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

Seedy bread

So in my previous post I had mentioned how I've been baking bread instead of buying bread from the grocery store. The breads that I had made thus far where all using white flour and all tended to be a little too dry for my liking. I'm not sure if it is the recipes or if its the white flour but I thought I would make my own recipe to see if I could fix the problem.
First off, I decided to make a healtheir bread using half wheat and half white flour for a nuttier taste as well. I didn't want it to be just some plain boring ole wheat bread, so I added flaxseed for added flavor and since I have IBS this helps my digestive system regulate better. I also put in some poppyseeds for a splash of color and I threw in 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce to see if it would help put moisture in the bread. Also, I've started using Agave nectar in some of my baking and to be honest, I love it SO much more than regular sugar! So I added some agave nectar for a hint of sweetness and to help preserve the bread a little longer. It came out really well and it is such a soft bread and I don't feel as bad eating more of it because it is made from wheat. ;-) I'm a carb girl that is for sure!

SEEDY WHEAT BREAD

(2 lb loaf)

1 1/2 C warm water
1 Tbs olive oil
3 TBs Agave nectar
1/2 ts salt
2 1/4 C Whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C A.P flour
1/4 C unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 Tbs flaxseed
1 1/2 Tbs poppyseeds
2 ts actie dry yeast

Put ingredients into bread machine in order listed. Oh so delicious!

Useless Bay Coffee

The boys and I went up to Langley just south of Oak Harbor, about a 45 minute drive from our house to meet up with my mom and stepdad for breakfast while they were up in Seattle for an art show. From the second we drove down 2nd street in Langley, I noticed the amazing Useless Bay Coffee Company and that they also had live music and roasted their own coffee! I whispered to Brandon that I needed to check this place out after breakfast and wished that we had actually had breakfast there instead.
Since I am still nursing, I only drink decaf because I usually in all honesty drink about 5 cups in one sitting and I don't want to overload Benton on caffiene. lol. Anywhos I got their Organic Decaf Swiss Water blend and I seriously forgot how good coffee can just make me melt and make my morning THAT much more enjoyable. I wake up and look forward to after my workout when I can read my bible and enjoy my comforting cup(s) of coffee. :-) Emmm...it makes me get through my day that is for sure. I love starbucks but Useless Bay Coffee stumps them for sure. I can't wait until I can purchase their beans online because with the baby, it will be hard to drive 45 mintutes just to get coffee though Brandon and I have already decided to return to Langley and discover the precious little town some more when we get a chance when he's home again.

Until then, I wonder how long this bag will last me. Probably not for very long. Bummer!

Bling bling scones

Growing up in New Zealand I enjoyed afternoon teatime with cucumber sandwiches and english scones with my cup of tea. Here, unless you make it yourself english scones are not heard of. So what does a girl do but try to find a good American scone recipe since I can't seem to find an english scone that I like. I don't really have an issue with american scones but that they are on the drier side and like everything not homemade, you never can tell what's inside.


So, I flipped through my "bread bible" book and found a scone recipe that didn't require me dragging my post-Christmas body to the grocery store. I made half with chocolate chips and half with blackberries. Have you guys noticed the price of blackberries?????? So although they are not million dollar berries, they are quite expensive for the number of berries you get. Aside from the price they were delicious but this is the last fattening recipe that I will be gobbling down myself. I'm going to try to bake healtheir in 2009!!!!!

FLAKEY SCONES - The Bread Bible

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Unsalted butter, cold - 1 C

All purpose unbleached flour - 4.5 C

Sugar - 1/2 C

Baking powder - 2ts

Baking soda - 1/2 ts

salt - 1/4 ts

heavy cream - 2 C

currants (I used chocolate chips and blackberries) - 1 C

1. Cut butter into 1 in cubes and place in freezer for 10 minutes
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter with fingertips until size of small walnuts. Stir in cream to just moisten flour into large clumps. Stir in chocolate chips and knead together. (For blackberries I added them when I shaped the dough)
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 30 minutes prior to baking and have baking stone inside oven as it preheats.
4. Flour top of dough and counter lightly and roll out into rectangle 1 in thick. I added a few blackberries on the dough now. Then fold dough like you would croissant dough. (Fold right side to the center and then the left side ontop) Repeat 2 more times adding blackberries everytime you roll out dough.
5. Cut the dough into triangles and place onto parchment time baking stone and bake for 15-20 minutes until edges begin to brown and tops are golden brown and firm enough when pressed lightly with a finger. Let cool.
   
