Wednesday, April 7, 2010

orange honey cream scones and chickens


I made some pretty good scones this morning and I want to share the recipe with you.  I started with a recipe from The Joy of Cooking and then adapted it to ingredients I had in the kitchen.  I change recipes all the time when I'm cooking.  I can't help it.  Sometimes I tell myself not to do it and then I do it anyhow.  Some kind of psychological condition,probably. Like chronic rule-breaker or something.  OK, so here's my recipe:

enhabiten orange honey cream scones
makes about a dozen scones
preheat oven to 425 degrees

whisk together in large bowl:
2 cups flour plus maybe a bit more added at the end  if you feel the mixture is too wet when you finish
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

drop in:
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

cut in the butter with 2 knives or a pastry blender (i have a pastry blender i bought at a yard sale and i love it so pick one up if you get the chance.)  work until you have the butter in no bigger than pea-sized bits but don't overdo it cuz you want the butter to remain cold.

whisk together then add to flour/butter mix:
1 large egg
1/2 cup honey or slightly less
1/2 cup heavy cream
(i never said this was a diet recipe:)
the grated peel of about one orange
the juice from about 1/2 of the above orange

mix until incorporated but don't go nutso.  this is the point at which i added a bit more flour.  i used honey instead of the sugar called for in the original recipe and i added the orange juice so i had to adapt to the extra liquid.  then form the dough into a ball.  place it on a floured surface and roll out to about 3/4 or 1" thickness.

then cut into 12 triangles and place them on an ungreased stone or baking sheet.  bake for about 15 minutes. then eat.  and then send me a thank you email. teehee.



and as a special treat here are the 2 kinds of chickens i'll be getting in may!  yay me.  6 araucanas (top pic) and 6 buff orpingtons.  they are super cute as chicks and they'll stay in a box inside until they are old enough to live in the coop.  don't worry.  i'll be documenting it all for you.   xxoo love kiss hug, liane

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh boy! So excited to read about the chickens!!

Anonymous said...

chickens!! that's so funny, i literally just blogged about wanting chickens so very badly. now if only i were you. sigh.

Lambert said...

Such a sweet homemaker's post. A recipe and some feathery friends. :)
I am actually curious about the whole chicken saga and your photos documenting it.

Jenny Lee Fowler said...

We have aracauna and buff orpington's too. Great birds! You'll have so much fun to watching them grow.

I often grate the butter in when I'm too lazy to grab the pastry cutter. Can't wait to try these...

Carol said...

What gorgeous chickens!
And I do love me some scones, so I will be trying your yummy recipe soon.

Unknown said...

we love our araucanas, such personality. and of course their eggs are beautiful.