Orange Cranberry Scones and Awards

These scones were meant for last month's aspiring bakers but somehow I forgot about it. I realised my past few posts were all about cakes. Time to break the monotony before I get back to cakes again.

This was my second time baking scones. Compared to my previous cream scones, these orange craneberry scones are less rich and they need a little jam to boost the flavour, despite the fact that I used good quality butter. Perhaps it was due to the absence of salt, which I was lazy to include as I have to open a new pack.

Once again, I am honoured to recieve this lovely blog award from two fellow bloggers, Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake and Bake for a Queen. Thank you ladies =]

Here are rules to abide for accepting this award: 

1. Post linking back to the person that gave you the award.
2. Share 7 random things about yourself.
3. Award 15 recently discovered blogs.
4. Drop them a note and tell them about it.

Ok, here's 7 random things about myself:

1) I used to have a pet Maltese named Ashley staying with me. He's a male! Most people would associate the name with a female. He's now staying with my brother's family.

2) My favourite colour is green. Green used to be the colour theme for my blog when I firsted started blogging. It was a little dull and hence I changed it to the current blue theme which matches my blog layout. I might change it back to Green if I can find a nice green colour.

3) Of all bakes, I enjoy eating cakes the most, followed by cookies and bread. I'm quite a bread person but I always tend to procrastinate when it comes to bread making. Hence I am very stagnant in this aspect.

4) My favourite baking related show is called Cake Boss ( TLC channel) starring Buddy Valastro, his family and his bakery. He's a really talented cake artist and the show is humorous and entertaining. Wish I could make cakes like him one day. The fondant cakes he make are awesome! Imagine a safari theme cake, a 3D standing dog cake and a moving robot cake. Neat!

5) I am quite a bakecook fanatic. Currently I have around 60 titles. The bulk of it are chocolate, cake and cookie titles. Most of the titles are by asian authors. I even have a long wishlist of about 50 books which I would want to have, all of which are by western authors.

6) I think I am addicted to fondant making. I am not quite fond of eating fondant though. Will be adding fondant books to my bakebook wishlist.

7) When the time comes, I would want to go for professional courses to further my baking skills. At the moment, I can only rely on books, blogs, videos and internet articles.

I will be passing the award to the following bloggers: 

1. Eelin from The Batter Baker
2. Allie from Sweets and Loves 
3. Sheryl from Life is too Short, Eat Desserts!
4. Shirley from Kokken 69
5. Fatmum from FatmumBaking
6. Aimei from My Baking Cottage
7. Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice
8. Blessed Homemaker  from Blessed Homemaker
9. Wendy from Wen's Delight
10. Jess from J3ss Kitch3n
11. Jesslyn from Bakericious
12. Pei-Lin from Dodol & Mochi
13. Swee San from The Sweet Spot
14. Wendy from Wendyinkk

 

Orange Cranberry Scones ( recipe adapted from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

Serving size: about 12 scones
Texture: Crisp and crumbly on the oustide; fluffy and cake light, moist in the interior. 
Equipment and Materials:

• Measuring spoon set
• Flour sift
• 1.5 inch round cookie cutter
• Mixing bowl
• Parchment/baking paper
• Wire rack
• Weighing scale
• Wire whisk
• Flexible spatula

Dough:
185g plain flour
30g castor sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
60g dried cranberries
homemade buttermilk => 120ml milk  + 1/2tbs lemon juice, (leave to stand for 10 mins)

Making the scones:

Combine dry ingredients - Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, zests and salt. Use a wire whisk to aerate and disperse the mixture evenly.

Blend in butter - Tip in the cubed butter into the flour mixture. Use your hands and rub the chilled butter into the dry ingredients. The result should be that of fine and coarse flour-coated butter crumbs. Work fast to prevent the butter from melting.

Alternatively, use a pastry cutter or 2 knifes to cut the butter. If using 2 knifes, cut the butter into the flour mixture in a criss cross manner.

A food processor can also be used if you have one. If using a food processor, whisk the dry ingredients together for about 15 seconds. Add in the cubed butter and pulse a few times with 1 second intervals until fine and coarse flour-coated butter crumbs are obtained.

Adding the cream and cranberries - Add in cranberries to the coarse flour-coated butter crumbs and stir to distribute the berries evenly. Pour in the homemade buttermilk into the flour-coated butter crumbs. Use a fork and stir to obtain a moist sticky mixture. 

Shaping and chilling dough - Lightly flour a work surface. Turn out the moist sticky mixture onto the work surface and gently gather the mixture together, pressing in stray dry ingredients into the main dough. There is no need to knead the dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and flatten it to obtain a disk 1 inch in height. Chill in the refrigerator or freeze till it is very firm. Dough must be very firm else it will be difficult to work with.

Prepraring the oven - Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210 degrees C (recipe asked for 220 degrees C).

Cutting out rounds - Once dough is chilled, turn the flattened disk out onto a floured work surface and cut out rounds using a round cookie cutter dusted with flour. Arrange the cut out rounds 1 inch apart on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Gather the remaining scraps, flatten them into a disk 1 inch in height and repeat the chilling process. Repeat the cutting of rounds for a second time.

Gather the remaining scraps after the 2nd cutting and flatten them into a round disk 1 inch in height, for a final time. Cut the disk into wedges.

Chill all the cut-out rounds and wedges for another 20minutes or give them a quick freeze to firm them up. If the dough is too soft, it will lose its shape in the oven.

Baking the scones: Bake the scones for 14 -16 minutes or untill the surface is golden brown. Remove to cool on a wire rack.

