Blueberry Scones

So, why in the world did I subject myself to a three week cleanse? I was definitely motivated to improve my health - to rid myself of toxins and to reset my body to function effectively and efficiently are pretty compelling reasons. Of all of the crazy detox plans that I've tortured myself with, this was definitely the most effective and the most reasonable in terms of food consumption. I definitely experienced the benefits of the cleanse --- weight loss (8 lbs for me), sleeping better (I was raging insomniac), increased energy, and improved skin complexion. To learn more about this detox, read Clean by Alessandro Junger MD and/or check out the Clean Program website.

This detox also gave me an opportunity to get centered and to reset mentally and emotionally. Back in January, I decided to quit my job of 8 years and to walk away from a work environment that made me tremendously unhappy. I had a lot of raised eyebrows around me - they think I'm crazy quitting a job in this economy! Did I question my decision - absolutely! Ultimately, I have no regrets about this move.

Even more eye-opening were the reactions of my ex-colleagues. Some have been extraordinarily supportive and have truly been there for me (you guys know who you are - thank U!). For others, they have let their true colors show, and it has been very disappointing.

I'm over it....and I've moved on. After a brief haitus, I'm back working for a new entrepeneurial venture, and it's been great! I'm working with great colleagues, and we're all really thrilled about the future prospects of our business.

During my mind and body detox, I ate a serious boatload of blueberries (you can call me Violet Beauregarde). Those little blue gems were blended into prepackaged smoothies to make them more palatable and were the perfect snack to stave off hunger. I had bags of Trader Joe's wild blueberries stocked in my freezer, and I wanted to make something with them that didn't involve a blender.

During the cleanse, I had really intense cravings for breakfast carbs. You name it, I craved it --- buttered toast, pancakes, french toast, waffles, scones. As I had all the ingredients for scones handy, they were whipped up in flash one morning. Eaten warm out the of the oven, these scones are light and flaky, and just slightly sweet. I especially love using TJ's wild blueberries in these scones, as the berries are small but very flavorful.

Blueberry Scones
adapted slightly from the Foster's Market Cookbook
makes 18 scones

4 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 lb cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 C frozen blueberries (do not defrost)
1 1/4 C plus 2 tbsp buttermilk
Egg wash: 1 lrg egg beaten w. 2 tbsp milk

- preheat oven to 400F degrees
- line two baking sheets with parchment or silpat and set aside
- combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl
- add the butter and cut it into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or 2 knives (I like to use my fingers). Do not overwork the dough.
- add the frozen blueberries
- add 1 1/4 C buttermilk and mix until just combined and the dough comes together. If the dough appears too dry, add buttermilk 1 tbsp at a time.
- turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into thirds. Pat the three portions into rounds about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut each round into 6 wedges and place on the baking sheets. Brush tops with the egg wash.
- bake 30 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

I was recently gifted a bounty of gorgeous meyer lemons from LA baking maven and lover of all things bundt Mary (aka The Food Librarian). The beautiful fruit came right off of trees in the backyard of Mary's dad --- Thank you Mary and Poppa Food Librarian!!! I knew I couldn't use all of this precious fruit right away, so I prepared most of them for the freezer.

I zested,

halved the zested lemons,

then did some serious juice squeezing.

I used snack size zip top bags to store the zest (the zest of 3 lemons in each bag),

and portioned the juice into 1/2 cup packages in sandwich bags. After marking the bags with a sharpie, they go into a large freezer bag and into the deep freeze. Now, I can enjoy fresh meyer lemon juice any time of the year!

I did set aside a handful of fruit for some immediate meyer lemon gratification. I've been reading through Karen DeMasco's book, The Craft of Baking, and her recipe for Lemon Raspberry Creme Brulee was calling my name.

The recipe calls for steeping the cream with lemon zest, cooling the mixture in an ice bath, adding lemon juice and salt, then resting the mixture overnight in the fridge.

Instead of tempering the eggs with the hot cream mixture (as I'm accustomed to), the eggs are whisked in to the cold lemon infused cream. The mixture is strained, and ready for the ramekins.

A handful of raspberries are scattered in each ramekin (I also added a few blueberries), and the custard mixture is poured into the prepared dishes.

These babies are ready for the oven.

Once the custard is set, it is chilled in the fridge overnight. Now, my favorite part - the brulee! After sprinkling some sugar on top,

the top is torched to melt the sugar and to create that scrumptious crunchy top.

My favorite part of this dessert is cracking the crunchy top, which yields to the creamy goodness underneath.

The custard delivers a nice refreshing tang from the meyer lemon, and has a wonderfully soft texture, which is a great contrast to the crunchy sugar top. The berries are soft and jammy, and provides a wonderful complement to the lemon flavor.

If you're a lover of all things lemon, I highly recommend that you take this recipe for a spin!

Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco

Serves 6

2 C. heavy cream

1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 4 meyer lemons

1/2 c. strained fresh meyer lemon juice

1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 large egg yolks

1 c. raspberries

1 c. blueberries

additional sugar

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, vanilla and meyer lemon zest just to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture ino a medium bowl. Set the bowl into the ice bath and stir until the mixture has cooled. Once cooled, removed the bowl from the ice bath, and whisk in the lemon juice and salt. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Pour about one third of the chilled cream mixture into the yolks, and whisk together well. Add the remaining cream mixture and whisk to combine. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 300F.

Place 6 ramekins in 9x13x2 baking pan. scatter the raspberries and blueberries in a single layer in each ramekin. Divide the custard mixture among the ramekins. Place the prepared baking pan in the oven, and carefully pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the ramekins. Be careful not to dilute the custard mixture with the hot water.

Bake in the water bath for 30 minutes, or until just set.

Let the custards cool to room temperature, then chill until they are ready to be served.

Just before serving, sprinkle sugar evenly over the tops of each custad and caramelize with a torch or under a broiler. Serve immediately.

Berry Orange Muffins (TWD rewind)

Since I had muffins on the brain while making this week's Tuesdays With Dorie pick of pumpkin muffins, I also went ahead and made a rewind recipe, Berry Orange Muffins, which I've been meaning to try since joining the group.
What makes this muffin special is the delicious flavor combination of blueberries and orange. I followed the recipe as written, and used Trader Joe's frozen wild blueberries (LOVE these, as the berries are smaller and more flavorful than the other frozen options IMHO). I also topped the muffins with decorating sugar crystals, and thought the crunch of the sugar was a nice contrast to the tender muffin.
This muffin is super flavorful, moist and delicious, and this is going to definitely get put into my morning baking rotation.

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Berry Orange Muffins

from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

grated zest and juice of 1 orange

about 3/4 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons honey

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries - fresh, preferably, or frozen (not thawed)
Decorating sugar, for topping (optional)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Lenox Almond Biscotti w. Dried Blueberries (TWD)

It's that time of the week again, so you know it's time for a Tuesdays With Dorie sweet treat. This week's hostess is Gretchen at Canela & Comino , and she selected Lenox Almond Biscotti for this week's baking exercise. BTW, Gretchen writes often about Peruvian food on her blog, and it's really fun and interesting to read about Peru's cuisine and culture...check it out!

I've been curious to try Dorie Greenspan's biscotti recipes since I purchased the book, and now I have an opportunity to try them out! I think biscotti is the perfect cookie to bake and share, as it:

1.) has a pretty decent shelf life (a week +)
2.) is sturdy and holds its shape
3.) is the perfect vehicle for a variety of flavors and ingredients.

For these reasons, it's the perfect "pack & ship" cookie for family and friends who don't live close by.

I've tried a wide variety of biscotti recipes, and have now narrowed my favorites down to two (which are both from epicurious.com): cranberry & pistachio and double chocolate walnut. I love both of these recipes as they are not overly sweet, crispy/crunchy in texture, easy and unfussy to bake, and loved by everyone who tries them! :)

"Lenox" in the recipe title refers to the NYC restaurant from where Dorie obtained this recipe. The recipe looks like your typical biscotti recipe, except for the unusual addition of cornmeal. I decided to make the recipe as written, and folded in 1/2 cup of dried wild blueberries (from Trader Joes) along with the almonds.
So, what are my thoughts on the recipe? On the positive side, I liked the use of sliced almonds and I was pleasantly surprised by the crunchy texture that the cornmeal provided.

Speaking of slicing, I have a great tip to ensure pretty biscotti slices: when you take the cookie logs out after the first bake, spray the tops with H2O (or you can apply with a pastry brush) right before you slice them. This softens the top just enough, so the crust will not crumble when you cut into them, and you won't have jaggedy looking slices. Once they are baked a second time, the cookies will come out looking perfect and crunchy!

On the negative side, I had a couple of problems with the flavor and baking instructions. The cookies were too sweet for my taste (perhaps reducing the sugar to 2/3 cup would help) and the almond flavor was overwheming (next time, going to reduce the almond extract to 1/2 tsp). The baking times were also way off... the first baking time should have been much longer. The recipe calls for 15 minutes, but it took 30 minutes for my logs to bake through.

I'm going to try this recipe again, making the above adjustments. I don't think this will replace my go-to recipes, but I did find that the cornmeal provided and unexpected but enjoyable crunch and texture.

