Memorial Day Weekend bakes recap

I baked two of my tried and trusted recipes - Blueberry Scones (step by step tutorial here) and Matcha Chiffon (recipe here) this past weekend. Both recipes are similar in that they are relatively simple and quick to put together.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones

Blueberry scones are among the top things I love eating and baking. This time, I experimented with subbing all the AP flour in the original recipe with White Whole Wheat Flour. You  know.. just making them a bit more nutritious and guilt-free if I happen to eat more than one in a sitting.

The dough was such a dream to handle and shape. It was not too crumbly or too sticky like some of my previous time. It was perfect.. as perfect and easy as buzzfeed or youtube videos make baking seems.

The resulting scones were moist and remained moist! They were delicate and had loose tender crumbs that instantly break apart and dissolve as they hit your tongue. I love everything about this more nutritious scones except for the lack of a hard crunchy shell.. Room for improvements!

*I subbed with 226g of www flour and used coconut sugar.
*Find recipe here. And a step by step photo tutorial here.

Blueberry Scones [step by step photo tutorial]

Step by step on how to make my favorite Blueberry Scones:

(See detailed recipe here.)

Place butter in freezer for 30 minutes before starting.

Incorporate butter into dry mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.

Toss and coat blueberries in flour/butter mixture.

Create a well and pour wet mixture into dry.

Stir with a fork until all liquid has been absorbed.

*At this point, the dough was too crumbly which was possibly due to the smaller egg used. Add more cream if dough is not coming together and turn onto a floured work surface to shape.

Knead until dough comes together.

Even out into 1" thick pieces, brush with cream, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 425F for 16-20 minutes.

Until perfectly golden brown.

Let cool briefly and consume!

Juicy blueberry explosion.

Enjoy.

Blueberry Scones

Best scones I ever made.

Period.


Buttery. Crisp. Flaky. Moist. Fluffy. Light.

These are kind of like the best thing ever.

I can totally picture these selling at my favorite local bakery- Lincoln!

Blueberry Scones
recipe adapted from Treats
makes about 8 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries (optional: placed in the freezer for 30 minutes)
6 Tbsp (85g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
3 Tbsp heavy cream
2 Tbsp demerara sugar

Optional: sift dry ingredients.

After butter is incorporated, mixture should be crumbly.

Toss and coat blueberries in flour.

Mix wet into dry until dough comes together.

The mess I made..

Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. In a large bowl,  combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Incorporate cold butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, two forks, or with your fingers. You should have some pieces that are the size of peas and some that look like fine crumbs.
4. Add blueberries and toss to coat in flour.
5. In another bowl, whisk together heavy cream and egg until well combined.
6. Add cream and egg to flour mixture and lightly stir with a fork or spoon until liquid is absorbed and a dough comes together. Alternatively, knead by hand until dough comes together. Do not overwork dough.
7. Place dough on a well floured surface and pat to about 1" thickness. Cut in to circles using a 2 1/2" round cutter or cut into 8 even sized wedges. *I halved my dough, pat them into round, and cut 4 wedges are of each. Dough was sticky.
8. Place them on a lined baking sheet, brush with heavy cream, and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
9. Bake for about 16-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Levain cookie size.

An excel spreadsheet was made for "Project Scones". I did an ingredient comparison with my previous recipes and a couple promising recipes I came across, and turns out the formulas are actually all quite similar. I decided to go with one that sort of fell in the middle of my previous Mango Coconut Scones and Walnut Cacao Nibs Scones. This median was perfection.

Just look at how much love is in Abu's eyes.

Can I have some scones please?

Sniff. Sniff.

Fatty: "Nah, it's mine!"

I almost thought these weren't coming together when the wet and dry mixture weren't incorporating evenly and the dough got super sticky to handle. I kneaded it briefly to bring the dry pieces together and went ahead to bake them.

These are a dream.
And possibly the best thing I made.

Tempting Abu again.

Bursting blueberry shot.

Taste: 10 stars out of 5
Lightly sweetened and butterlicious!
Texture: 10 stars out of 5
Crisp and flaky exterior. Moist, fluffy and light interior. Studded with juicy tart blueberries.