Notes: 

1. These Scones taste best when served warm.
2. Dough can be prepared beforehand and chilled overnight (one night maximum) or frozen for weeks. The dough may not rise as much as when it is freshly made on the same day.
3. Store remaining scones in an airtight container. Warm them in a toaster or oven before serving.

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

Fruity Goodness - Orange Cranberry Shortbread

I am counting down as the days pass by. Five days and "It's Time"! In case you're wondering, I am counting down to the release of Stefanie Sun's album and "It's Time" is the name of her long-waited album, which will land in record stores on 8th March, that is if no mishap occurs. While she is seemingly having a good break these past four years, leading her own life and making preparations for this album, I am baking consientiously in the kitchen and burying myself in baking titles with thick covers. 

In the meanwhile before the arrival of the big day,  I can only hide my excitment and distract myself by churning out sweet goods. Shortbreads are my preferred choice when it comes to cookies. They are firm, crunchy and buttery, all the requirements I would expect from a cookie. Actually, I am really not that picky. Give me a jar of cookies and I will clear it in no time.

Traditionally, shortbreads are baked in round pans and cut into wedges. However, that will only yield about 10 cookies. Therefore, I prefer to bake my shortbread cookies as icebox cookies, where the cookie dough is being formed into a log, chilled, and then sliced into rounds or squares. If you dislike shaping and cutting out cookies, this is one method you would like to consider. 

Let the vibrant colours and fruity flavours charm you with this cranberry shortbread. It is a good choice of cookie to pass to your loved ones and brighten their day up. Just make sure you use a decent brand of butter to impart a nice fragrance to the cookies.

I will be submitting this entry to this month's Aspiring Bakers # 5 - Fruity March hosted by Jess from Bakerious.

Orange Cranberry Shortbread (recipe adapted from Honey & Jam)
Serving size: 40 - 50 cookies
Taste and texture: Crunchy-crumbly.
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Baking trays/ cookie sheets
8) Baking / parchment paper
9) Grater/ zester

Ingredients:
205g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
105g icing sugar
finely grated zests of 2 oranges
90g chopped dried cranberries
270g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

Making the Cookies:
Preheat oven - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix dry ingredients - Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.

Cream butter - Beat the butter, icing sugar and orange zests on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. The butter need not be as well-creamed as that for making cakes.

Making the cookie dough - Stir in flour mixture and beat on low speed to combine butter mixture and flour briefly. Stop once the dough starts to comes together. Scrape and fold in any stray flour with a spatula. Next, fold in the chopped cranberries.

Divde dough into two equal portions. Place dough onto baking/parchment paper and roll the dough into a 1 inch (2.5cm) round/square log. Refrigerate or freeze until log is firm. Slice the log into rounds/squares of about 1 cm thickness.

Baking the cookies - Place rounds onto baking trays lined with baking/parchment paper, leaving some space between each cookie. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Once done, the cookies should be firm to the touch and will firm up further upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.

Notes:
1) If cookies do not firm up well after cooling. It means they are underbaked. Fret not. Simply return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 7-10 minutes, then allow to cool.
2) When cookies are cooled, pressing into the cookies will not yield any dents/ imprints.
3) Use good butter to impart good flavour to the cookies.
4) Do a test batch of 3 or 4 cookies to test the baking time.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

Crumbly and Chewy - Craneberry bites

Even though I have not baked anything this week, I had the pleasure of savouring these little mouth-size craneberry bites, all thanks to my baking friend Stephanie =]

As you can see, the cookies were very nicely cut out, something I dread doing when it comes to making cookies. Cookies certainly are easy to bake as compared to other baked goods. But when it comes to shaping them, it can be a headache sometimes, especially when the dough is too soft to handle.

In this sunny island where I reside in, it is summer all year round and the daily temperature hovers between 23 to 32 degrees C. The solution? Repeat the chilling process of the cookie dough each time shapes are cut out and the scraps are gathered.

In total, there were not one, not two, but three different lovely cookie shapes - stars, bears (look like bears to me) and flowers.   

A quick bite into these fascinating treats will reveal an unmistakenable crumbly yet chewy texture. Hmmm.... crumbly and chewy at the same time? Yes, these cookies are chewy too. Chewy simple because of the dried craneberry, offering a contrast in texture and a breakaway from the monotony of the buttery fragrance.   

The cookies did not have a chance to lie around for long. Before I knew it, the cookie jar was empty. My younger brother sure hows to appreciate his cookies.



Once again, thank you Stephanie, for these wonderful treats!

I will be making my mooncakes over the weekends. Stay tuned for updates on them....

Bakes from A New Friend - Muffins

Remember I mentioned a blog visitor of mine who emailed me in my french apple tart post? My new found friend, Stephanie, kindly passed me some homemade muffins the day before. The muffins were very nicely wrapped up in see-through plastic wrappers sealed with thin golden foil strips. I was touched by her efforts and sincerity. In return, I passed her some banana chocolate cakes I have made that day, which however, was contained in a non-fancy plastic food saver obtained from SKP.

Naturally, the muffins became my choice of breakfast the next day. In case you are wondering, the muffins I received are Chocolate Matcha and Vanilla Cranberry. These tiny cakelets are lovely - soft,  fluffy and slightly moist, not a tad oily and with the right level of sweetness. The vanilla cranberry muffins had a nice buttery aroma and the cranberries were juicy to the bite, making me wonder if they were dried fruits or the real McCoy. I love how the matcha and chocolate flavours combined to give a grassy, rich bodied cocoa taste. This unique combo definitely hit the right notes for me.

Stephanie, if you should start blogging about your bakes, these cakey muffins definitely deserved to be featured at the earliest opportunity. Thank you for these mouth-watering treats, my friend =]