Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Cranberry Orange Scones and Big Changes


This month's recipe for the Avid Baker's Challenge is scones.  We're baking out of the Weekend Baker cookbook which has become one of my favorite because the recipes tend to be pretty quit and always delicious.  This one disappoint.  We were given some flavor options in the cookbook, and I went with cranberry and orange.  In an effort to make them slightly healthier I substituted just over a third of the AP flour for whole wheat flour.  Then to negate that I sprinkled them with turbinado sugar right before baking and a orange juice and powdered sugar glaze right after baking.

The big change in my life right now is I quit my job to stay home with my son.  This week is my first week of not working.  I'm hoping to have more time to bake and blog (especially if I can ever get him to nap in his crib rather than on me).  If not, I'll just do what I did this time and put him in the Ergo carrier while I mix everything and put him in the highchair when I'm dealing with the oven.  It's a little slower that way, but I guess he gets to learn really early about baking.

Also, I got my first CSA share today!  Even though this blog has been primarily focused on baking I thought it would be fun to do a post every week or two about what I've made with my share.  I'm cooking and eating so many of these things for the first time so this should be interesting!


I think the directions were probably pretty standard for making these, but I've only ever made one other scone recipe.


Here they are just after glazing.  I'm not sure how much of the glaze actually stayed on the scones, but it seemed to add to the flavor.


My little helper looking on wondering "Mommy what are you doing?  Why is that so interesting?"


I was worried that substituting some whole wheat flour would make these too dense, but they were just perfect.  I baked them for 18 minutes like the recipe called for.  The bottom of them were a little dark, but the inside was soft and not at all dry.  The next day they tasted delicious heated for just 15 seconds.