Scones

Maybe I've just been watching too many UK tv shows lately, what with going to a friend's house to watch an episode of Torchwood every week and getting caught up with new episodes of Sherlock, but I've found myself having a real hankering for scones lately.  A week ago I made some really tasty cherry almond ones using dried cherries and today I decided to try my hand at apple scones.  To make them, you'll need: 2 C flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 tbsp sugar, 5 tbsp cold butter, 1 egg, 1/2 C heavy cream, plus some to brush on the scones before baking, two apples, another couple tbsp sugar and about a tbsp cinnamon.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Peel and core your apples and chop them into little bits and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon on them, stirring to coat them.  Set them aside.

Maybe eat just a few, to make sure they're good

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Using a pastry blender, or your fingers, cut in the butter.  Now stir in the egg and the 1/2 cup of cream. 

It should look kind of like this now

On a floured surface, dump out the dough and toss the apples on top. 

Huh.  Maybe I went overboard on the apples again

Now you're going to knead the apples into the dough.  Only knead it enough to get the apples all mixed in; don't overdo it--you don't want these to end up getting tough.  At this point it occurred to me there might be a very good reason my original recipe used dried fruit rather than fresh.  Fresh fruit is somewhat...moister than the dried stuff and makes for a distressingly sticky dough.  Well, nothing to do now except soldier on!  Once you're done kneading the dough, form it into a disc about 3/4 of an inch thick or so.

I'm sure this will turn out fine

 Now cut this into eight wedges.  Using a pasty brush, brush the tops of your scones with cream and then sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar on top.

Definitely fine

Put the scones on a baking sheet and bake them for about 10 minutes, or until they're golden brown.  Let them cool on a rack for a couple minutes and they'll be ready for eating!

I knew they'd turn out fine

These are supposed to be eaten the same day you make them, but I, for one, don't have it in me to eat eight scones a day.  I've found, however, that if you just put them in the toaster oven for a few minutes, they'll be almost as good for the next couple of days.  This is also a pretty versatile recipe; you can put pretty much anything you want in the scones and that'll keep you from getting sick of them too quickly.  You can use all kinds of different sweet things, like other fruit or chocolate, or you could put cheese in them instead (though I'd leave out the sugar in that case, if I were you).  Just have fun experimenting!  And, because I can, here's a picture of my cherry almond scones (which were made with 1/2 C dried cherries and 1/2 C sliced almonds):

Peanut Butter Cookies

I believe I mentioned recently how great peanut butter and chocolate are together.  Well, you're getting more of that today.  To make these cookies you'll need: 1 1/4 C flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 C shortening, 1/2 C peanut butter, 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 C brown sugar, and 1 egg.  Optionally, you might also want as many Hershey kisses as there are cookies, or, if you don't have any Hershey kisses and don't feel like making a special trip to the grocery store, you might instead use about a 1/2 C each of milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and chopped up peanut butter cups (or whatever else happened to be in the pantry at the time).

Preheat your oven to 375.  In a medium bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set it aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and peanut butter until it's smooth.  It'll look rather like a slightly paler bowl of peanut butter.

Now mix in the sugars.  When you measure brown sugar, you're supposed to lightly pack it into the measuring cup.  As we all know, though, brown sugar is the most tasty of sugars, so feel free to pack it tightly.  And then maybe add an extra spoonful for good measure.  Mix in the egg.  Finally, stir in your flour mixture.  If you're using Hershey kisses, skip on ahead to what comes after the next picture.  Otherwise, stir in chips/peanut butter cups.  I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that you ought not to eat raw cookie dough.  That said, this cookie dough is delicious.  Don't you eat it, though.

Resist the temptation!

Now roll the cookie dough into little balls and put on a cookie sheet (I recommend using parchment paper) and into the oven!

Bake the for about 10-12 minutes, or until they're a lovely golden brown.  If you're using Hershey kisses in this recipe, you'll put one on the top of each cookie right after they come out of the oven.  Now just put the cookies on a rack and let them cool for a few minutes before you eat them all!

They were all gone 10 minutes later.