19 April 2010

chocolate chip and pecan scones

chocolate chip and pecan scones

Scones always make breakfast seem a bit more special. Essentially, it's not entirely different than eating a fancy muffin for breakfast, but I think scones are more fun to make, and I like the texture.

I liked this particular recipe because it had chocolate chips, and last night I decided that breakfast needs chocolate and so that's what I had to have. Also, these scones seemed a bit lighter, as there are only 6 tablespoons of butter for the entire recipe, and my batch made 12 drop scones. They also use buttermilk, which I think imparts a better flavor than using cream.

chocolate chip and pecan scones

With chocolate, pecans (which I added at the last minutes -- next time I'd toast them first), and a bit of lemon (that helped to brighten the scone more than give it a burst of lemony flavor), the taste was really delicious. The scone itself was moist and soft. Not as flaky as other scones, but that was okay. These weren't heavy at all, and for a breakfast scone I prefer that over one that sits like a rock in the pit of your stomach. Unfortunately, these scones, even stale, would not work to keep in your purse or backpack to throw at anyone attacking you, or taking your shopping cart, or getting to the back of the line before you, but sometimes you have to sacrifice taste for weaponry. If you left the chocolate out, though, you could take one on a run to throw at a dog who starts chasing you.

I only made one small change to the original recipe by using the whole egg instead of just the yolk, purely out of laziness. The extra liquid wasn't a big concern since I was going to scoop these out instead of patting the dough to make shapes. I might just decrease a few tablespoons of the buttermilk if I wanted to shape them, though.

chocolate chip and pecan scones


The recipe can be found at my new favorite blog, The Food Librarian.

Chocolate Chip Drop Scones

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25 October 2007

Doughnut Excursion of the Christina Kind

Because it didn't start out as a doughnut excursion, it's just what ended up happening. A delightful joy ride, though. This place wasn't near where I live.

What place, you ask? Or didn't ask. Or did you? Yeah, I think you did. If you didn't ask then close this page. Or not, because you'll wish you hadn't when you come back and read it.



And that's where we were headed, Wicks Apple House. It's a delightful place with amazing foodie stuff and a corn maze (the latter is only when the corn isn't dead). Just go to their website.

Since my destination was that of baked goodness, I headed over to the right.



To see a display FILLED with DOUGHNUTS! Which I took a less than stellar blurry picture of so I minimized it in hopes that you would look at it and say, "Wow! What an impressive display of doughnuts!" And not, "Gosh, what a horrid picture. *turns head in disgust -- Napoleon Dynamite-like*"



They had some really neato frosted sugar cookies that I want to show you.


Franken-cookies -- It's like an experiment gone edible


Most people are afraid of bats, but once you eat a bat you'll never be afraid again -- you pwned the bat!

Next I took a picture of their fantastic-looking apple dumplings (the last ones I had were horrid and undercooked, these looked better) alongside their cinnamon rolls.



Then I browsed around a bit while my party purchased the goods. Interesting stuff.



Top to bottom, left to right:
Cider slush, samples of their cider doughnuts
apple cider samples (one per customer), salsa samples (from mild to fiery!!)

What I liked about their cider drinks was that they didn't add any sweeteners, which to me says this: If you start with great apples, you'll end up drinking great apples. Something to that effect. Have you ever bitten into a really crisp, sweet-tart, juicy, cold apple? Imagine that pressed and it's basically the same thing but in liquid form. I drank a sample cup of their apple cider and it was great stuff. Naturally sweet-tart with essences of spices and delightfully chill.

Back at home, I was able to taste all the sweet treats and stuff.


Apple fritter

I didn't really like the apple fritter. I found it to be on the dry side and not as apple-y.




The star of the show and what I really looked forward to were the cider doughnuts. THESE totally trumped the doughnuts from the Blueberry Festival. The outtards were wonderfully golden brown with a slight crisp, the innards featured a fluffy, spongy, soft crumb with a light sweetness and essences of cider-like spices, and NOT greasy. (I was stoked by the sponginess, actually. When I pressed the bottom and top all the way and released, it sprang back!!! That's what excites me, in case you were wondering. What it really means is that it's not overly dense but has a softness to it, while not being fragile.)



This was a bit of their powdered cider doughnut. WOWzorz! I mean, tricked out! I was thrilled by this doughnut, the powdered sugar-cinnamon topping was even and melted in your mouth. It gave the doughnut a sweeter taste without overkill, and a deeper cinnamon flavor.

The next day...




For breakfast I toasted (toaster oven) a blueberry danish (or was it just a blueberry pastry?) to heat it. And also I think it makes it prettier with the brown parts adding color.

Because I thought that nothing could top their doughnuts, I wasn't expecting much here. And THAT, my friend, is what happens when I assume too much. This was excellent, not killingly sweet, a REAL blueberry-tasting filling (unlike the blueberry doughnuts from that past post...), and even flakes of pastry-ness that I didn't do justice to in my picture. But take it from me, this was a lovely buttery pastry dough that transformed into the breakfast of Christina, which filled my tummy with joy because if my stomach had a mouth to speak it would've said, "Grmmmwhgsgfgyommersfjakhfkhsd." (I suppose it's a good think my stomach cannot speak...) I wish they had a delivery service. I wish I lived closer to them. I wish ALL pastries were as good as these are.

My final thoughts summed up: A wonderful array of enticing sweet treats. These are the sort of pastries I prefer, full of flavor without a sore throat-inducing sweetness.



Wicks Apple House
(269) 782-7306


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