For the recipe, Gretchen has it on her site. To see how the other TWD bakers did, check out the blogroll.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream Sandwich (TWD)

If you haven't figured out by now, I LOVE making homemade ice cream! I was thrilled to see that we had ice cream slated for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie. Selected by Dolores at Chronicles in Culinary Curiousity, this recipe for blueberry sour cream ice cream sounded like a perfect summer treat. This recipe was really simple to prepare, as all you need to do is cook & puree the berries, mix in a combination of heavy cream and sour cream, chill and churn. I love this recipe as there were no eggs to temper...yippeee! I went with fresh blueberries, as my local markets are overflowing with them. I also went ahead and added twice the amount of lemon juice (really dig the tart flavor). Once assembled and frozen, I took a little taste test (okay, twist my arm! ;) )...YUM!!! Great thick, creamy texture, beautiful purplish/bluish hue, and a nice tangy flavor that comes from the sour cream. In many ways, this tasted like a frozen blueberry cheesecake filling.With cheesecake in mind, I decide to play with the recipe and made mini ice cream sandwiches. I paired the ice cream with a ridiculously easy graham cracker based cookie (the original recipe and my adaptation notes are below). To make these sandwiches, pour the just churned icecream into a 8x8 dish (or a loaf pan---that's what I used here) and freeze to set.

Graham Cookies
makes approx 24 cookies

1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (I pulverized my in a food processor)
1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C shredded coconut
2 C chocolate chips/nuts (if omitting completely, as I did here, up the flour by 1/2 C)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix the graham cracker crumbs, flour and baking powder in a bowl to combine
- Incoporate the butter and condensed milk until combined
- Fold in the shredded coconut (and choc chips and nuts, if using)
- Drop dough by the teaspoon and bake until nice and browned - 8-10 minutes.

For the sandwich recipe, halve the recipe and spread the dough onto an 9x13" pan or 1/4 sheet pan lined with parchment (very important as the dough is extremely sticky). Bake at 350 for approx 18-22 minutes, until the top is nice and golden brown. Note: I used an 8x8 pan for the cookies shown here, and the cookies came out a bit thicker than I would have liked. If you like thicker cookies, this should fit the bill; if you like your cookies thinner, definitely go with a larger pan.

I cut the cookies and ice cream using a fluted round cookie cutter, assembled the sandwiches, and placed the finished sandwiches in the freezer to set. Keep in mind that the ice cream needs to be frozen solid when assembling the sandwiches and you need to work quickly, or you will end up with a melting mess.

These mini cheesecake ice cream sandwiches tasted fantastic (it's another story on how these little guys looked :( ). The ice cream was the highlight in this treat, and this recipe will definitely be flagged for a repeat!

For the receipe, please head over to Dolores' blog. To see what everyone else churned, check out the TWD blogroll.

Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie w. Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TWD)

We did some excellent outdoor entertaining for friends this weekend! The weather was picture perfect and the July 4th holiday resulted with a nice three day weekend. Most significant for us---after two years of extensive home remodeling (both the interior and front and back yards), we can finally say that we're finished (knock on wood) and for once can enjoy our home instead of working on it.

Along with some great barbeque courtesy of the hubby, I served this week's TWD recipe, double-crusted blueberry pie. This week's recipe was selected by Amy of South In Your Mouth.

I have not been an avid baker of pies, as I've never had great success with double crust pies. It's not the dough making that I'm challenged with; it's the baking part. More times than not, I end up with a nice golden top crust and a disappointing soggy bottom crust.

I'll be damned if this recipe gets the best of me, so I did some research before getting my hands dirty. Along with heeding Dorie Greenspan's great tips and instructions, I also applied some techniques from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The most significant shift in my technique was to bake the pie on the lowest rack in the oven, which is supposed to promote the browning of the bottom crust.

I did follow Dorie's recipe almost exactly as written. I used the smaller wild blueberries, and ended up using a combination of 1 pint fresh and 2 10oz bags frozen (a bit more than what the recipe calls for). I reduced the sugar to 2/3 C, doubled the amount of lemon juice/zest, and added a tbsn of chopped mint to the filling.

I was inspired by a picture in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, which showed star cutouts for the top crust (hers was a blueberry pie as well), so decided to follow her lead. After baking, the stars ended up looking like starfish, but at this point I was more fixated by what I couldn't see, which was the bottom crust.

The final results were EXCEPTIONAL! The crust was nicely browned, flaky and tender...and yes, to my relief this applied to the bottom crust as well!!! The filling had set perfectly and the mint helped punctuate the bright flavor of the sweet/tart blueberries.

The pie was served a la mode with my favorite homemade vanilla bean ice cream ---thank you once again David Lebovitz!!! To be totally decadent, I tweaked the recipe by adding an extra vanilla bean and substituting the whole milk with half & half - yes, this ice cream isn't for the faint of heart, but the end result is ice cream HEAVEN! Thanks to Dorie and David, we have another perfect summer dessert!

If you are interested in making this pie yourself (which I HIGHLY recommend), you can find the complete recipe at South In Your Mouth. To see the delicious pies that the Tuesdays With Dorie gang have been servin up, check out the blogroll.