Quick Buttermilk Scones with Ginger

So you make a buttermilk cake and find yourself with half a quart of buttermilk. What to do? I made somethin' out of nothin' by turning my breakfast dilemma (empty fridge) into something delicious - buttermilk scones. These are basically quick drop biscuits, but they turned out so tender and buttery that A) it's hard to believe they're low-fat and B) I may have to cook with buttermilk all the time!

Buttermilk Drop Scones with Ginger
recipe from The Joy of Cooking

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 large egg
1 cup non-fat buttermilk
3 1/2 tbsp melted, warm butter
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger (or dried fruit of your choice)

• Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
• Wisk together dry indredients in a medium-sized bowl.
• Wisk together wet ingredients and candied ginger, then pour all at once into dry ingredients.
• Mix with a fork just until the dry ingredients are moistened. The dough will be quite sticky. Use a soup spoon or ice cream scoop to drop the dough in mounds about 2 1/2 inches wide one inch apart on the baking sheet.
• Bake until the tops are golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Cinnamon Buns

Even though it's still 80 degrees in New York, something about October signals fall. Maybe it's the leaves turning brown and landing in the gutter. Or maybe it's the neighbors, who already have their stoop decked out in fake spiderwebs and plastic bats. Or maybe it's the way the breeze swoops in, cooler than the sunshine and humidity would predict, reminding us that winter really isn't that far off.

In any case, I decided to make cinnamon buns. I've always wanted to and finally found a reipe that seemed relatively easy to put together. In fact, this recipe was more difficult in execution than it seemed it would be. The dough is very sticky and split apart when I rolled it out and again when I rolled it up. Removing the baked buns from the pan "without seperating" was mere wishful thinking on the part of the recipe writers, or maybe they just had a really big spatula. Instead of emerging as eight rolls all stuck together, I ended up with a jumbled mass of bread and melted sugar. Still, it must be said that these buns are all kind of delicious. The biscuit part is very nice, and the filling crisps up into sort of a toffee on the outside. I don't know who ever thought to christen these rolls a breakfast food, however; they are so sweet my teeth hurt.



Quick Cinnamon Buns with Buttermilk Icing

Melted butter is used in both the filling and the dough and to
grease the pan; it’s easiest to melt the total amount (8
tablespoons) at once and measure it out as you need it. The
finished buns are best eaten warm, but they hold reasonably well
for up to 2 hours. Makes 8 buns.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted, for pan

Cinnamon-Sugar Filling
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed, 5 1/4 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted

Biscuit Dough
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces), plus
additional flour for work surface
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted

Icing
2 tablespoons cream cheese , softened
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup confectioners' sugar (4 ounces)


1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425
degrees. Pour 1 tablespoon melted butter in 9-inch nonstick cake
pan; brush to coat pan. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking
spray; set aside.

2. To make cinnamon-sugar filling: Combine sugars, spices, and salt
in small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with fork or
fingers until mixture resembles wet sand; set filling mixture aside.

3. To make biscuit dough: Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk and 2 tablespoons
melted butter in measuring cup or small bowl. Add liquid to dry
ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until liquid is absorbed
(dough will look very shaggy), about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to
lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth and no
longer shaggy.

4. Pat dough with hands into 12 by 9-inch rectangle. Following
illustrations below, fill, roll, cut, and arrange buns in buttered
cake pan. Brush with 2 tablespoons remaining melted butter. Bake
until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Use offset metal
spatula to loosen buns from pan; without separating, slide buns out
of pan onto greased cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before icing.

5. To make icing and finish buns: While buns are cooling, line
rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (for easy cleanup); set
rack with buns over baking sheet. Whisk cream cheese and buttermilk
in large nonreactive bowl until thick and smooth (mixture will look
like cottage cheese at first). Sift confectioners’ sugar over;
whisk until smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds. Spoon glaze
evenly over buns; serve immediately.


STEP BY STEP: Rolling Up Cinnamon Buns

1. Brush dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle evenly
with filling, leaving 1/2-inch border of plain dough around edges.
Press filling firmly into dough.
2. Using bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen dough from work
surface. Starting at long side, roll dough, pressing lightly, to
form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.

3. Roll log seam-side down and cut evenly into eight pieces. With
hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal open edges and
keep filling in place.
4. Place one roll in center of prepared nonstick pan, then place
remaining seven rolls around perimeter of pan.



*Cooks Illustrated 2002

Uber-Delicious Pumpkin Nut Loaf

'Tis the season for fall favorites, I guess... this is the second pumpkin recipe in the very short life of this blog. But when you get a jones for a flavor, you gotta stick with it until it's done. I guess the pumpkin passion sprung from a cookbook my mom got me in October, called, appropriately, the New Pumpkin Cookbook. It's not really new, though -- it was published in 1981 by the group that puts on the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. It's a beautifully laid out cookbook, printed in burnt orange and chocolate brown, with lovely accompanying line drawings of pumpkins and pies and people. And, of course, it's filled with great recipes using pumpkin.

I made bourbon pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and made some pumpkin muffins a few weeks ago, but the pumpkin nut loaf I made the other day was the most delicious and, therefore, blog-worthy. It's fragrant, moist, sweet, spicy, and very pumpkiny. The woman who submitted the recipe to the cookbook is Eunice, "the wife of Francis Collings of Petaluma, two times World Champion Pumpkin Grower," so I guess she should know from cooking pumpkins. I followed the recipe to the letter except I put some whole wheat flour in there, and I also added a cup of dried cranberries, because they always lend a nice spark to spice loaves.

Eunice's Pumpkin Nut Loaf

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooked mashed or canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans are good)
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins (optional)

• Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix together the oil, water, eggs, and pumpkin. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet, folding in until well blended. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour & 10 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.