Sour Cream Blueberry Scones and Blueberry Oat Muffins

I baked today.

I used this recipe and this recipe.

[That white background, contrary to what you may suppose- it not my flawless white counter. *sarcasm* White office paper to the rescue! Seriously, it makes a fantastic background for tons of stuff.)

These scones actually turned out pretty good. I was disappointed in the dough- it was somewhat tough and leathery. However, I was very pleased with the final product.

Behold the brobdingnagian muffin.

Don't you love the...randomness? My measuring spoons have character!

OATMEAL BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1 1/4 c. oatmeal
1 1/4 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. blueberries
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients. Mix milk, oil, egg. Add to dry mixture, stir only until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Put in muffin cups. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

(For scone recipe- see link at beginning of post.)

Tartine+Ice Cream

I've made more batches of biscotti this past summer than you'd care to know about. Excepting those kind of crisp "coffee" cookies, I'm really haven't been much of a cookie person lately. Not that I don't like eating them- I am firmly committed to loving that variety of baked good to the end of my life.

Lately, though, when I want to new recipe out, I'm more likely to make something like scones.

This summer I met the Tartine Cookbook. And I instantly fell in love with it. Tartine Bakery is located in San Francisco and purportedly has a ridiculous amount of people lined up outside waiting to enter every day. I've never been, but I believed the rumors after I tried a few recipes out.

(This recipe is for lemon bars.)

I think the thing that made me first love the book was the amazing food photography. I follow a number of food bloggers- not because I'm in the habit of making their recipes, but simply because I'm in love with their photos.
The Tartine Cookbook made me want to visit the bakery, take pictures of it- and eat it in its entirety. Er, I mean just the food.

Anyway, I usually don't say this about those outdated things called "cookbooks." I'm an Allrecipes person. I have entered the twentieth (I mean twenty-first) century. Come and join me. I know you'll like it here.

But I cannot resist Tartine's pictures. Or their food.

Yesterday I saw a recipe in the book for chocolate cookies. As I said, I'd been in a major scone/pastry making mood- but I was busy and this particular recipe looked tempting.

We had a lot of leftover ice cream from a pizza party with friends last Friday. I got the idea to make homemade ice cream sandwiches using the Tartine cookie recipe.

Behold:  (And yes, I'm sure Tartine's cookies are more photogenic than mine. Sorry.)

Now these are not the prettiest ice cream sandwiches. The edges are not scalloped-rather falling off. 

The cookie recipe was a little frustrating. You're supposed to take them out of the oven when the centers are still soft. I learned that I had to trust the recipe, but also use common sense and not remove them from the oven when they're still a pile of hot, gooey chocolate. 

Despite their uncouth appearance, these were SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. And it was all Tartine's fault. 

You can find the recipe here- on some other person's

 blog. I love getting out of "hard" work like typing recipes. Go check it out! (

And remember, LEAVE THE COOKIES on the sheet until they cool a bit. Otherwise, like me, you'll end up with misshapen, bent cookies. Do as I say. Also- the ice cream depicted is mint chocolate chip. It blended nicely with the super-rich cookies.

Love,

Natalie

Mini Cupcakes

     Back in 2004, when I was ten, my mom and I took an evening Wilton cake decorating class at a local craft store. The instructor was a brisk, no-nonsense lady who had no qualms about vigorously brushing crumbs of the side of her cake or covering it with what seemed at the time to be a ridiculous amount of frosting. The whole setup was pretty simple- everyone enrolled brought a pre-baked cake to class every week, then learned and practiced simple icing techniques.

The owner of a local Dari Queen restaurant and a few of his employees signed up: I think there was six of us altogether.

    Every week a procession of cake- decorating students would file past the craft store registers carrying heavily-iced cakes into the August heat. I think the employees at the cash registers had been wishing that someone, anyone, would have a birthday- because on the night the Dari Queen man gave his cake to them, they seemed pretty happy. (Don't ask me where they got forks.....From the cake decorating isle?) 

    My mom and I would go home and eat cake while watching the olympic gymnastics taking place that month in Athens. (The boys had to wait until the next day to eat the rest.)

                                                           *********

I enjoyed decorating cakes after the classes ended, even though I never learned how to make a perfect rose. (Or any flower, for that matter....)

Truth be known, there's a lot of other things I'd rather make besides an iced cake. I don't like the taste of shortening frosting- but it's supposedly the only kind that is good for complicated decorations.

Pies, breads, and scones are more appealing to me, but sometimes I enjoy decorating a cake. Or cupcakes. Despite the fact that frosting is one of the messiest things I've encountered.

I was reading Bakerella's blog recently, which inspired me to make these mini cupcakes yesterday for after church this morning. (Lately someone's been serving coffee- and often somebody brings something to eat.)

I was ridiculously pleased with how these turned out. I'm happier with simple frosting swirls rather than my flawed flowers;)

These were SO EASY to decorate. A bit time consuming because I made the cake from scratch though....

They were only about an inch in diameter. I have a thing for tiny pieces of food. So does the dog, I suspect.

Yep, I was right.

So I know sprinkles are not the most impressive decoration, but I just fell in love with how they looked on the pink icing. (It's the cream cheese, kind- by the way.)

I sympathize with this cupcake. But seeing how it's calling attention to itself I really can't feel too bad for it.

Lemon Shortbread

Yesterday I decided to try a new recipe. With a few exceptions, I always attempt to follow new instructions on how to bake things- I do have favorite recipes, but I find it more interesting to try new ones.

These look rather large- but they weren't. Although you could cut shapes as big as you liked..... Thankfully the dog did not succeed in stealing any. Which is good because I was too busy battling off hordes of hungry brothers. Well, maybe not hordes, but when they get together they seem to multiply.

I found the recipe on PINCH MY SALT, a fun cooking/baking blog that you should visit sometime.

Although this recipe came off of the aforementioned blog, it contains no salt. Here's the recipe.

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                                    1 cup butter, softened

                           1/2 cup granulated sugar

                           1 tablespoon lemon zest

                           2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

                               

                      Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add lemon zest and blend well. By hand, stir in flour a little at a time. Dough will be crumbly, so dump it out onto a counter top or pastry board and work it together by hand until smooth. Pat or roll dough out into a rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into small squares, rectangles or diamonds (whichever you prefer). Arrange cookies on ungreased baking sheet (I use parchment paper for easy cleanup) and bake 20-25 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven until the bottom edges are just starting to brown.

*note*- I made up the "recipe" for the lemon glaze myself- if you could call it a recipe. Just dump some powdered sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice until you reach the desired consistency. I tried tinting part of my glaze a light yellow, to further evoke lemons, but it just looked like mustard.

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