First class was all about Quick Breads: muffins, scones, zucchini or banana breads, pancakes, biscuits...
I have done a few Quick Breads and some of them have turned out quite well. I have a very good Banana Bread recipe for example, after testing quite a few recipes and tweaking them to suit my taste and preference. I now only make Banana Breads using this one labored recipe!
I have made scones in the past...there is nothing more blissful than a cup of tea and a hot scone loaded with Devonshire cream and jam (yum! think Paddington's on Robertson Blvd. on a Saturday afternoon...) My scones in the past aren't successful: I usually over bake them, over mix so they are dry and tough. So I was very excited to finally get a sure fire recipe from our instructor Chef Carol, of Cream Scones. It is absolutely perfect. I have made it three times this week and what I have learned about Scones is this:
Scones are best right out of the oven so if you want to eat them for breakfast, that means waking up at 5am and in order to do this efficiently, when you are technically still half asleep, you must measure all the ingredients the night before, use the best ingredients you can afford because it does matter, the butter should always be very cold, you need to toss and mix everything by hand so work quickly and lastly, do not over mix the batter. And one more thing: it is 425 degrees for 14 minutes - do not deviate!
I like the orange zest and currants combination, not so much the chocolate chip. I like using sour cherry, would like to try using candied ginger in the future. Traditional scones are cream scones (heavy whipping cream and do not substitute!) and currants.
Now Muffins. My favorite muffins are Blueberries or Lemon and I already have good recipes for both - originally Martha Stewart's (Blueberry) and Dorie Greenspan (Lemon). In class, we had to do an Apple Streusel Muffin, so I was very excited, something new! The first time I made it was in class, so that turned out perfectly. The second time, I made it at home and it was a failure (aughg!). I should say, it wasn't a fault of mine. I lost my handout from school so on the day I wanted to test the recipe, I called the School and asked for someone to email it to me. The recipe I received was slightly different from the ones they handed in class. I now realize the recipe had one glaring omission: no flour for the topping. I only realized this after I peeped into the oven and saw the topping turning into caramel and spilling all over the pan! Also, I did not have the proper baking tool at home (the recipe needed tall muffin liners, I had regular ones, so they weren't tall enough to contain the topping and prevent it from spilling all over...disaster struck!
I also decided that the School's recipe was too oily and not sweet enough. The topping, once you've added the proper amount of flour, was on the other hand, great. But I have to look for a better Apple Muffin recipe..I'm on a quest!
I will challenge myself to make a Carrot Cake this weekend, using techniques so far learned at School. So we will see!
