23 January 2011

Now and Later

I love chocolate-covered cherries, and I love Black Forest chocolate cake, and I love the even easier take on it, a moist chocolate cake with a can of cherry pie filling mixed in.  I simply cannot think of any better combo than chocolate and cherries.

Another thing I love is scones.  Here's why:
  • They're easier than biscuits
  • They seem so much fancier
  • I can make a whole batch and freeze half for later and it will be just as good.
When I found a recipe for chocolate-cherry scones, I thought "what's not to love?"  Even better, these are not terribly bad for you, being made with whole grains.  At least, while having the melty chocolate and dried cherries surrounded by a rich crumb, I know that I'm getting in some protein, fiber, antioxidants.

This recipe makes 16 scones, way more than we can or should eat in a morning. (Note: the recipe I linked to is not exactly the one I used, but very similar.  Mine came from King Arthur.  My batch of scones used barley flour instead of whole wheat, and I used almond extract instead of vanilla.  I was out of vanilla.  Almond worked just fine.)  What I do for scones and also biscuits is go ahead and roll out the dough and cut it, and then take what I'm not going to eat right away and put that on a baking sheet.  I put the baking sheet in the freezer until the dough is frozen and then I bag the scones up for the freezer.  Whenever I want them, I just pull out what I want and bake it just like normal, maybe adding a minute or two.

Scones are easier than biscuits mainly because you just pat out the dough rather than roll it, and you just cut wedges rather than use a biscuit cutter.  But easier isn't the same as easy.  They do take some time, and you've got to use a pastry cutter and get your hands dirty - unless you have a food processor, which I don't.  But the hour that I invested this weekend makes a pretty special breakfast treat for three breakfasts around here.  I'm definitely serving these on Valentine's Day.  My love letter to my family.

If this weren't my favorite combination, I think I'd find some version of scones that was irresistable to moi, and bake some/freeze some.  We have some dark winter mornings ahead, and this can be just sort of thing to make a day more special.

1 comment:

  1. Scones for Valentine's Day. What a great idea! These sound great and I'm going to give them a try on our next snowy day (there have been quite a few here in Boston)! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete