The Fragrance of Gingerbread Scones

 Sweetie and I visited our daughter, son-in-law and grandson last weekend and had such a great time. It was rainy but that meant that baking gingerbread scones with Raine was even nicer since the warm spices of gingerbread scones gave a wonderful holiday spice fragrance to the whole downstairs.

I used a recipe off the internet and stayed pretty close to it, although I increased the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon, but everyone agreed that another 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon would have made the scones even better. They did taste better the next day, so perhaps in another day they would have been just right without more cinnamon, but scones are best right after you bake them, usually, so I'm going to write up the recipe with that extra 1 teaspoon.

These are lovely scones, just a bit crumbly, enriched with molasses as well as brown sugar, plus the spices of winter. Half of them were given a drizzle of icing and even Sweetie, who had asked for a drizzle-free scone but tried one with the drizzle, agreed that the drizzle improved them, so go for the drizzle!

Gingerbread Scones

by Liren Baker of Kitchen COnfidate Blog

Ingredients

For the scones:

• ▢2 1/2 cups

  all-purpose flour


• ▢1 tablespoon baking powder
• ▢1/2 cup brown sugar
• ▢1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢1 1/2 teaspoons

  ground cinnamon


• ▢1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢1/2 cup unsalted butter very cold, cut into small pieces
• ▢2 large eggs
• ▢1/2 cup buttermilk, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing the scones
• ▢1/4 cup molasses
• ▢2 teaspoons sparking sugar 

For the glaze:

• ▢1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar or more, depending on consistency, sifted
• ▢1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢Pinch ground cloves
• ▢1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions

For the Scones

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture, until you have coarse crumbs. This can also be done with two knives or a food processor.
• Whisk the eggs lightly and combine with 1/2 cup buttermilk and molasses. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just moist. The dough will be sticky.
• On a well-floured surface, turn the sticky dough out and knead very lightly until the flour is fully incorporated into the dough. If the dough feels too sticky, lightly add more flour as you shape the dough. Form the dough into a disk about 7-inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
• Place the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400° F.
• Once the scones are chilled, lightly brush with remaining buttermilk. Stir together the sparkling sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the scones. Bake for 20 minutes, or until puffed. Transfer to a wire rack.

For the Glaze

• Whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir in the maple syrup, whisking until smooth. If you find that it’s too thick, add more maple syrup or a few teaspoons of water. If you find that the glaze is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. Drizzle over or dip the scones and set on the wire rack.

A Winter Cold

Wish I had that baking angel doing Christmas baking for me!

That rain that I was hoping for (in my last post) is making a lot of noise outside, mostly because there are also high wind gusts. We should get a good soaking...something like three inches tonight and Saturday.

I wouldn't mind usually, but I have been laid up with a bad winter cold for the better part of a week and now that I'm feeling a little better I was hoping to go tomorrow to get a Christmas tree. Looks like it will be Sunday instead, when the rain should be gone. I haven't been out of the house in days...starting to get cabin fever or something.

One of the nasty things about this cold is that I had major brain fog. Not only couldn't I do simple things like write Christmas cards, I couldn't even figure out how to get started doing that...couldn't contemplate starting to figure it out. Of course there were plenty of days of constant nose blowing, more days of deep, wet coughing, lots of days with naps...and I don't usually do naps...and no appetite. 

Guess you can tell that this isn't going to be a cheery post about baking Christmas cookies, right? The one piece of good news (other than getting more rain) is that they delivered our new refrigerator today. Fits perfectly, makes less noise than our old fridge, but otherwise is less than exciting because it's almost identical to our old fridge. Turns out that enclosing the fridge with cabinets overhead and a wood panel below the cabinets, with walls on two other sides and a doorway right where the fridge is makes it almost impossible to purchase another brand or size of fridge. Fortunately I liked the old one and like the new one...and it was on sale.

Hope that you, dear reader, are cracking on with Christmas baking even if mine has to wait a bit yet.

Happy Friday the 13th! 

Hoping For Rain

When we travel to Washington state at this time of year we almost always get some rain, but here in Northern California it's sometimes hard to believe in the 'rainy season'. We did get a lot of rain in November, but December, so far, has been dry and is supposed to stay dry for the next week or two. Fingers crossed that the rain comes for a few days mid-month and then stops for the Christmas holiday...but that's not a sure thing, either.

For a number of years I've checked out the pyracanth shrub berries each fall to see if I can guess how wet a winter it will be overall. It seems to be a fairly good harbinger. In the years when there are lots of berries packed onto the branches we have a wet winter and in the years when the shrubs have berries spread apart on the branches and a smaller number of berries we tend to have a dryer winter with less rain overall.

This year the berries are packed (see photo above), so I expect that by March we will have had a good wet winter. Check back in March and see how we did!

Cooking and baking recipes will be suspended for a few days but then I expect to post some pie made with one of the grandsons...probably on Monday or Tuesday.