Baking Friday - Bread # 1

Scones!

Triple Chocolate Scones.  Vanilla Bean Scones.

Decisions.  Decisions.  Which one?  Both, of course!

Even though there isn't a heart or a spec of red on either version, each would make your Valentine feel valentine'd. (I have this on good authority.  Two people have said so.)  Especially served for breakfast with a cup of coffee and maybe some strawberries or raspberries on the side and a rose or two nearby.

I took that tray above to work yesterday, and they were gone by 9:10.  Most folks took a half of each, but the chocolate definitely went first.

The chocolate aren't as sweet overall as the vanilla bean, but the flavor boost is much higher.  One person said that the chocolate were amazing, but the vanilla bean were good - maybe too sweet for his taste.  All of the comments were positive.  I added a touch (3 drops) of orange oil to the liquid ingredients of the vanilla bean and discriminating palettes picked up on the citrus - ranging from, "I taste citrus" to a "dancing plethora of citrus and vanilla on the palette."  I will let you guess which quote was from my son-in-law, K, who has a penchant for words himself.  My son, S, said that he'd never had a chocolate scone, and his preference for scones are the fall flavors - spice, pumpkin, etc. - and that the chocolate as a little brownie like for him.  (I am still trying to figure out if that is a good thing or a bad thing.)  Even my daughter, B, ate some of a vanilla bean one - which says a lot, because while she is a white food eater, she isn't always open to trying new things.  I have one other quote, and then we will move on to the recipes.  One friend at work tried the two together in one bite, and this is his quote:  "when you try them together, the chocolate flavor is there but less intense, the scone flavor is throughout and the vanilla flavor is a nice end."  You would, of course, have to make both to try this experiment yourself, but they aren't hard, so you could.  And then your Valentine would feel extra valentine'd!  And that would be a very good thing, so go for it!

I've known for the last couple of weeks that I was going to do the Triple Chocolate.  I thought about making the heart shaped, but I like to handle scones as little as possible and didn't want the pursuit of heart shape to over-handle the dough.  So I decided to stick to the standard wedge shape.

But then I knew we were getting together with Papa S and Mama J last night - the same day as I'd be baking these scones - so Papa S could teach A how to shave...her face...um...

...and so J-man could give out kisses.

I do believe A got more kisses from J-man than Mimi last night.  We may have to talk about this.  But then A would simply argue that I sent more pecan brittle to her mother for Christmas than I gave to A, so J-man has her back and is just making up for that failure on my part.

And I would be hard pressed to argue against that logic....

But back to our story.  I knew we would be getting together last night, so I either needed to make a second batch of the Triple Chocolate or another flavor.  And I had been wanting to try Pioneer Woman's Vanilla Bean Scones for quite some time now, so chose another flavor.  However what I really wanted to try about her recipe was the glaze, and since I like a fluffier scone, I decided to put her glaze with a KAF scone.  This is a basic scone recipe that you can modify any number of ways as shown in the link and comments.  I won't make you crazy with pics from making both recipes, so I will simply let you peruse both of the above links to get the basic idea of what I did plus these few bullets:

• Glaze - did PW's recipe, using cream and 2% milk since I never have whole on hand
• Scone - used a vanilla bean and 3 drops of orange oil as the flavoring with the milk
• Scone - did not add any chips, fruit or nuts option
• Glazing - since the KAF scone is fluffier and not as thin as PW's, I did not dunk the whole thing in the glaze, because they were starting to fall apart a bit when I dunked just the top and sides

Do you combine recipes a lot?  I do it a lot.  A lot.  I rarely follow a single recipe that I find, but more often will combine what I think are the best parts of two or even three recipes when I'm cooking.

Here's two close ups of the vanilla bean before I spend the rest of our time together on the Triple Chocolate.

Right out of the oven...

...and now all glazed and ready to eat.  Can you see the specks of vanilla bean paste?  Yea, baby!  That's the good stuff!  (Extra points if you now have that country song in your head!)

And now for our Triple Chocolate recipe and steps.  This is also a KAF recipe.  This is the link and below is the paste of the ingredients.  I pretty much followed this recipe as stated, but I didn't follow the instructions exactly.  What are we gonna do with me???  Just call me a Recipe Rebel.  (Ooo, I like that name!)

Scones

• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2/3 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour or Premium Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional for flavor and color
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into pats
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup milk or liquid whey (the liquid drained from yogurt)

Glaze

• 2/3 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup half & half or liquid coffee creamer

I like to use my food processor when making scones.  I know some of you just gasped when you read that, and I know - there is a risk of over-handling the dough. 

"You don't want to cut with cookie cutters for fear of over-handling the dough, but you'll use a food processor?!"  

Valid question.  Please don't walk out on me just yet.  I don't over mix the dough; I "pulse" rather than push the "on" button.  And I have a lot of success.  The scones come out fluffy and soft and not dry.  (I'm not a dry scone fan, sorry.  If you are, that's fine; I just prefer a softer, thicker, fluffier, moister scone.)

Wanna see?

I put the dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor (including the white whole wheat - so see?  These are healthy scones!)  Never mind the stick of butter on top there.  

I pulsed the butter in...

...and then added the liquid ingredients (milk, egg and almond since I'm about out of vanilla extract).

I pulsed again, until the dough almost came together.  This is where you can easily over mix in a food processor so err on the side of under mixing rather than over mixing.

I dumped it out on the board (should be dusted with a confectioner's sugar (3 T.) and cocoa (1 t.) mixture) and then added the mini chocolate chips.  I mixed these in by hand.

I shaped the dough into two 6-inch circles...(you can see the powdered sugar/cocoa mixture on the surface)

...and then cut in wedges. (I did 8 wedges instead of 6 since I wanted them a bit smaller.)  I embellished the surface with a few more chocolate chips and some chopped up white chocolate before sliding them into the freezer for about 30 minutes.  This freezer resting time is called for in a number of KAF scone recipes (not this one) but I find that it helps the dough relax and bake up fluffier, so I did it on this recipe, too.

Finally I baked them at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they looked like this and tested clean with a tester.

These could be eaten just like this, but this is for a valentine, so you gotta include the chocolate glaze!  (I do not ever have coffee creamer on hand, so I just used 1/2 and 1/2.)  And since I had the vanilla bean glaze made, too, I drizzled a bit of that over the chocolate.  (I'm bad like that.)

And some would say that I coulda/shoulda stopped there.  But I had more mini chocolate chips and white chocolate on hand so I had to add those!

And NOW I will declare these ready to share with your valentine and enjoy!

Hope this inspires you to bake up something special for your sweetie and your family.  (No need to wait till Valentine's Day either!)

Thanks for stopping by!  Next week is cookie....and I have a plan there I'm getting excited about, too!

Love,

Deb