Yogurt Chocolate Chip Scones

When I think Scones I think of coffee and when I think of coffee I think of sharing conversation with girlfriends. Its as if the scones were calling out to me "Bake me for OCF." OCF is short for Officers Christian Fellowship. My friend Tree whos house we have the bible study at always has a fresh pot of coffee brewing and let me tell you, after a long day of chasing after an incredibly talented rolling infant, that is just what I need.

Girlfriend - check
Coffee - check
Scones - check!

Only problem was...I was out of soymilk and by that time I was not going to run to the store. Darn it! I wanted those scones! I had to improvise. Hmmm..yogurt...dairy. Milk...dairy. I'll take my chances. I've baked with yogurt before to make a marble quickbread and that turned out pretty tasty so it should be the same right? Here's hoping!

It turned out pretty good actually. The yogurt gave it a more chewy, cake-like mouthfeel than milk does but it was SO soft, you couldn't help but eat an entire one. Well, I couldn't help but eat an entire scone. lol. So if you want to give these yogurty scones a try let me know what you think.

YOGURT CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES

2 C A.P Flour
1/3 C granulated sugar
2 ts baking powder
1/8 ts salt
1/3 C butter, unsalted, diced and chilled
1 egg beaten
1 ts vanilla
1/2 C organic plain yogurt

1 C chocolate chips

granulated sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Grease a 9-inch cake pan

Combine all the dry ingredients (except the sugar for sprinkling) in a bowl and then cut the butter into the flour.

Combine the yogurt, egg and vanilla and ad to flour mixture and fold gently. Do not overwork.

Add in Chocolate chips

Pat into the cake pan and sprinkle granulated sugar on the top.

Cut into 8 wedges
Bake for 15-10 minutes

nana smores cupcakes!

Ever since Brandon got back from deployment, I've gotten my baking groove back. And I'm lovin it! Granted, I end up eating more of what I make than Brandon does. I don't know how he has so much self control! I'm like an eating machine. If its around, I'll eat it. I've actually started making bread again using my bread machine instead of going out and buying bread thats definitely not as tasty. I would rather not use the bread machine but with the little time I have hands free of baby, it just isn't doable. I guess its doable for a super mom and I haven't quite figured that part out just yet!

I've been wanting to make a smore type cupcakes for sometime now but I just didn't feel inspired to do it until this past week, plus having Brandon home helps because I am less prone to eat all of it. hahaha. Bananas are my favorite fruit and I love it in pretty much any baked goods, so in essence it would just make a cupcake THAT much better in my opinion! As soft and moist as cupcakes are already, the bananas definitely make it THAT much softer and that much more moist. The toppings of graham cracker crumbs, mini marshmellows and chocolate chips transports me to the backpacking trip Brandon and I did back in Georgia, minus the flood we were in, and the ticks, and the cold and wet shoes and socks and the sparse dry twigs to make a fire. So all in all, only the good part of a backpacking trip bundled in a little package. Ahh...delicious!

NANA SMORES CUPCAKES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius

Cupcakes

1 1/2 C All purpose flour
3/4 C Sugar
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda

1/4 ts salt
1/4 C melted butter (unsalted)
3 overripe bananas-mashed
2 large eggs

1/2 C Chocolate chips-semisweet

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick (1/2 C) of unsalted butter
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 Tbs milk

1. Combine all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips together in a large bowl, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients
2. In another bowl whisk together the melted and cooled butter, eggs and banana and pour into the well in the dry ingredients.

3. Gently fold together until just combined and add the chocolate chips and fold with a few more strokes.

4. Put cupcake liners into muffin tins and fill liners with batter evenly.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes and let cool on wire rack completely.

6. Beat butter till white and creamy with paddle attachment then add confectioners sugar and beat on lowest setting and add milk a little at a timel till it is the consistency you want for the frosting.

7. Dip cupcake into graham cracker crumbs and then decorate with mini marshmellows and chocolate chips.

8. Stuff it in your face! YUM!

Sugar Coma!

As a women, one cannot deny herself of silky, smooth, and delicate truffles at least once a month. I tend to eat it more than once a month, but lets keep that a secret ladies ;-) Beware, the following truffle pictures may put you into a sugar coma. Sometthing to the effect of this picture below:
We worked with chocolate last week in Advanced pastries. I am grasping the idea better and better the more I work with chocolate. We tempered also which is part of the process to realign the alpha and beta crystals in order to obtain chocolate that has a smoother, shinner, crispier and snappy texture and mouthfeel. It also increases the melting temperature so it doesn't melt as fast.
These truffles are made with a mocha paste ganache which is rolled and allowed to set. Then I dipped it in tempered chocolate to cover it for the shinny appearance. Just FYI. I did not grow the mint and blueberries. :-b

My..has anyone seen my hat?

Does it ever feel like it takes you forever to get something done? Well, quite literally this blasted Baked Alaska has taken us 3 whole weeks to compile! I was pretty much ready to hit them against the wall by the end of Mondays class. It's like a huge paint ball, only yummy with homemade french ice cream and a gooey truffle surprise!

Then came the real challenge of the day. We are working with chocolate, so Chef decided it was time for us to make a hat and stand and base - ENTIRELY out of tempered chocolate! We sat there, jaws locked in open position. Drooling at the thought of all that chocolate, but mostly because we were dumb struck. Are we ready? How do we even start? Let's just say, after 4 hours of non-stop chocolate work, I came out with this.

'Please do not try on hat, ask for assistance'

Shake your bon bons!

Monday class was a blast. We busted out a bunch of truffles, ugly truffles actually. We were literally covered in chocolate by the end of class. Luckily we had aprons on but somehow I managed to get chocolate all over my chef jacket sleeves. I must have short arms or something, yeah that's it.

I think those above look like malteses more than delicate truffles but the chocolate ball molds are filled with pureed raspberry & raspberry liquor then capped off with tempered chocoalte and dipped in tempered chocolate which gives it that sheen.

Now these are called splitters, which are basically toasted nuts rolled in a milk chocolate ganache. It looks like poop to me.
here are the cognac balls and Celibeth and I made. By the end of it, we were so fed up with not knowing what to do cause the recipe just plain sucked, that I was throwing them in the tempered chocolate just to get it done instead of delicately dipping them in. It's a cognac ganache ontop of marzipan and then dipped in tempered chocolate.
Now, I think these chocolate covered cherries turned out the best. I just want to eat that right up!
These "truffles" are made up of temepred chocolate discs set on patterened transfer sheets to get the stars stuck on them then inbetween two discs is a rum ganache.

Lastly these are coffee filled truffles.

Then night class we got to mess around with marzipan and made mini fruits! See if you can guess what's what!

OH! Yes, pastry students like to shake their bon bons in class and well...culinary students seem to like "other things" if you know what I mean.