Baking at Home

It came to my attention yesterday that I have officially been done school (and therefore unemployed) for just over a month now. In some ways, that's a shock, but at the same time it feels like so much longer..

So, upon realizing that it's been a month, I decided it was time to bake something. I did some baking over the holidays, but I didn't have great luck (maybe because I didn't give myself enough time?). And there were ingredients in the fridge that would soon be expiring.

And I've been having cravings.

I didn't bake everything I wanted to - it was one of those gloomy, snowy, just-want-to-stay-in-bed kind of days - but that's ok, something to do another day.

So I made was the cookie recipe from the back of the Chipits bag, using holiday M&Ms (hello, after-Christmas specials!). Some might call these Monster Cookies, I prefer to just call them delicious little morsels of yumminess. The recipe said it makes four dozen, and it didn't lie. How many are left? That's another story.

I also made my favourite Perfect Cream Scone* recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays, by Ree Drummond (I've made them before, which I talked about in this post, but I thought they deserved a more detailed acknowledgement). I stumbled across her website, The Pioneer Woman, a couple years ago and was really excited to note that we share a name - my nickname has been Ree most of my life - and that she is an awesome food writer. So when I happened upon one of her cookbooks at Big Lots on a trip to the U.S., I snatched it up! I've only made the one recipe out of it so far, but it is definitely a favourite, and I look forward to trying some others. The original recipe doesn't appear on her website, but there are several variations there, as well as in the book. The original scone is so delicious, I haven't needed to be adventurous enough to try any of them, though.

Now, talk of scones may bring up some controversy.  What is a scone? My mother grew up eating oatmeal scones, the thin crispy kind (which, in my research, seems to be Scottish Oatcakes, and not scones at all!). Growing up with that belief, every time I met a thick, soft scone, I assumed it was a silly tea biscuit masquerading as a scone. They often had nasty things like currents and raisins or orange zest hiding in them. Blech! I wouldn't have said I really liked either style all that much, and therefore was not a fan of scones. But then I tried Ms. Drummond's recipe.

Perfection.

These scones are just the right combination of crispy outside, and soft, fluffy, sweet, buttery inside. They are equally as delicious all on their own, as they are with a generous slathering of butter or jam (raspberry, of course!). Mmm!

What's your favourite way to eat a scone? Have you ever tried one?

*Perfect Cream Scones

adapted from The Pioneer Woman

3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, in pieces
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine dry ingredients; cut in butter. Add wet ingredients and combine to form a ball (it is completely normal for it to be crumbly, but you should be able to form it and roll it out). Roll out and cut as desired (Ms. Drummond's instructions say to roll into a rectangle 1/3 inch thick and cut into 24 triangles). Bake at 350*F for 18 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges. They are best eaten the same day, but they are good for up to a week, and they do freeze well.

Happy Baking!