   
   

Good Ole Kiwi Breakfast

I often think back to the times when I was younger and crazy about rugby when I lived in New Zealand. It's funny that a 13 year old girl would wake up at 4am to walk over to her neighbors house to watch a game. That memory aways reminds me of vegemite. Aunty Gay used to make us toast with butter and vegemite while Uncle Vaughan and I watched the game.

I was walking around World Market after church with Brandon a week ago and saw the cutest tiniest vegemite jar ever! I hesitated to buy it but Brandon urged me to and for the past week I have been having vegemite on toast every single morning. lol. Am I sick of it yet? Nope but I sure am glad that Brandon has no interest in it. hahahaha.

My beautiful 5am breakfast before I head out to work

Oh! and can't forget the latte. ;-)

Carrot to try?

It's surprising how long it took for me to make ANYTHING baked containing carrots ever since I made 200 some carrot cakes back in December at work. I've wanted to but the thought of what I went through; the batter splattered chef coat, carrot stained hands, pastry shortening up to my ears and the annoyance of having to take turns on the mixer and ovens when I had a deadline; made me quite unwilling to bake carrot muffins which I had craved since before December until now.

Finally, I was able to bring myself to making these carrot muffins and these are IBS safe, so good for you and better for your tummy! Enjoy!

CARROT MUFFINS - Valerie Adams

3 Medium sized carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 C apple sauce, natural
3/4 C oil
1 1/2 ts Vanilla extract
3/4 C eggbeaters
Mix wet ingredients together until complete combined

2 C flour, All Purpose
1 C granulated sugar
3/4 ts Baking Soda
1 1/2 ts Baking Powder
1/2 ts salt
1 ts cinnamon
1/2 ts nutmeg
Mix the dry ingredients together

Then fold wet ingredients into the dry.

Finally add:

1 C shredded coconut
1/2 C chopped and toasted pecans

Spray muffins pan with olive oil spray and then divide batter evenly between muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

I hardly eat any "real" dinner, what most people would consider dinner cause sometimes I just can't stomach it with my IBS, but the other day I concocted something so yummy! Emmm! I had some leftover cooked penne pasta and here is my creation:

CHIPOTLE PORCINI PENNE - Valerie Adams

5-6 dried porcini mushrooms (hydrated in some warm water)
1/2 tomato cut into chunks
1/2 Vandalia onion, sliced thinnly
Chipotle pepper (dried, ground) to taste

Heat up some olive oil in a saute pan, and sautee onions till soft, then add in penne pasta, toss in tomatos and the porcini mushrooms (squeese out water).
Sautee and add some of the mushroom water for flavor and moisture. Add in the chipotle pepper to taste. Dish up!

Now, I just made myself hungry. I better make dinner - but what? Hmm....

Welcome to Milton, FL

Finally!!!!! Finals are over! Now all I have to do is get through 2 weeks of long weeks of work then we are back to Oregon for the holidays! YIPPEEEE!! My mom and stepdad are in town. They got in last Saturday and I had the weekend off to study for finals, so Saturday night we decided to try 'Global Grill,' a tapas restaurant in downtown Pensacola, FL. I had never heard much of it and quite frankly, historic downtown ain't much unless you really look around, so I never even realised that it was on Palafox street. It's a good thing we ventured there, cause it was DELICIOUS! Yummy for my tummy!

