Maple Drop Scones

This past Winter I made batch after batch of Maple Drop Scones, developing and perfecting the recipe for the Spring issue of the new Edible Green Mountains.  The scones are now a family favorite and I hope a favorite of many Vermonters who picked up the Spring Issue of Edible Green Mountains.  A friend who tried the recipe was impressed that she finally found a scone recipe she could make at home that produced a moist scone that did not fall apart.  They were created to celebrate the Spring crop of Vermont Maple Syrup, but they are perfect any time of the year.  I have grown to love them with rhubarb jam dolloped on the top but I also love them plain.

Scones have always been a breakfast favorite in my house, easy enough to bake even without having had any coffee yet. However these maple drop scones can even be made the night before, because the maple syrup helps them retain their tender crumb without drying out. I spent two weeks baking several variations of these scones before I found the balance I was looking for. By the final batch I began to fear my family would grow tired of them and refuse to eat them for months. After eating the last scone my 7 year old glared at the now empty baking tray, complaining that there were none left. It is rare to find any baked good that can be coveted by my picky children after eating it several times a day for two weeks!

The maple in these is admittedly subtle; however, none of my testers would allow me to think about adding more. “If you hadn’t told me these were maple scones, I would not have known what the amazing flavor came from. Don’t change a thing, though; they are perfect. I don’t usually think of food as making me happy, but eating this is making me happy.” I think the scones are a balance between sweet and rich with a slight nutty flavor from the wheat and an elusive taste from the maple syrup. Every person I have shared them with has loved them, never noticing the whole wheat flour. A first grader, who was not my child, took a bite and stopped running, looking down at the scone in his hand with a look of surprise. “Whoa! This is so good.” I have to remember to give food to other people’s children more frequently. Although my kids did each give me 20 digits up (yes, I scored fingers and toes), there wasn’t the same level of surprise and awe.

Maple Drop Scones

When I make these scones I use a measured scoop to portion the dough. Measured scoops look like ice cream scoops and are available in a range of sizes at kitchen supply stores. I always hated the fiddly task of scooping dough with one spoon and then using a second spoon to scrape it out. The end result is never even and places sticky dough all over me and my kitchen. With these, I just scoop, and then squeeze the trigger to release the dough. If you don’t have a scoop, you can always use a small measuring cup and a spoon to measure the dough.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 cup cold, unsalted, butter cut into chunks or tablespoons

1 egg

1/4 cup grade B maple syrup

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 375° (or 325° if using convection)

Pulse the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor to mix. Add the cold butter and pulse the food processor until the mixture is broken into course crumbs with no large pieces of butter. Add the heavy cream, maple syrup and egg to the dry ingredients and pulse again until the dough is mixed and comes together. Use a light hand when mixing the wet ingredients in; if you mix the dough too much, the scones will be tough.

Scones can also be made by hand: Mix the dry ingredients well in a large bowl before adding the cold butter cut into chunks. Use a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your hands to mix the butter into the dry ingredients until it is broken up into coarse crumbs with no large pieces left. Beat the egg lightly and add it with the maple syrup and heavy cream, mixing thoroughly but gently. Be careful not to mix the dough anymore than what is necessary to combine everything evenly. Extra mixing will lead to tough scones.

Scoop out the dough onto two half sheet pans, using a commercial scooper, leaving 1 ½ inches between scones. Use anywhere from a #16 (5 ½ tablespoons) to #30 (2 ½ tablespoons) scooper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes depending on size, or until some of the scones are toasty brown around the edge.

Note: If you want a more obvious maple flavor, replace the sugar with ¼ cup maple syrup, and reduce the amount of heavy cream by 2 tablespoons. That being said, I suggest you try them as is first.

Green Tomato Beef Stew with Jamaican Spices

I spent last week in New York City moving my father out of his apartment.  The week was supposed to end with the sale of his apartment and him moving to Vermont to live in a retirement home.  I spent a week sorting through vast piles of books covered in dust, throwing out clothing that was not even good enough to be used as a rag, and throwing away mattress after mattress.  A the end of the week the apartment was miraculously empty, most of the clothing we were keeping was being shipped to Vermont, and the closing on the apartment did not happen.  So when he flew here to Burlington it was not to move in to a retirement community, instead he has been staying with a really good friend of mine who lives 15 miles away.  Every day when she drives in to work she has been dropping him off at my house for "daddy daycare".  Then she comes to my house after work and we all have dinner before they drive back to Jericho.  However guests for dinner every night does not mean I stay away from experiments in the kitchen, instead there are more tasters for new dishes.

