Bacon Fig Scones

I made this Bacon Fig Scones using Macheesmo's recipe because I was still in the mood some bacon-y scones even after having Bacon Cheddar Scones in the past week and since I had some dried figs that I needed to use. I thought that if bacon and figs are great together with Brussels Sprouts, they would be perfect in pastries too - sweet and salty goodness.


Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/3 lb dried figs, cut into small dice
8 slices bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
2 tablespoons cream or water
raw sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

• Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda together.
• Cut in the butter until you have pea-sized pieces.
• Add in the chopped figs and bacon and stir to combine.
• Add all of the liquid and stir a few times until just mix.
• Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured flat surface.
• Pat the dough into a ball.
• Using a well-floured rolling pin or palms of your hands, flatten the dough into a flat disk about 3/4 - 1 inch thick.
• Cut the dough into 8 to 10 wedges, depending on the size scone you prefer.
• Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl.
• Brush each wedge with the egg wash.
• Place scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat; bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle.

Bacon Cheddar Scones

Ever since I got back from my Napa Valley trip, I have been thinking about Bouchon Bakery’s bacon cheddar scone. I searched all over the web trying to find the recipe and if there is a Bouchon Bakery cookbook. Unfortunately, I could not find any – although now I know that the Bouchon Bakery cookbook is on the work to be released some time in 2012. I decided to use the recipe from Dork-a-thon (thank you, Emma!) because I had to have some bacon cheddar scones soon! They turned out really good although they’re not the same as Bouchon’s scones – maybe not enough cheese & bacon? Next time, I’ll try to add more to the mixture. Now, if only I know how to take good pictures of these scones... it's hard to take a good one!


Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, grated
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, thinly sliced
10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3/4-1 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used heavy whipping cream instead)
1 large egg
2 tablespoons water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400°F .
• Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
• Gradually cut butter in with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles small peas.
• Stir in cheese, green onions, bacon.
• Add in 1 cup heavy cream to the flour and cheese mixture.
• Mix by hand just until the ingredients are incorporated.
• If the dough is too dry to hold together, use the remaining heavy cream, adding one tablespoon at a time, until dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball.
• Stir as lightly and as little as possible to ensure a light-textured scone.
• Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured flat surface.
• Pat the dough into a ball.
• Using a well-floured rolling pin or palms of your hands, flatten the dough into a flat disk about ¾-1 inch thick.
• Cut the dough into 8 to 10 wedges, depending on the size scone you prefer.
• Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl.
• Brush each wedge with the egg wash.
• Place scones on an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or silicone mat); bake 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle.
• Serve warm and enjoy with a fresh brewed coffee.

Carrot Raisin Muffins

The weather had been so bad in San Francisco lately and the forecast called for another wet and stormy night on Friday. Since I didn't want to go out in the rain by myself while Porgy did some work, I went to the Whole Foods during a rain break and got the ingredients to make Carrot Raisin Muffins. I had a similar muffin from the Golden West earlier in the week and totally loving it. I used the recipe from Craft: (check out their site for step-by-step directions and pictures) and added some extra raisins and almonds to add some sweetness and crunchiness to the muffins.


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup raisins, soaked in rum for 5 minutes and drained
1/2 cup sliced almonds
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) butter, melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
Juice of 1 orange
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  
• Peel and grate about 4-5 carrots, using the regular-sized hole on a box-type cheese grater. Set aside.
• Grate the ginger with a microplane grater until you have a fine pulp. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the sugars, eggs, vanilla, orange zest and juice, milk, and ginger until well combined. Stir in the melted butter.
• In a large bowl, stir together the white and wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix to combine well.
• Add the grated carrot to the flour mixture and stir to coat and evenly distribute. Make a well in the center of the flour and carrot mixture.
  
• Add in the raisins in the liquid mixture and pour everything into the flour mixture. Add ub the sliced almonds and, using a wooden spoon, stir until combined and moistened. Do not over mix.
• Line muffin cups with paper liners and pour 1/4 cup batter per muffin cup. Bake on the middle rack for ~25 minutes until the muffins are golden brown or until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.
• Set on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, remove the muffins from the tin and let them cool another 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle powdered sugar and some more sliced almonds on top.
  

Roast Pork Hash

After eating the Roast Pork Shoulder for several days in a row for lunch and dinner, both Porgy and I were getting bored with it so I had to figure out what to do with the 2-lb meat leftover. I remembered reading a NYTimes article on hash and, interestingly enough, one of the recipes was called Country Pork and Apple Hash which uses Pernil-style Roast Pork. Unfortunately, since I do not have any cast-iron pan, I had to use my non-stick pan to cook the hash so it was hard to get the meat and potatoes crisped. All in all, it was a delicious dish and it was specially satisfying to be able to eat it with a sunny side-up egg on top for a Sunday brunch.


