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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Peach Cobbler Scones

Is this a baking blog now?? 
Maybe just a Joy the Baker copycat blog. 
Yes, that sounds accurate.


 Check out her full, detailed, beautiful picture-laden post, but I'm gonna tell you how it went down in my kitchen.

Ingredient Roundup!
Taking a picture is so much better than a list.
Ok, here we go. If you're playing along, preheat the oven to 400.
Dry ingredients!

Sifted the flour (3 cups)

FYI..while I was doing this, Danae and Hannah were doing Google searches like this:

And I labored on.
1/4 cup sugar.
 *artsy*

Three tsp of this:

 1/2 tsp of this:

 Cubed the butter (a stick and a half because i subbed butter for the shortening)
The butter was 'cut in,' a term I had to Google and a term I'm pretty sure I've Googled before.
I think I know now. Also I found out AFTER these were done that we had a pastry cutter. But you should have seen me strugglin' with two butter knives. Good times.

Ok once the butter is cut in, go ahead and add those wet ingredients!
(That would be the beaten egg, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and a tsp of vanilla extract)
Get it all nice and incorporated into a dough...

Now KNEAD.

After you've kneaded and rolled it out into a 12" x 10" rectangle (or somewhere thereabouts), brush some buttermilk onto one half of the dough:

Mix some cinnamon (3/4 tsp) and sugar (2 tbsp) ... everyone's favorite activity.

 
Ignore creepy hand under glass.

I used about 3 small peaches to layer the one side of dough.... I would suggest to use more!
Sprinkle the cinnasugar on top!
 (Be generous, now)

 Skipped a couple steps here. Fold over the dough, cut into 8 pieces (or more! these are big).
Brush more buttermilk on top of every scone, and sprinkle with MORE cinnasugar! Yay!

 Throw 'em in the oven for about 15 minutes, let cool for a bit just so we don't burn anyone's tongue off, and serve with ice cream!

 Aaannd a close-up of the beauties: 

What's the Verdict?
Well. I ate two, so, there's that.  
But f'real, these were good. The dough is fantastic. I think it's the buttermilk that really makes it. The cinnasugar was not overpowering. I love that taste so I could have stood more. 
I would definitely add more peaches. That was my fam's one criticism as well. A LOT of dough, not enough peach flavor. I also only had white peaches that may or may not have been totally ripe. I would try to find yellow peaches next time. It would be prettier, too.
I also might make them smaller. I ate two because I'm insane, and it was spaced out over 3 hours. But it's a lot to get through, and not the lightest thing in the world (but also not the heaviest).

These are pretty simple to make, a crowd pleaser, and a little different than a normal cake, pie, cookie, y'know. 
Try them! And then go make everything else Joy the Baker has.
*fangirling*

Friday, June 22, 2012

Baked Brie Bites

I feel like we've safely determined I'm not a food blogger. My camera is not good enough and I forget to take pictures of every step. Still, I press on. 

SO, Baked Brie Bites.
I'm trying to work my way through my 'Good Eats' board on Pinterest. 
This recipe is from Joy the Baker, who I am now obsessed with (and OMG her most recent post is peach cobbler scones ineedthem).

The bites started out with fillo dough. Little rectangles of it.


I beat an egg for the eggwash...


and starting painting it onto half the fillo rectangles (the bottom half)


I used Président Brie. I believe it's my favorite.


Of course I was generous...


On top of the brie wedge, I put a dollop of raspberry preserves (my favorite).

This brand is new to me but I LOVE it.

I was generous with that, too.


Put another fillo dough rectangle on top of the jam.
Brush a little more eggwash on the top.
Stick 'em in a 375 degree oven and watch them (it takes about 5 minutes or less)

and voilĂ !


My rectangles were too small and they weren't staying together so I also tried things like this:

These ones were my favorite.

What's the verdict?
How can you really go wrong with melty brie and preserves?
You can't, but next time I'll use fewer layers of fillo, and newer fillo that hadn't had too much time to defrost (mine was a little too dry to work with).
Other than that, they were a hit!! 


Monday, June 18, 2012

Father's Day in Pictures

We started the day pretty early, with breakfast in bed for dad and cards from all. Was too bleary eyed to even think about my camera. 
But, of course, once the food was set out, I perked up nicely. 

The grandparents came over around 11 to this beautiful spread:


Fruit salad with maple honey glaze.

Egg salad, homemade by mama.

All sorts of bagels.

Berry infused water

The DADS.

berry water & coffee. Two servings, please.

Granparents' dog, Rocket. He could be in the movies.

Some artsy photography.

Dad and Hannah

Me and Dad

Rocket and me

Going through pictures from 1996

Rocket wanted in on the action.

We all wore our sombreros down to the beach.

Gramps kept his on.

Hannah walked Rocket down the boardwalk.

Just beautiful.

Mom and Dad, being sweet.

We found Tyler at work! 

Family shot

Sleeping tourists

Hannah (as MirandaSings, disapproves)

Mr. Sandman (but actually, that's his name) visited the beach

Dad being silly

Girlz

I love him, too!

Gorgeous day at the beach

Once back from the beach, I got hungry, so I grabbed a leftover bagel, and...

BAM. 
Veggie cream cheese, hummus, onions, tomato, kale, avocado.

The rest of the afternoon and evening (until midnight) was spent watching home videos.
This was the first time we had seen most of them.
My parents even confessed they had never watched the video of my birth.
We did that.
It wasn't graphic, but it was certainly up close and personal. I got really emotional, I guess just because it was such a strange sensation to see myself come into the world, to see my parents just getting to know me, when I've only experienced them knowing me so well, better than anyone else. I felt an entirely new sensation. It was amazing to watch that instant love happen, though.

Here's a screenshot from a 1996 movie. This is my brother's 6th birthday. 
I'm in the center, age 4. 


Hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day, or simply a great Sunday.
I'm very grateful today and always.