 1/2 tbsp flour on blueberries and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Spread cubes of butter on top.  Cut in butter using a pastry blender until the butter pieces are coated with flour in pea sides and resemble crumbs. You can also do this step in a food processor. Just process the butter in flour in 5 to 10 one-second pulse.
4. In another bowl, mix buttermilk with egg.  Then add to flour mixture.  Mix until just incorporated.  Don't over mix the batter. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Be careful not to work it to hard because the blueberries can easily bruised. 
5. Drop large tablespoons on an ungreased cooke sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 mins until brown

*Kitchen notes:

• Original recipe uses only all purpose flour. As usual, I tried to incorporate as much whole wheat flour in baking as possible. And this is one of the recipes that it works.
• You can replace buttermilk with cream, of course.  Or you can substitute buttermilk with 3 Tbsp buttermilk powder and 3/4 coup of water.
• Every summer I would freeze 2 or 3 bags of blueberries when they are at their peak. The scones taste the best when the blueberries are sweet and juicy.
• The original recipe is with orange glaze.  I never made the glaze because I don't want the additional sugar.  I think the scone is delicious just by itself.
  

Buttermilk Bran Muffins

Hooray! It's the first long weekend of this year. I can finally have time to do my new blog post, plus tons of other housework. This is one of the ways to enjoy my personal time. I mean the blogging part, not the housework.

Whenever we have time on weekends, we like to make a big deal for breakfast. I personally not a big fan of big breakfast but N likes his to be like a brunch. I enjoy the making of it. Pancakes with sausages, waffles, scones, are our favorites. Yesterday, however, instead of making the usual with butter, I, for the first time, used applesauce as baking ingredients for muffins. I have read lots of recipes for low-fat baking using applesauce before but I have never tried it because of the skepticism about replacing butter in any type of baked goods. Butter is supposed to be the heart and soul of yummy baked goods. But inspired by the gorgeous Morning Glory Oat Muffins of Honey and Jam,  I finally tried baking with applesauce and I am loving it.

This recipe of Buttermilk Bran Muffins was found on Epicurious  and is originally published in Healthy Oven Baking Book of Sarah Phillips. It is a very basic recipe.  You can add any ingredients like dried fruit, nuts to your liking. I added raisins, cranberries and flaxseeds. The applesauce and buttermilk really moistened the muffins. With the use of raw sugar, the flavour of the whole wheat and bran is deepened. I like how light the muffins are. For N, no matter whether there is butter of not in the muffins, he would put a large pat of margarine on it when he was eating it. So, he really did not miss the butter in the muffins at all.

Recipe:  Buttermilk Bran Muffins

Adapted from The Healthy Oven Baking Book by Sarah Phillips

Ingredients:

 

Nonstick canola oil spray

1        cup unprocessed wheat bran

2/3     cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3     cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4  tsp baking soda

1/8     tsp salt

1 1/4  cup low-fat buttermilk

1/2     cup raw sugar
1/4     cup unsweetened applesauce

1        large egg

1 1/2  Tbsp canola oil

1        tsp vanilla extract

3        Tbsp flexseeds

1/3     cup raisins

1/3     cup cranberries

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350F
2. Lightly greased or spray twelve 2 1/4"  x 1 1/2" nonstick muffin cups with oil.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together wheat bran, flours, baking soda and salt.
4. In another medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer set at high speed, beat the buttermilk, sugar, applesauce, egg, oil and vanilla until frothy, about 2 mins.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture.  Stir until just combined.  Add dried fruits and flexseeds or other nuts of your choice.  Mix until just combined.  Do not overmix.
5. Spoon batter into muffin tray. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the centre, about 20 mins.  Do not overbake. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 mins before serving.

Back to Work Granola

How to make my work day a bit more fun? How to settle my growling stomach in the office? I need some sweet and healthy snacks! This granola is perfect for breakfast or snack at any time. It is with different varieties of nuts, maple syrup and honey as sweetener, and just 2 Tbsp of butter.  I have been experimenting with different proportion of dry ingredients, sweeteners and oil for a long time.  I like this combination the best because it is crunchy and yet the granola sticks together in cluster without too much oil and sugar. Maple syrup is essential in getting the great taste, honey only is just not good enough for me.  But you can play around with different combination of nuts and sweetener to suit your own taste.

Recipe:  Back to Work Granola

Ingredients:

1 1/2     cup old-fashioned rolled oats

2 1/2     cup puff rice

3/4        cup walnut

3/4        cup pecan

3/4        cup mixed of whole and sliced almond

3           Tbsp flaxseed

3           Tbsp sunflower seed

3           Tbsp wheat germs

3/4        cup dried fruit, chopped (I used cranberries and apricot)

2           Tbsp butter

1/4        cup maple syrup

1/4        cup honey

1/4        cup brown sugar

1/2        tsp salt

1 1/2     tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spread oats, all the nuts, seeds and wheat germ on to a baking pan. Toast the ingredients for 12mins.  Add in the puff rice and toast for another 3mins..
2. Remove nut mixture from the oven.  Reduce oven heat to 300F. 
3. Let  the nut mixture cool down for a few mins. Put 1/3 of the nut mixture in food processor and pulse it several time until the mixture are crumbly and the nuts are broken into small pieces but not powdery.  Mix the processed nut mixture with the rest of the nut mixture in a large bowl. You can skip this step if you use chopped nuts.  But I like the different texture with different size of nuts.
4. Combine butter, maple syrup, honey, sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a saucepan over low heat. Cook and stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes together smoothly.
5. Pour sugar mixture into nut mixture. Put in dried fruit.  Stir to combine. Put mixture onto a baking pan lined with silpat. Press down and form the mixture into a single sheet of around 1/2" to 1" thick. Put it in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 mins until the granola turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool.  Break into small pieces.  You can keep it in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

                                                                  before and after toasting and baking

Kitchen notes:

• I tried to make these into bars before but I found that more oil and sugar was needed in order to prevent them from crumbling when cutting. If you just break them into bite-size clusters, they are still easy to eat and store without crumbling too much.