My mom and stepdad at Global Grill
Brandon and I at Global Grill
Mom and I
So sunday morning I got up early before church to fix some muffins for my mom and stepdad and Brandon of course. I made two versions of the batter. I halved the batter and put chocolate chips in half and fresh cranberries in the other. The chocolate chip is above and the cranberries are below.
CHOCOLATE CHIP/CRANBERRY SOUR CREAM STREUSEL MUFFINS

2 Cups flour

3/4 C sugar

1 ts baking powder

1 ts baking soda

1/2 ts salt

1 C sour cream (non-fat)

1/4 C eggbeaters

1 ts vanillia extract

1 1/2 C cranberries (fresh), rolled in flour and sugar (sweetens and suspends fruit in batter)
or chocolate chips

1/4 C vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients together and mix wet ingredients together. Fold wet ingredients into dry and once incorporated add the cranberries or chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin tin and sprinkle cinnamon streusel on top (mix cinnamon and brown sugar together) and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Mom cooked us a wonderfully yummy chinese meal Sunday night. Above is a jalopeno, onion and dried fish stirfry in oyster sauce, sweetened by a bit of brown sugar.

Another dish is a pork and vidalia onion dish. I picked out the onions and ate them since I don't eat meat.

And lastly, sweet and sour shrimp. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That's all I can say. :-D

Last night, I was sick of studying so I made some magic cookie bars but changed it from the usual recipe.

MAGIC COOKIE BARS

BASE:

1 1/2 C ground graham crackers

1/2 C olive oil spread, melted

Mix together and press firmly into an ungreased 13 x 9 in glass pyrex pan

TOPPING:

1 - 14 oz can of condensed milk

1 C chocolate chips

1 C peanut butter chips

1/2 - 3/4 C shredded coconut

pour condensed milk evenly over cracker crumbs then sprinkle chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and shredded coconut over condensed milk. Then press down firmly with a fork and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

Busy Bee

I can't believe it's been so long since I've put up an actual post. I have been cooking, it's just been quite busy around here. Work has been wearing me down but it's getting better with each day that I work. We had a belated Thanksgiving last Saturday instead since I worked the day before, the day of and the day after thanksgiving. So by the time Saturday rolled around, I was so tired, I didn't want to start cooking for thanksgiving, but I got my lazy butt up and at it.


I've been having soup alot lately for dinner and I really enjoy that. It's getting chilly here, so when I get home it's so nice to just warm up some soup for dinner. Plus, I'm the only one who has soup, so it lasts for several days which means, I don't need to cook! YAY!
I know I haven't blogged about school lately, but we did pies for like 3 weeks straight, and by the time thanksgiving came, I was so tired of pies, I couldn't possibly say one more word about it. lol. Last week we made croissants and my group got the whole wheat croissants. We made some plain like the one below and we also stuffed some with a mixture of spinach, olive oil, pecirino (?) cheese. Did you know stuffed croissants are supposed to be straight, not curled at the tips like a normal croissants. Ahh...the secrets we learn here at school. :-)
I have more to come, but finals week is this coming week so I gotta work and study and probably won't be able to post until after finals. :-( So you guys have a good week!

Beam me up Scottie!

Brandons parents stopped in to see us on their way back to Oregon from their African Safari trip. It was really good to see them again. Just adds that excitement to the boring world of daily life, you know? Thankfully for me I was able to entertain since I don't have exams to study for and I did my homework at school. Knew that would pay off eventually ;-). Not so lucky for Brandon. His studying never ceases, poor guy. Though saturday he took us to see the planes he flies. They are adorable!!!!!

Like father like son. They make a good duo!

Here's mom climbing aboard

Some instrument thingies on what-you-ma-call-it panels.

A view of some of the planes that are tied down for the weekend.

A helicopter for transporting people and equipment. I may be wrong but I believe it can lift a hummer.
The front view of the transport helicopter. Massive thing!
Here's one for transportation of people only.
My attempt at being a "professional" photographer. Okay, you can laugh.
Thought I would surprise Brandon Saturday morning with a chocolate marble loaf. I tried not to be loud but that didn't work. I'm SO noisy in the kitchen.


