Serendipity

I've been down with a cold the last few days which does strange things to my appetite. I know most people like bland, simple food when sick but for me, the spicier the better. All I wanted this time was spicy Asian noodle soups and blistering curries. I ended up with simple, bland chicken noodle soup because I didn't have the energy to make it more interesting and an egg curry which wasn't nearly hot enough despite what I thought was a generous use of Dundicut peppers.

I started feeling better this morning and a new craving arose, this time for the jam filled scones they sell at my favorite cafe. I was still feeling too lazy to actually go out so imagine my surprise when I found the very thing I was craving while scrolling through my Google Reader.

Lelo in NoPo is a wonderful blog full of color and life an so many good things: food and photos and gardens and more. After my busy summer of preserving, of course I had to follow a post entitled What the heck are you doing with all that jam? I was delighted to find that Lelo had a recipe for the very jam-filled scone I'd been craving. All I had to do was make a trip down to my basement shelves to choose a filling.

Have I written yet about how many jars are down there? There are quite a few. Maybe more than that. But they're all neatly labeled so that's something.

After looking over the possibilities I decided on an apricot filling and pulled out a particularly special jar. This jar came from a box of old canning jars found in the back of our garage when we moved in. It doesn't look like any of my other jars and is emblazoned with the words Drey's Perfect Mason. I suppose it's silly to be especially fond of a particular canning jar, but there you have it: one more oddity on my ever growing list!

I'm not much of a scone or biscuit maker--I don't think I have that light touch which everyone swears is necessary. So when I saw that this recipe was made using a countertop mixer I was a bit skeptical. But this came out light and crispy and extremely delicious. My only complaint? I only got six good sized scones from a batch of dough so next time I am definitely doubling the recipe.

Since I had an ideal jam-topped scone in mind, of course I had to fiddle with the recipe just slightly. I know my dream scones have some coconut and I think some oats, too. And nothing is ever harmed by the addition of a deep, strong, long-steeped vanilla extract so I added that as well. Lelo generously gave me permission to share her recipe with my changes. You'll find a printable recipe here. Enjoy!

Biscuit Breakthrough

I've always loved cheese scones/biscuits even when they are, sadly, a little tough. I'm not a whiz with the dough and I often end up over working things but the results are OK nonetheless.

Today I wanted to make up something to accompany a pot of broccoli soup and my girl was itching to try her hand at making butter, so a little something bready was in order. I remembered a lovely cheese biscuit recipe I'd copied from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking which is also the source of the best brownies ever. Just saying.

Anyhow, these cheese scones are delicious due to the liberal use of chipotle powder, one of the finest flavors ever--so rich and smoky and deep and, sadly, poison to my daughter who worked so hard shaking that jar for butter. So I opted for a the similarly flavored Spanish paprika which has the same smoke, minus the heat.

The soup was nearly done and all I had was frozen butter for my scones. In a flash of brilliance, I decided to grate the frozen butter into the dough, which gave me lovely results. These were the lightest, most delicate biscuits I can remember making.

Whether you make these zippy with chipotle or mildly smoky with Spanish paprika, they're bound to be a hit. Especially if you decide to gild the lily with a little fresh butter, handmade by cheerfully enthusiastic child labor.

Printable recipe here.