Apple Cinnamon Scones

Tonight, there was another potluck and I decided to make apple cinnamon scones. I had some extra apples on hand from the market and a random desire to make scones, so this recipe seemed like a great idea. I found this recipe off my favorite recipe website ever, allrecipes.com
Apple Cinnamon Scones

Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup butter, chilled
* 1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly. Add shredded apple and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8 to 10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each into 6 pie-shaped wedges.
3. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter.

The scones turned out pretty well. I decreased the milk amount from the recipe and had to add a bit of extra flour to make the dough right. They are a little cakeier than I like my scones and could use a little more apple flavor to them. But overall I think they are pretty tasty. It would be worth playing around with this recipe!

Sweet Potato Ice Cream

Tyler (who is in Nicaragua because he is a jerk) recommended (demanded) that I make sweet potato ice cream (because he is a jerk). So I made this batch of ice cream for Tyler, and I made it even more delicious than I normally would have so he misses out even more while being in another country.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
2 C heavy whipping cream
3/4 C brown sugar
dash of salt
2 egg yolks
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmet
1 C sweet potato (about 2 medium sized sweets)
t tsp vanilla extract

I started this off like all ice creams, but I decided to use brown sugar instead of white since it goes with sweet potato so well. I put the milk and sugar on low heat until it reached a simmer, tempered in the egg yolks and stirred for about 10 minutes until a custard formed.

While the custard was cooling I baked the potatoes (I will embarrassingly admit that I cooked the potatoes in the microwave since I didn't have over an hour to wait...but it will work all the same for this recipe, even though I rarely trust microwaves). Once fully cooked, peel off the skins (and eat them because they are delicious), and blend the potato flesh in a food processor (or blender, or with a hand masher. Whatever you have on hand). Once fully mashed, mix in slowly with the custard, and stir in the cream and vanilla. Chill for a few hours and churn in an ice cream maker.

This recipe turned out very well! I am glad I used to brown sugar since it gives it a bit of a different taste for ice cream. You will definitely need to mash up/process the sweet potato since it is so fibrous. I had some extra chunks of potato in my ice cream which I am glad about, so don't worry too much if its not mashed completely. This would be great with vegan marshmallows thrown in or pecans, but I had neither on hand. This is a delicious ice cream... and maybe somewhat healthier than normal ice cream since it has super-good-for-you sweet potato in...but I kind of doubt its that healthy once you account for all the cream and sugar :)

Mocha Ice Cream & Tomato Sprouts

I searched for a while but failed to find a decent recipe for mocha ice cream anywhere...so I made one up! (a combination of coffee and chocolate ice cream recipes)

Mocha Ice Cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
a dash of salt
1/4 medium-ground coffee
2 egg yolks
1/3 C cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C heavy cream

Heat the milk, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Add the coffee grounds, take off the heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the coffee and return to a simmer. While this is heating, mix egg yolks with cocoa powder. Slowly, add the hot milk mixture a 1/4 cup at a time to the egg/chocolate mix until they are about the same temperature. Mix this for about 10-15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly, until a nice custard is formed. Take off heat, add vanilla & cream, and chill in the fridge overnight before churning.

I used decaf coffee since any caffeine consumption after 6pm keeps me up all night...but it was Equal Exchange coffee which makes it all ok!

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, the first sprout of my garden, a cherry tomato plant, popped up yesterday! Today it grew even more and a second cherry tom followed! The picture is kind of hard to see and was taken from my computer. But still...yay!!! SPRING TIME!!!

First Sprout of the Season!!

I came home from a long day of work (after a way too short weekend) to see the first sprout of my windowsill garden pop up, and it is a cherry tomato!! pictures to come soon :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Orange Cookies

These are one of my all-time favorite cookies in the world! The recipe is originally from my friend Katie's mom. She sent the cookies down to St. Mary's in a package and I immediately demanded the recipe! I made these for a potluck dinner tonight and hope they go over well!

As the recipe mentions, they do tend to flatten out a good amount in the oven, and so a little bit of additional flour and oats helps some. The orange in these cookies is somewhat subtle but adds an amazing touch to my already-favorite type of cookie, oatmeal chocolate chip. Enjoy!!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Orange Cookies

2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 Cups brown sugar
1 C butter, softened
2 eggs
1 Tbsp water
1/2 C oats - traditional
1 Cup Chocolate chips
1/2 C walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 tsp orange rind

Beat butter & sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, water, and orange. Stir in flour mixture, oats, choc chips, and walnuts.

Bake on greased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes at 375 F.

(add more oats and flour, were too flat)


Oh! Last night I went to a wine & cheese party with some fellow Fellows and I made crostinis to go with the cheese. They were incredibly simple and were a big hit! I used a loaf of stave garlic and parmesean baguette from Trader Joes, but any bread on the verge of going stale would be great. I cut the bread into very thin slices (maybe 1/4 inch?), drizzled them with olive oil and baked them in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes, flipping them over half way through. They were really amazing, especially topped with feta cheese and basil!

Back in Action (with cookies and ice cream)

I have finally returned to a somewhat state of calm. I moved back to DC two weeks ago and was in training for the fellowship the whole time. The training is coming to a close and my policy site placement with the National Family Farm Coalition begins on Thursday. While my work plan is likely to be flexible, my main task is to research barriers to local marketing for farmers. I am thrilled to be placed at NFFC, the staff I've met so far seem amazing and I think I will learn a lot from them!

I asked Noopur (my new housemate!! yay!!) what the first batch of ice cream for our new apartment should be and she unhesitatingly said cookie dough. I had made vegan cookie dough ice cream before (that tasted an unfortunate amount like tofu...for obvious reasons) but never a dariy-full version. I was hesitant to make cookie dough with egg since I've been training to never trust raw egg (even though I eat cookie dough all the time), so I found the below recipe from my favorite vegetarian/vegan cooking website and used butter instead of oil (the same amount, at room temperate), since butter tastes better in cookies than oil in my opinion.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0

All but one cup of the dough I actually baked into cookies and the rest I rolled into little pieces for the ice cream. I made the basic french vanilla ice cream, churned it, and put the dough pieces in at the end. Awesome.

We also made cold brewed coffee to use for ice coffee this morning. This recipe is from the NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/276drex.html?_r=1

(sorry for just posting links instead of the recipes, I figure instead of just copying and pasting the links would suffice since I didn't make any major changes worthy of notice)

Edit: my previous post said my soughdough starter has survived the past 6 months...lets just say it is in ICU right now and I am trying my hardest to keep it alive! More updates on that to come...

Back to regular posts. Thanks for all your patience!

Survival

1) I survived policy training.
2) My sourdough starter survived the past 6 months in my parent's fridge.

Be back very soon.