Warm up with Cranberry Orange Scones

I know it's January and we are all supposed to be behaving ourselves, nutritionally speaking-- but it's also COLD outside and in the midst of all the yogurt and salads we are enjoying with a new love lately, here is a scone recipe I came up with over Christmas-- it would be great for any chilly morning or afternoon with a steaming cup of coffee or tea. If they seem a bit complicated, know that they come together very quickly.


Cranberry-Orange Scones
Makes 8 large or 16 small scones


2 cups of Flour
1/4 cup of sugar (I used raw, but regular is fine too)
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt 
Grated Zest of one Medium Orange

Pulse the above ingredients in your Food Processor several times to sift and combine.

Add 5-6 Tbs. of Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces and pulse again.
Add 2/3 cup of sweetened, dried cranberries and pulse again 2-3 times to incorporate.

In a small glass measuring cup, add one egg to 1/2 cup of Heavy Cream and whisk with a fork. (Now here's where I feel the need to explain-- I have ALWAYS made these with Half and Half instead of Heavy Cream even though the original recipe calls for cream. Always. Then, over Christmas, I found myself with cream and without half & half. So I bit the bullet, and can I just say--- WOW. It made a HUGE difference in the texture, and the fact that these scones lasted for days without drying out. However, I will say that the half & half is fine and makes a nice (though not quite as flaky) scone. So do whatever you wish. :)

Add liquid/ egg mixture all at once and pulse a few times to ensure it comes together. Your scone dough will be kind of crumbly but moist.

Dump out the dough directly onto a lightly floured surface or wax paper and pat it into a circle (divide into 2 circles if you wish to make small scones.) Form into a circle as best you can and then use a sharp knife to cut into 8 wedges. Move wedges to a Parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 425' for 12-15 minutes until just beginning to lightly brown.

Before Baking-- they are a bit flat

 

 They plump up nicely in the oven

Remove scones to a wire rack to cool for about 7 minutes and prepare glaze. These are perfectly yummy before the orange glaze, but it does add a whole other level of deliciousness! 

Orange Glaze

1 cup of Powdered sugar

1-2 tbs. of fresh orange juice (from the orange you zested. If your child ate the orange while you were making your scones, plain ole' OJ is fine too.) 

Mix the two together in a bowl until you get a nice thick-ish consistency. 

 Glaze consistency

Set your wire rack of scones right back on the pan you baked them on (so the parchment catches your excess glaze) and drizzle glaze over them. They will set up a bit in just a few minutes and be ready to eat! 

The finished product

Our Favorite Chocolate Cake

My little girl turned two yesterday and today I am busy baking cupcakes for a Cinderella party tomorrow! We are so excited and busy but I had to take a moment and share our favorite recipe for chocolate cake with you! It takes only minutes longer than a box cake mix and tastes so good!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake 
(From the back of the Hershey's Unsweetened Chocolate Box)

2 cups of Sugar
1 3/4 cups of All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I use applesauce every time and it's GREAT!)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of boiling water

1. Heat Oven to 350' Grease and Flour two-9-inch round cake pans (or in our case it makes 30 cupcakes.)
2. Combine dry ingredients in bowl of your electric mixer.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 min. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin.) Pour into pans.
3. Bake 30-35 min. (cupcakes bake only 22-25 minutes) or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Cool Ten minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

For the Frosting, you can use whatever you like but our favorite is Hershey Bar Icing from Amanda and her mom. It is sooo good.

Hershey Bar Icing:
8 oz. of cream cheese, softened
1 cup of regular sugar
1 cup of powdered sugar
12 oz. of whipped cream or cook whip
2-3 Hershey Bars, grated

Mix all ingredients together well and frost your layers or cupcakes! Store in the fridge if possible, it makes it so good!

I'm linking up to Kelly's Korner and her SUYL-Desserts!

Have a great weekend!!!

Crispy Peanut Butter Cup Bars

You know those little peanut butter balls that often pop up on a Holiday pot-luck table around Christmas time?

The ones with peanut butter & confectioner's sugar, rolled into little balls and dipped in chocolate? You know the ones... sooo good. Sooo bad for you.

Yeah... I'm a big fan of those.

I found this recipe for something very similar-- but in my opinion, far superior because they are WAY faster. Basically you mix all the ingredients (except the chocolate) in a big bowl, press it into a 13 x 9 dish, melt the chocolate (I use about 1/2 as much chocolate as called for--- and it was plenty rich enough!) in the microwave, spread it on top and refrigerate the entire dish until the chocolate hardens. Then you cut them into small squares--they are rich-- and serve.

I only ever make them when we have to take something somewhere... basically because eating the entire pan of them would be my weekly calorie allotment... and that's just not a very good idea in the middle of summer.... not to mention bathing suit season.

Photo courtesy of www.Tastykitchen.com

While on this topic, you should definitely hop on over to the Tasty Kitchen Website. You will find a treasure trove of recipes, many by Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, herself. This particular recipe has been listed by someone else, but I love trying Ree's recipes! Her Cinnamon Rolls are some of the BEST I have ever made or had! This site is one of my all-time favorites for culinary inspiration. Try it out!

Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies

This recipe (from the back of the Tollhouse bag) is excellent!

I think the key with them is to make them kind of small and then they are a little bit thicker and the texture is perfect.

Also, I learned a little trick from Joy the Baker, that if you make a large batch of cookie dough--- you can freeze the individual balls of dough to bake later. Take a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, measure out as many "dough balls" as you can fit without them touching, pop the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or two. Then, once the dough balls have frozen- drop them into a gallon size freezer bag. When you have visitors and have the need for freshly baked cookies or you just get a craving yourself, simply remove however many you want and bake at the required time-- no thawing required. 

This little tip has been great for our household... basically because I can rarely rationalize baking an ENTIRE batch of choc. chip cookies--- but a few at a time, definitely! A bag of frozen cookie dough balls or a plate of fresh baked cookies also makes a nice little gift for someone who is under the weather or could just use a little pick me up! We even took some to a friend who had recently had a baby so that when the meal rotation ran out, they would still have a nice little treat in the freezer. (And need I even point out, how much cheaper it is than buying ready-made cookie dough?? Not to mention lacking in shelf-stable preservatives.)

Okay, on to the recipe:


Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 sticks of softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I cut this back a bit.. they were still plenty sweet.)
2 large eggs
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups quick or old fashioned oats
2 cups (12 oz.) Nestle Tollhouse Morsels Semi-sweet (If you use milk chocolate, cut back the sugar a little bit more.)
1 cup chopped walnuts (pecans would also be good...)

Preheat the oven to 375' degrees


Combine the flour, soda and salt in a small bowl. 
Beat butter and both sugars in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 1 minute and then move to wire racks to cool completely... But not too completely.... because you cannot beat a warm chocolate chip cookie!!!