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Blueberry Scones

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  Blueberry Scones A friend was coming over for coffee early in the morning and I know she loves baked goods. It was a crisp morning in late Summer/early Fall and we had to light a fire in the woodstove to make it comfortable to sit and chat in our sunroom. Perfect timing for Blueberry Scones ! I'd made blueberry scones before using  this recipe  from Sally's Bake Blog. But wanting to try something new, I went with a recipe from Preppy Kitchen.  Here  it is.   I followed the recipe to the letter and it was very easy.  When I dumped the dough onto the counter, I just made sure there was quite a bit of flour. Using a bench scraper and well-floured hands, I continued pushing flour under the dough until it came together from the top but wasn't sticking to the counter. It was quite easy to pat it into a circle and then to push it out to be 8 inches. I didn't manage to cut the scones evenly, but that was ok.  I scraped off the dough that stuck to the bench scraper and once th
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Banana Muffins

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  Banana Muffins After not getting together all summer today our watercolor group met again to paint together. I didn't know if anyone else was bringing anything, but I didn't want to arrive empty handed.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I did have 3 ripe bananas on the counter. Rather than wait for a banana bread to bake, I decided to make Banana Muffins . I used  this recipe  from Sally's Baking Addiction blog.  It's called Quick and Easy and that's exactly what it is. You can melt the butter and you don't have to use a mixer. I didn't change or add anything. They baked up quickly in 14 minutes, now that my oven temperature no longer seems to be running low. I was surprised at the deep golden color, very nice, no doubt from the brown sugar and the cinnamon. They tasted very good, as well. Very soft and moist for a muffin, and not too sweet.  I'm sure they'd be very good with added walnuts, too. An easy solution!
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Peach Shortcake for the end of Summer

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Peach Shortcake The Summer of 2024, so eagerly anticipated, flew by faster than any other. And was less fun.  Between Bubby's transition from school, a prolonged heat wave, patio construction, and friends returning to their post-pandemic lives, we've had fewer gatherings and there have been less opportunities to bake things.  And for me, in my scant free time I've been focusing more on my watercolor painting than on my baking and cake decorating. But when Grandpa called for an end-of-Summer family gathering, I remembered that several times lately he's talked about wanting Peach Shortcake . I didn't need to think too hard about what to make for this one! I turned to  this recipe  for Strawberry Shortcake from Preppy Kitchen.  According to my notes, I made it for Father's Day in 2020 and I labeled it "Best Recipe".  This time I compared it to other shortcake recipes, such as  this one  that I found online. But I went with my impressions from the previous
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Skolebrod Custard Buns

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Norwegian Skolebrod custard buns Earlier in the week I'd made a French Fruit Tart and I had a good amount of pastry cream leftover. I didn't want it to go to waste, and it's not something you can really freeze. Although I've never tried to freeze pastry cream, I've read that it separates when it thaws, and trying to reconstitute it sounds like a pain.  So, I decided to make Skolebrod Custard Buns .  The word Skolebrod is Norwegian for "school bread" and I've read this is a traditional treat schoolchildren would enjoy when they got home from school, or maybe they were sent to school in their lunchboxes.  Apparently in Norway you find them in every bakery. I've made them before, and they're delicious. Here  is the recipe I used. It was already in my recipe binder.  This time, I decided to halve it because it looked like I only had 7 spoonfuls of pastry cream.  However, I wish I'd made the entire recipe and  made smaller rolls.  Each bun ended
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French Fruit Tart

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It's been kind of a funny summer. Between the long heat wave in June, the construction on our patio, and friends traveling, we've had very little opportunities to entertain. So when we finally had a friend coming over, I wanted to make something special. Not sure why but French Fruit Tart with pastry cream popped into my head, and I just had to make it. I think because I've enjoyed the Triple Berry Pies I've made recently and wanted something similar. And I know this friend really enjoys dessert. French Fruit Tart is so beautiful and impressive looking but couldn't be easier to make. It's perfect to make ahead, as well, in fact you need to make the dough and pastry cream the day before. I like  this recipe  from Martha Stewart for my pate sucree and it's the one I always use. I halved it for just one tart.  I rely on  this recipe , also from Martha Stewart, for my pastry cream. It never gets solid bits of egg and it's so easy it deserves the name she ga
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More Apples than Cake cake

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  Delicious, whatever it's called! It's that time of year when Fall starts to let you know it's on its way. It's warm and feels like summer but school is starting and here and there you see colorful leaves appearing.  I both start to wonder where much of the year has gone, and looking forward to crisp Autumn weather and Fall activities.  But mostly, there is an urgency to make the most of the fleeting Summer days. With all this in mind we decided kick off our weekend with a short (1.5 mile) hike in a lovely woods preserve not far from the house. We saw all kinds of huge mushrooms on this walk, some as big as pancakes! After the hike we noticed the weekly farmer's market was happening in town that afternoon so we had to stop in to check it out. And what do we find but a farmstand offering an amazing variety of fresh, local mushrooms.  We couldn't resist and knew we'd be having them immediately for dinner.  I wanted to cap off the day's adventure with a ni
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Healthy Banana Muffins with Update

 We've been having lots of dairy recently, so when I wanted to use up a couple of spotted bananas I had, I decided to make no-butter banana muffins. I had an unopened jar of applesauce in the pantry, so I decided to also forego the sugar.  I looked around quickly online and found  this recipe .  I decided to omit the sugar and use a cup of applesauce instead of half a cup. The only other change I made was to add a teaspoon of vanilla.  The muffins baked up in about 13 minutes and in spite of the rave reviews they receive online I found them to be just OK.  It's not that they're bad, but rather that they just don't have much taste!  I ate mine with fruit, and R spread his with strawberry jelly.   There's just no substitute for butter or sugar. Sigh! ** Update I made the recipe again today (9/25/24) using this time 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of avocado oil, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of brown sugar and in each muffin I put 1/8 teaspoon flax meal and a couple o
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