Ingredients:
4 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 onions, minced
2 pounds roast pork, leftover or pernil from Latin American restaurant
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 sprigs thyme, leaves only
Poached or sunny-side-up eggs, for serving

Directions:

• In a large pot, cover potatoes with cold salted water, bring to a simmer and cook until barely tender (do not overcook, or boil rapidly). Drain.
• Melt butter in a very wide skillet. Add onions and cook, stirring, until softened and golden around edges, about 10 minutes. Add pork and broth; cook over medium-high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and thyme leaves and cook, stirring occasionally and pressing mixture in pan until hot and edges are crisped. Serve topped with eggs, if desired.

Dippy Eggs and Soldiers

Some of my most cherished moments with my 8 month old son happen on weekend mornings. Right after I get ready and my husband takes his turn to shower, I announce to my son "foodie time!" and I start to get my breakfast ready while letting him crawl around me in the kitchen.

The bread has been made the night before. I boil the eggs, toast the bread, put on butter, brew a cup of English Breakfast tea, and set a relatively elegant and complicated breakfast onto our dining table. Then I put my son in his high chair and hand him his banana. And we both just dig into our food, like two ferocious animals who haven't eaten in days. At the end of the feast, we look at each other, and laugh uncontrollably for no apparent reason. Him from his sugar high, and me from my egg/butter/bread/caffeine/sugar fix.

This egg/butter/bread/caffeine/sugar is possibly my favorite food combo. Or, we can call it by its fancier name: dippy eggs and soldiers. It's really just soft boiled eggs where you dip your sliced toast in them to scoop out the runny yolk. Simple yet decadent.

To make the homemade buttermilk soldiers:

I have tried many buttermilk bread recipes, and after numerous tweaks here and there, this is my favorite recipe which I have memorized. The key ingredients are wheat gluten and dry milk powder.

Ingredients (yields a small 1lb loaf):
2 and 1/4 cups of King Arthur bread flour
1 egg
1/2 cup of buttermilk
2 and 1/3 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of wheat gluten
1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of dry milk powder
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of yeast

Directions:

• Follow directions from you bread machine
• Or follow directions from this recipe

To make dippy eggs:

Ingredients:
farm fresh eggs (or whatever good quality eggs you can find)

Directions:

• Boil a small pot of water.
• After water boils, lower carefully the eggs in water along with an egg timer.
• Turn down the heat so the water is simmering.
• While waiting for eggs to cook, slice your bread, butter them, and brew your tea.
• Depending on how hard you want your eggs, it will take between 3 to 5 minutes to cook an egg with fairly runny yolk.

Best Blueberry Muffins?

In order to pep myself up for first day at the office in 2011, I decided to bake some muffins to snack at the office. I saw this Best Blueberry Muffins recipe on America’s Test Kitchen website and found it interesting the way the ATK folks spiked up the blueberry flavor in the muffin by adding concentrated blueberry jam, instead of adding more blueberries, to keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffin.

Since I was feeling lazy, I used a store-bought blueberry jam instead of making my own – and boy oh boy, it was a bad decision. The jam that I bought was not concentrated enough so I had to increase the baking time by 2-3 more minutes per batch and it seemed to make the muffin texture to be more dense. So... unfortunately I can’t tell you whether these are the Best Blueberry Muffins or not – for now that is; I know for sure that I will make them again including the blueberry jam from scratch!


PS: I wonder if I can use this concentrate blueberry jam idea to spike up the blueberry flavor in Ina’s Blueberry Crumb Cake? What do you think?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh blueberries, picked over
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For Blueberry jam:

• 1 cup fresh blueberries, picked over
• 1 teaspoon sugar

For Lemon-Sugar topping:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

Directions:

• Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
  
• Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
• Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion.
  
• Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.
• Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Dynamo Donuts

This morning ShunBun surprised Mo-Fo and I by bringing these delicious Dynamo donuts to our early morning coffee ritual at Blue Bottle Coffee. I have always been wanting to try them out since it first opened because of their interesting flavor combination and the hype surrounding its maple glazed bacon apple donut. After having my share of the donut, I was hooked and kept reaching over Mo-Fo to get the bacon bits that fell off from the donut. I also went nuts over the Spiced Chocolate donut because the chipotle dredge totally compliment the chocolate flavor in a nice way. It was a great way to start a week-day morning!


Lemon Thyme (donut made with lemon zest and fresh thyme and has a lemon honey glaze) and Maple Glazed Bacon Apple (studded with bacon and apple sauted in bacon fat maple glaze and crispy bacon):


Vanilla Bean (vanilla and orange zest donut with a vanilla bean glaze) and Spiced Chocolate (chocolate donut with cinnamon, sugar and chipotle dredge):

Poached Egg Breakfast

After a few days of cold summer weather in San Francisco, it felt so nice to wake up to a warm and sunny morning. This Sunday was one of those days and even Arthur was in a good mood.


I decided to make Poached Egg breakfast with breakfast sausages from Little City Market in North Beach and hash browns from Trader Joe's. Since I have never made poached eggs before, I went to Simply Recipes site because I know that Elise always has great step-by-step directions for her recipes.