Mango Coconut Scones

Mango Coconut Scones

recipe adapted from Pastry Affair
recipe yields 8 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar*
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 lemons, zested
Pinch of salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cold and cubed
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream + extra for brushing
1 large egg
1 cup frozen mango chunks

1/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened*

turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

the dough coming together

ready for baking

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C)*
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt. 

3. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles a coarse sand (alternatively, if using a stand mixer, mix in butter with paddle attachment until butter is pea-sized or smaller). 

4. Stir in frozen mango chunks and shredded coconut.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the heavy whipping cream and egg until well blended. 

6. Pour cream into flour mixture and mix until it comes together as a dough.
7. On a lightly floured surface, place dough and form into a circle, flattening the top until dough is roughly an inch thick. 

8. Cut dough into 8 pie-shaped pieces and transfer to a baking sheet. 

9. Brush with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. 

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until scones are lightly browned. 

fresh out of the oven

These scones might be the best ones I've made yet (See my last scone: walnut cacao nibs scones). These scones were not too sweet with only 1 tbsp of sugar and some sweetness coming from the frozen mango chunks. I would probably add an extra tbsp or two next time to satisfy the sweet tooth, but the lower sweetness made these absolutely appropriate to be served during breakfast or brunch or as a late night snack!

The butter/cream taste of these scones was remarkable, especially highlighted with the lower sugar content. The texture was divine- crisp, flaky, moist and tender! I think I am getting close to the perfect scones!

I was actually really disappointed with how the scones looked when I pulled them out at the 20 minute mark. The scones were fluffy and tall, but they lacked the golden crisp tops of my dream scones. The scone was tender all around.

gorgeous!

crisp/dry exterior + moist/tender interior

I had another one the next morning. After 10 minutes of reheating at 350F, the scones turned out beautiful! How come they didn't turn out like this when I first pulled them out? Oven not at temperature? Bake time too short? I would up the oven temp next time for the 20 minutes and see how they turn out. 

Taste: 4 stars out of 5

Buttery and creamy! Mango and coconut flavor lost in the mix.

Texture: 5 stars out of 5 (after reheating)

Perfectly toasted crisp exterior and tender moist crumbs.

Also made this weekend: 

Carrot Guava Juice with Chia Seeds

Acai Bowls

Cream Scones

After seeing the beautiful golden brown heart- shaped cranberry scones on "Table for 2... or more"'s page, I knew I had to make them! I don't always have cream cheese on hand, but this time around I did. I liked the recipe idea of cream cheese as one of the ingredient and the less butter it calls for.



Cranberry Cream Scones
recipe from Table for 2... or more
125gm all purpose flour
125gm cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
80gm dried cranberries, coarsely chopped (opted out)
120gm cream cheese, room temp
30gm butter
90ml milk
1 egg, 1 Tbsp removed for glazing


Glaze
1 Tbsp egg mix with 1 tsp milk
Extra melted butter for glazing

1. Preheat oven at 200C/392F. Combine both flours and baking powder. Sift twice to aerate. Mix in salt.
2. Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in flour mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.
3. Combine egg and milk and pour into (2).
4. Mix with a spoon until moistened. Lightly mix in cranberries.
5. Spoon batter into floured molds and lightly tap to flatten. Lift mold carefully. (I just roughly shaped them into balls)
6. Glaze scones with egg mixture. (this gives the nice golden brown color!)
7. Bake for 9 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and quickly brush on melted butter. Put them back into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. (buttery goodness<3)
9. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
10. Serve warm with butter and jam.



The cream cheese is definitely the ingredient that made this recipe a winner! Despite the less butter the recipe needs, the scones turned out very buttery and soft. They were fluffy with a nice crunch on the outside if you reheat them in the oven. I liked how the glaze gave it that perfect golden brown color.

Scones? Biscuits? They are so similar to me.. and I like both :p

Taste: 4 stars out of 5 (buttery)
Texture: 4 stars out of 5 (soft, moist, fluffy, crumbly, little crunch)