Category: Cookies and cakes

Pat’s White Chocolate Scones

Pat and her husband were hosting the coffee hour after the church service one morning several years ago. On the table were some scones with a bowl of yellow pudding next to them. Pat corrected my assumption about the pudding. “It’s lemon curd,” she told me, “and it’s good on top of the scones.”

It is a wonderful combination. I asked for the recipes and Pat obliged. When I asked where she got them, she told me that she could not remember but that it was a long time ago. She said that she and some friends get together regularly and bring foods to share. Her scones and lemon curd have been enjoyed here in New Richmond, up north at Telemark and other places where she and her friends have gathered.

I can believe that Pat’s scones are popular with her friends. This is an easy recipe that you need to try.

INGREDIENTS:

For the scones:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus extra for sprinkling
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 large egg
1/2 cup half & half or whole milk plus a little for brushing
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 square white chocolate or a half cup of white chocolate bits
1/2 cup fresh berries (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 375º and grease a baking sheet.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Chop the butter into chunks and use a fork or pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have coarse crumbs about the size of small peas. Chop the white chocolate square into small pieces or use a half cup of white chocolate bits and mix them with the flour. If you are adding berries, stir them in at this time as well.

Beat an egg and stir it into the half and half along with the almond extract, then blend the liquid into the dry ingredients until they are barely moistened.

Roll or pat the dough to about three-fourths of an inch thick and cut triangle-shaped scones or just drop the dough onto the greased baking sheet. If you are dropping the scones, use your fingers to neaten them. Brush the scones with milk and sprinkle them lightly with sugar. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes until the scones are lightly touched with brown.

Serve with lemon curd so guests can add an extra taste sensation to their scones.

For the lemon curd:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 T corn syrup
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

PROCEDURE:

Cut the butter into chunks and set it aside in a bowl.

Whisk the sugar and eggs together in a saucepan over low heat. Add the syrup, lemon juice and butter to the pan and raise the heat to medium until the butter starts to melt, then reduce the heat to low. Keep stirring until the curd has thickened and continue cooking and stirring until it begins to steam. Do not let it boil. Remove the pan from the heat and stir for a half minute, then put the curd into a bowl for serving or seal it in jars for storage in the refrigerator.

NOTES: Pat told me that she usually uses fresh raspberries or blueberries in her scones. She also said that reconstituted lemon juice tastes fine in the curd.

When Pat brings scones for the coffee hour, they are always drop scones, and they disappear as fast as she can put them on the napkins. People in our church recognize a good thing when they see that Pat is serving her scones.

Jill’s Moist Chocolate Cake

Our neighbors Jill and Lonnie have deserted us. They now enjoy waking up to views of the Rocky Mountains, rub shoulders with bison and breathe the cool air of Colorado. Before they headed west, they asked us over for dinner. For dessert, Jill served a wonderful moist chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

It was one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever eaten. Jill told me that it was her mother’s recipe and agreed to share it. Here is how you can make it.

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup hot coffee
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

For the icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T cocoa
1/4 cup + 2 tsp. whole milk
2 T butter
1 tsp. vanilla

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 325º and grease and flour a nine by thirteen inch baking pan.

Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl and stir the liquids together in a small bowl. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and blend them together. then beat the batter at medium speed with an electric mixer for two minutes.

Add the eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla and beat at medium speed for two more minutes. Raise the speed to high and beat for a final thirty seconds or so.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for thirty-five to forty minutes until the cake is done. Check for doneness at thirty-five minutes. When a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean, the cake is done. If it does not, bake for another three minutes and test again. If it seems close to done at this time, test after an additional two or three minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely before frosting.

Frost the cooled cake with Jill’s mother’s chocolate icing. Here’s how you make that.

Sift and measure the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt into a mixing bowl and melt the butter in a small bowl. Add the milk to the dry ingredients and stir with a fork until the frosting is smooth. You may need to add a few extra drops of milk. The stir in the melted butter and vanilla and beat until the frosting is fluffy.

NOTES: If you don’t have whole milk in the refrigerator, substitute a tablespoon of half and half for a tablespoon of reduced fat milk. You may need a little more milk to get the icing to the right consistency for spreading. Jill sometimes uses half as much cocoa to make a lighter “milk chocolate” icing.