Slowly frying the sausages...


Poaching the eggs (my pictures are not as good as Elise's) - even Arthur had one.


Our Sunday breakfast... yummy!

Farm Fresh Eggs

One of the reasons I love living in San Francisco is the almost-daily Farmers' Market somewhere in the city. Yesterday, I went to the Castro Farmers' Market to get some vegetables and, while browsing the vendors, made an impulse purchase of Farm Fresh Eggs at Shelly's Garden.


I love the taste of fresh eggs... they are so much more delicious and sweeter (if that even makes sense) than eggs from those big grocery stores. Since these eggs were laid just a couple days ago, I woke up a little bit earlier this morning to make a simple breakfast – a couple of sunny side up eggs with a side of hashbrowns using my new Scanpan pan. Delicious!

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

Last week for Christmas I made cream cheese cinnamon rolls. I thought it would be great for breakfast after having a wonderful Christmas eve dinner at Mo-Fo Duo's. I came across this recipe a few months ago at Joy the Baker and have been cooing over it ever since. Although it was a bit intimidating and complicated, her directions were very clear and easy to follow. The smell of the rolls baking Christmas morning was heavenly making it definitely worth the effort.


Here's her recipe with minimal adjustments from me...

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
1 1/4 oz package active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon, plus 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted, plus more kneading
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan

For the Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (I didn't use this because BigDaddy is allergic to it)
1/4 cup raisins
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I substituted this with nutmeg)
2 tablespoons maple syrup (I substituted this with honey)
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the icing:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:

• In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 cup water heated to 115F. Stir to combine and let sit until frothy and foamy, about 10 minutes.
• Add remaining sugar, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Beat with a wire whisk by hand until well combined. Fit the bowl onto the mixer, fitting with the dough hook attachment. Add the flour and salt and mix on medium speed until the dough just begins to come together. Turn the machine on medium-high and knead the dough for 4 minutes.
• Add the butter and continue to knead for about 6 minutes. The dough will be wet and sticky. Place the dough on a well floured work surface, and knead about 1/3 cup all-purpose flour into the dough. Set the dough to rest in a large greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours, until doubled in size.
• While the dough rises, make the filling. Combine the sugar, brown sugar, pecans, raisins, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir in the honey. Set aside.
  
• When the dough has doubled in size, dump it from the bowl onto a heavily floured work surface and gently knead the dough until it is no longer sticky (for a couple minutes), adding more flour (a couple tablespoons of flour) as needed. Once it's no longer sticky, place a kitchen towel over the dough and let rest for 5 minutes before rolling it out.
• Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10x10-inch square.
• In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese with a knife or spoon with it's smooth and spreadable.
• Spread the cream cheese evenly over the dough square and fold the square into thirds. Take the open ends of the rectangle and fold into thirds again, to make a smaller dough square.
• Invert the dough so that the seam is face down and, using the rolling pin, gently roll it into a 10x20-inch rectangle. Some of the cream cheese might sneaks through so be gentle.
• Turn the dough so that the short edge is near (or parallel) to you and brush the top of the dough with half of the melted butter.
• Pour all of the filling onto the dough. Spread evenly, leaving a 1-inch boarder at one of the short edges of the dough so the roll can be properly sealed. Lightly press the filling into the dough.
• Carefully lift up the bottom edge of the dough and roll it forward into a tight cylinder. Place dough cylinder seam side down on a cutting board. Using a sharp, thin knife, trim off the uneven edges and cut the cylinder into 8 equal slices.
• Put the slices, cut side up and evenly spaced in a buttered 9x13-inch baking dish. Joy recommended light colored metal baking dish but I used a Pyrex baking dish instead. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to let rise for 2 hours OR refrigerate rolls overnight.
• Heat the oven to 375F and uncover the rolls. If you refrigerated the rolls, let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes or so before baking. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
• While the rolls are baking, whisk together the confectioner sugar and buttermilk in a small bowl until smooth.
• Transfer the pan of cinnamon rolls to a cooling rack. Brush with remaining butter and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a fork, drizzle the icing over the rolls.
  
• Serve immediately and enjoy!
  

Maple Pecan Granola

Earlier this week, I made Maple Pecan Granola using recipes from Closet Cooking and NYTimes' Bitten Blog. I don't usually eat breakfast... however, since I started working out again, I feel that I should start eating breakfast in the morning. I guess if I have to eat breakfast in the morning, I might as well make it delicious and healthy. Today, I had the granola with Saint Benoit yogurt before heading to the gym. Tasty...


Ingredients:
9 cups of rolled oats (not quick-cooking or instant)
2 cups of chopped pecans
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cup of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• In a bowl, combine oats, nuts and seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar and maple syrup.
• Place on a sheet pan and put in oven.
• Bake for 60 minutes or a little longer, stirring occasionally every 15 minutes or so.
• Mixture should brown evenly; the browner it gets without burning, the crunchier the granola will be.