Cranberry Orange Chocolate Scones

Folks, I have a confession. Scones and other breakfast pastries are the way to my heart.

Cranberry Orange Chocolate Scones

Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

Ingredients

2.5 c flour

1 t salt

4 t baking powder

2 T sugar

5 T butter, cold

3 eggs

3/4 c milk

1/4 c dried cranberries

1/4 c chocolate chips

1 T orange zest

1 T water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a food processor, combine all dry ingredients and orange zest, reserving 1 tablespoon of sugar. Add butter, and pulse until mixture appears sandy. Separately whisk milk and 2 eggs. Combine milk mixture with the dry ingredients. Turn onto floured surface and gently knead in berries and chocolate chips. 

Pat dough into rectangle of 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into 8-10 triangles. Place scones on ungreased cookie sheet. Make egg wash with water and remaining egg, and brush mixture onto scones. Sprinkle scones with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. 

Homemade Pizza Dough

Pizza is so good it doesn't need an introduction. Everyone loves it. Period. The End.


Making your own pizza at home is cheap, easy, and really fun. I even had my goofy little brother in the kitchen helping. We liked this recipe so much we made it twice over the winter break before I came back to school.

First, you need a good dough. This recipe makes 4 medium thin-crust pizzas. If you don't like thin-crust, this is not the dough for you.

Basic Pizza Dough (Adapted from A Couple Cooks)

• 4 cups flour
  
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups warm water
• pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients except water in the bottom of a stand-mixer with dough attachment (you can also use a food processor or do it by hand). On lowest speed, slowly add warm water. Knead with the dough hook on medium speed until soft and no longer sticky (add a little extra flour if you need it). Turn dough into a freshly oiled bowl and let it rise for 1 hour, covered with plastic wrap.

After 1 hour, punch the dough down, and divide into 4 equal disks. You can freeze the dough at this point in round disks for later.

To use right away, wrap each disk with plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes, while you assemble your toppings! Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, more power to ya. If not, sprinkle some cornmeal on few pizza pans or cookie sheets.

Carefully stretch your disks into about 10 inch rounds. Go slowly to avoid holes! Top with marinara sauce, mozzarella, pineapple, olives, mushrooms, whatever you like.

In your 500 degree oven, the pizzas should only take about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden. Enjoy!

"Cinnabon" Cinnamon Rolls

I had been holding onto this recipe waiting for an occasion to try it. Christmas morning was my chance. The smell of them baking got everyone up and ready to go. Christmas (and Thanksgiving) are sort of like marathons for me and my siblings. We have lots of places to go and lots of people to see. So a couple of these to start our day wasn't so bad...right?

If you want to have these in the morning, but don't want to wake up hours before everyone else, you can make these the day before you need them. Just store them in the fridge before the second rise. In the morning, take them out of the fridge 30 minutes before you bake them off. I was nervous they wouldn't puff up, but they really expanded once they got in the oven.

"Cinnabon" Cinnamon Rolls
adapted from allrecipes

For Dough:

• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
  
• 1 cup warm milk
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 4 1/2 cups flour

For Filling:

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

For Icing:

• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 2-3 tbsp milk
  

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Add sugar, butter, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough. (I used dough hook attachment for about 5 minutes). Dough should be soft and smooth.

Put in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Roll it up (lengthwise) and slice into about 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. (At this point, I would transfer to refrigerator for next day). Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Make your icing while they are in the oven, adding enough milk for the consistency you like. Enjoy!

Makes 12 rolls. (I think I doubled this recipe for my family!)

French Bread

I love you tube. I think everyone with a workable knowledge of the internet has probably spent hours and hours of their lives browsing the site. Sure, there are way too many videos of teens skate-boarding into walls and "talking" household pets, but there are also some really great tutorials. I am a huge advocate of the food channel, but they rarely get into yeast. I found this one yesterday and decided to test it out. Listen for the crunch at the end when he bites into it! That marvelous sound sold me. I HAD to make this.

The tutorial tells you everything you need to know, but just to encourage you to try it- it takes about 10 minutes of labor and 3 hours of rising time to make this. And that 10 minutes includes the time it takes for washing your bowl (yes this only takes one bowl!).Although mine did not get quite as golden as his did, I think it turned out lovely and crunchy. If I had warmed brie, apples, and fresh bread for one meal a day for the rest of my life I would be a very, very happy girl, and I would never, never tire of it.

Zucchini Bread

One day my uncle brought us two giant zucchinis. I mean these things were the size of a small baseball bat! My mom had no clue what to do with them so I grated them up and made about four loaves of this bread. Like most quick breads and muffins, it freezes beautifully. It was very moist and spicy! Inspired by Joy of Cooking.

For 2 loaves (Or 24 muffins):

• 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional)
  
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your pans. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet and mix, then stir in your zucchini and nuts. Divide batter between your pans and bake for 40 minutes to and hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you are making muffins, they will take 20-30 minutes. Enjoy this wholesome, healthy bread with your friends and family!