I made this healthier also, and boy I'm glad I did cause it tastes good.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE LOAF

2 1/2 C flour

2 ts baking powder

1/4 ts salt

3/4 C sugar

1/2 C vege oil

4 squares bakers chocolate

1/2 C soymilk

1/4 C plain yoghurt

1/2 C eggbeaters

1 ts pure vanilla

Melt the chocolate squares with 1/4 C of the soymilk, stirring. When melted, set aside.

Mix together flour, salt, baking powder.

Mix together 1/4 C soymilk and the yogurt.

In mixer, cream oil and sugar. Then add flour mixture and yogurt mixture alternating, starting and ending with flour. When combined, add vanilla.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake 325 degrees F for 55 minutes to an hour.

Lime away!

I've noticed ever since I have been here in Florida, that the prominent dessert in every restaurant is the one, the only.....

KEY LIME PIE!!!!!!!

I had my doubts as to whether my tastebuds would accept this "key lime thing." I mean, the ingredients were so few, I wasn't sure it would turn into anything really. Turned it did though. I must say that I really LOVE the flavor. It's almost cheesecake like in consistency and taste. That tartness was fantastic, but I've always been for tartness. Brandon however, wasn't too thrilled about it, though he had said he would like to try it since he likes the keylime yogurt. lol. Well...now I have a huge pie in the fridge that I feel really badly for. So I suppose it's up to me to eat it ;-)

KEYLIME PIE

Graham Crust: 3 C graham cracker crumbs, mixed with 2-3 oz butter. Pat into pie dish. Bake 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes (may be less)

Pie filling:
24 oz condensed milk (I used low fat)
3/4 C freshly squeezed lime juice
2 eggs (I used 1 whole egg, and 1/4 C eggbeaters)

Mix condensed milk with beaten eggs, mix thorougly. Then add 3/4 C lime juice.
Combine, then pour into graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Traditionally, it is topped with a meringue topping so I thought I would be "traditional" rather than serving it with whipped cream. Yeah, I didn't like the meringue much. It was much better without any topping.

I found out this morning that the bakery I was going to work for isn't going to hire me now because the head pastry chef had a heart attack and there is no one to train me. So, naturally I was pretty devastated and when brandon left to study with Dermit, I just had to bake away the nerves. Getting back on track with my bible study helped the most though. I don't know why I stopped, but that is a goal of mine from now on, to get back on track with my bible study time. So back to baking. I needed to bake. Whenever something goes not "my" way, it is relaxing for me to bake. My mind just zones out completely from the world. I made mini banana loaves.

MINI BANANA LOAVES

3 bananas, mashed
1/4 C eggwhites, beaten
1/3 C total apple sauce & oil mixed together (half of each)
1/2 ts baking soda
1/4 ts salt
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 C flour all purpose
Chopped up bakers chocolate (as much as your little heart desires :-D)

Mix the bananas with the eggwhites, then the oil & applesauce, the baking soda, the salt and the sugar. Mix thorougly to combine. Lastly, add the flour and mix till incorporated. Fold in chopped chocolate.

Pour into greased mini loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or till thorougly cooked and browned on top.

The last step: EAT!

Scones & the never ending pit that is my stomach

I really don't know if it is just that I am a glutton, or that I work out, or that is just a girl thing that I am constantly hungry. I think I am just a glutton. lol. It does get quite annoying though, constantly eating, especially after dinner. I can not eat a thing till noon or 1pm (which I try not to do) but once 4pm hits my mouth is a machine and my stomach is a never ending pit. Really though, I am interested. Is it just me or are people out there as strange as I am?

This morning I left the house at 10am, after the news had lifted the tornado warning. I needed to go downtown to Pensacola to fill out paper work for employment at a bakery. I was 20 minutes into the drive and 20 more minutes till my destination when the radio annouced another tornado landing downtown pensacola. Then the rain poured, the thunder and lightening hit. I couldn't see a thing, my heart felt like it was on drugs and I was driving SOOOOOOOOOO slow. I was scared to death and had to keep driving over the bridge till I reached the first exit. I turned around and a 20 minute drive back home took around 40 minutes. It was crazy! I am hoping that the bakery is ok, because I really need that job and I had told him I was going in today for the paperwork. I called several times but I just got the machine and I know the tornado hit that area, so I just hope he understands that I couldn't make it.

