Nutella Scones - Club Baked

I love nutella! The combination of chocolate and hazelnuts is so rich and delicious! This recipe combines chocolate scones with a nutella filling. I love the way the Baked bakers instruct you to make the scones. You make a square, fold them and then cut them in triangles. So much easier than the ways I have formed scones in the past.

My scones were a little dry. I think I overbaked them just slightly. I am still trying to get baking right in my new convection oven. I also think they needed more nutella in the middle. All in all I was a little disappointed.



If you'd like to give these a try, you can find the recipe at the PhDcupcaker. Check out the other Club Baked baker's scones here!

I am linking this to Miz Helen's Full plate Thursday, Foodie Friday and Sweet Tooth Friday.

Orange Scented Scones - SMS

Due to a family emergency, we made a quick day to trip to Kansas City. Today I am trying to get the things I wanted to do this weekend done in one day. My baking for the weekend was going to be TWD Cottage Cheese Pufflets and SMS Orange Scented Scones. After reading some of the comments on the dough for the TWD recipe and considering my dough skills, I decided just to bake the SMS recipe.

Since I felt like I was in race mode today, I measured and arranged all of the ingredients in advance so as to not make mistakes. I read the recipe well or so I thought. I pulsed the dough and when I went to fold it into the wet mixture, I realized a lot of the butter had settled on the bottom. Too late to correct, half the dough is in the wet mixture. The dough seemed to have a good texture when I rolled it out, so I am hoping they are still good. As I put them in the oven, I realized the glaze was supposed to go on them BEFORE I baked them. I decided to go ahead and bake them and make an icing style glaze to drizzle over them.



The reason I decided to join the SMS and TWD baking groups, is to improve my baking skills and bake recipes outside of my normal comfort zone. It's a great learning experience and next time, I will check the food processor before I fold into the wet mixture.

This weeks recipe was chosen by Robin of Lady Craddock's Bakery. You can find the other SMS bakers here. There are some very talented and creative bakers in this group.

Rosemary Scones

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the rosemary is beautiful and plentiful. This is a recipe I watched Giada De Laurentis make last week. I've never been very good at breads, pie crusts and pastries but I've always made the dough "by hand". Giada claims this is an "easy" dough to make and made it in the food processor. They look wonderful, so I decided to give them a try.



Rosemary Scones
Adapted from Giada De Laurentis

Scones:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup jam

Glaze:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon
2 cups powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or silpat).

In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, baking powder, rosemary, sea salt and butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer the mixture to a medium bow. Gradually stir in the cream until the mixture forms a dough. On a lightly floured work surface, rool out the dough into 1/2 inch thick, 10 inch circle. Using a heart shaped cookie cuter, cut out heart shaped pieces of dough and place on the cookie sheet. Gently knead together any leftover pieces of dough and cut into heart shapes and add to the baking sheet. Using a small round measuring spoon, make an indentation in the center of each pastry heart. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of ham into the indentation. Bake for 18 to 2o minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Transfer scones to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes.

To make the glaze, mix together lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Gradually add the water until the mixture is thin enough to spread. Using a spoon, drizzle the glaze over the scones. Let the scones set for approximately 30 minutes. Can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days.

My notes on this recipe:

One of the keys a good dough is making sure the butter is very cold. In the summer I keep my flour in the refrigerator, to keep away those pesky summer bugs. If you keep your flour in the refrigerator, allow it to warm to room temperature before using (approximately an hour).

The glaze recipe made way too much glaze for the amount of scones, next time I will cut the recipe in half.

I followed Giada's recipe exactly with one exception. Her recipe called for Strawberry jam. I used my mother in law's homemade, Strawberry Rhubarb jam instead.