I got home and had to do something with my nerves, so I baked. I made some healthy yogurt scones. Brandon HATES scones because they are so dry to him. So I figured it would be softer if I used yogurt and applesauce.

Pre-bakage: I made his with chocolate chips, and topped it with cinnamon-sugar. WHOOOOOHHHHH.
Pre-bakage: For me, I'm a cranberry nut and a poppyseed nut, so I combined them. It was the only logical thing to do.
20 minutes later VIOLA! Golden and ready to go into my stomach!!!
Brandon must have liked it cause he ate 3! (I ate 3 too, but spread it out through the day - me so bad!)

yogurt cranberry poppy seed scones

1 3/4 C flour

2/3 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C sugar

2 ts baking powder

1/2 ts baking soda

1/4 ts salt

2/3 C plain non-fat yogurt

3 tbs apple sauce

1/4 C eggbeaters

1 ts vanilla extract

1/3 C cranberries (dried)

1 T poppyseeds

Combine all the dry ingredients except cranberries and poppyseeds.

combine all wet ingredients and whisk to combine.

Add wet to dry ingredients, stir a little.

Transfer to floured surface and knead in cranberries & poppyseeds.

Pat into a circle, place on greased baking sheet. Cut into 8 wedges.

Bake 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

For Chocolate chips variation: knead in chocolate chips instead of cranberries and poppyseeds. Before baking, spray with olive oil spray over top of scones and then sprinkle on cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Whale of a time

It definitely has been long enough since I did a post. So sorry! Last week at school we made both a chocolate chip pie and a peanut butter pie - both of which I thought were horrible recipes, and taste wise horrible too. So I didn't bother to even post it. Was not impressed at all.

This week I learned something new. I never knew muffins were considered "quickbreads" for some reason or another, I had always associated quickbreads with loaf recipes (pumpkin loaf etc). So I felt rather dumb, but hey now I know right? We made a huge variety of muffins this week at school:

sour cream topping chocolate chocolate-chip muffin

(the group that made this decided to fill it with raspberry jam - I thought that was too busy because the recipe itself is loaded with so many ingredients)

Next was a plain coffee cake, I wasn't too impressed with the look of the final product, not sure if the recipe just wasn't good or if they didn't make it correctly.


These came out pretty good and everyone seemed to like it alot - chocolate chocolate chip muffins
Another group made an oil based plain blueberry muffin with turbinado sugar on the top.

This was the only one I tried since it was the only one made with oil and not butter. It lacked any flavor at all. I couldn't even taste the orange flavoring added into it and there was definitely no hint of blueberry flavor at all. It was rather disappointing.
My group made these sour cream blueberry muffins and not to toot my own horn but I think ours came out the best. I love a crunch top on a muffin, this was from the streusal we put on the top, and I love a big muffin top and we definitely got that because we filled out muffins to the top! Everyone loved it too.

Last weekend we headed down to Orlando for a trip to Seaworld. It was a long 6 hour drive but we made it safely. Here are some dolphins people were feeding. They are so cute and clever enough that they know who has food and who doesn't. They would splash you if they let your pet them and then you gave them nothing.
Here's another one playing around after they got fed.
Here I am after the horrific 1st ride on floridas fastest and longest rollercoaster. Boy was I freaked out. I HATE rollercoasters - aih the things you do for the man.
This is not a good picture of me, but the seal definitely makes up for it. ;-)
SHAMU!!! SHAMU!!!!! So so cute! I wish I could have touched Shamu.

The killer whale show. They splased us so much!! The whole entire 5 rows in the front were soaked. Thankfully we missed it by 1 row!
Here is Brandon and I at Timpanos restaurant. If you ever get to Orlando, this is the place to have amazing italian food. They make their pastas from scratch and you get extra refills on pasta for free!!! Another fantastic restaurant just down the road is Seasons 52, everything on their menu is 475 calories or less.