At this time of the year I look at the green tomatoes on the vines thinking about ways to use them.  I could just can several batches of green tomato salsa and be done, but I enjoy the challenge of discovering how different flavors can be used.  One friend stays away from most green tomato recipes, saying they all smack of end of the garden desperation.  However I think green tomatoes have a role in the kitchen, one that works to highlight and balance their flavor instead of using them in an attempt to mask their presence and use them up.  Used correctly they are as much end of the garden desperation as rhubarb recipes are end of the winter desperation for something, anything, fresh. (I am not saying there are no desperation recipes for both vegetables).

When I first went in the kitchen I was planning on doing a stew with the last of the rhubarb that would be a riff on Molly Stevens' Pot Roasted Brisket with Rhubarb and Honey from All About Braising.  As I rubbed the beef with freshly ground allspice, coriander, pepper and salt I realized I could substitute green tomatoes for the rhubarb as an early fall substitution.  I used maple syrup instead of honey and added garlic and fresh thyme as my usual alterations to the regular recipe.  I replaced the golden raisins with dried apricots because they were the only dried fruit I had.  Now dried Califonia apricots will be my go-to in this recipe, any other dried fruit will be a substitution, because their tangy, sour, sweetness added just the right note.

This stew was enjoyed by all 6 people at the dinner table, from age 6 to 81.  My children even clamored over how good it was.  All the flavors came together as a cohesive whole, not a touch of end of the garden desperation, instead a new use for a unique vegetable.  It was tasty enough I think I won't wait to the end of the season to make it next year, instead I will pick some green tomatoes in the late spring.

Everyone was eating the stew so fast I couldn't get a good photo!

Green Tomato Beef Stew with Jamaican Spices
Serves 6
Serve this stew with mashed potatoes.  The amount of meat in this dish was enough to serve 6 with plenty of mashed potatoes and carrots on the side.  I prefer to serve a modest amount of meat but you can easily increase the amount of meat to suit your preferences.

1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds

1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1/8+ tsp allspice berries

1/2 tsp kosher salt or other coarse salt

1 1/4 lbs beef stew meat (you can change the quantity as you like, if you go up to 2 lbs I would double everything else)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 small onions or 1 medium one Chop the onion into 1/2 inch pieces or slice thinly (I did a mix because slicing was easier and both were fine in the final dish.  Next time I will slice all of them).

2 large garlic cloves or 3 to 4 small ones chopped finely

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 - 2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger (I used about 1 Tbsp)

1/3 cup California Dried Apricots, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (sorry, the California ones really are that much better!)
1 cup riesling or other favorite white wine
1 cup water
1 lb green tomatoes, cored and chopped into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces (do not peel)
1 bay leaf, preferably fresh
1 small bunch of thyme with the leaves stripped off (about 1/2 tsp leaves)
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup (I used Grade B)

Grind the coriander, peppercorns, allspice, and salt in a coffee grinder until finely ground.  You will have to stop and shake the spices down in the grinder a few times because this is a minimal amount.  Dry the stew meat with paper towels before rubbing the spice mixture on the meat.  Set aside while you prep the other ingredients.

In a medium sized dutch oven or heavy lidded pot heat the oil over medium high heat and add then onions.  Cook the onions, stirring frequently until they are softened and starting to caramelize (while they were cooking I prepped the ginger, apricots and tomatoes).  Add the garlic, salt and pepper, ginger and chopped apricots.  Saute for about one minute until the ginger is fragrant.

Remove the onions and other aromatics from the pan and return to medium high heat.  There should still be a thin layer of oil in the bottom of the pan, if it is not enough to keep the meat from sticking add a little more oil and then brown the meat in small batches on all sides.  As the meat is browned add it to the onions.

Once all the meat is browned set the meat and aromatics aside and add the white wine to the pan.  Cook over high heat for about 5 minutes until the volume is decreased by three quarters, while it is cooking scrape the sides to remove all the flavorful caramelized drippings from the beef and aromatics..  Once the wine is reduced add the water,green tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme leaves, and 1 Tbsp maple syrup.  Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a minute or 2 before adding the meat and onion mixture back to the pan.

Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook, covered, at a slow simmer until the meat is tender and the green tomatoes have mostly slumped into the sauce, (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours).   After about 5 minutes check the stew to make sure the stew is simmering quietly.  If it is too vigorous use a heat tamer under the pan.

Once the meat is tender remove the lid, increase the heat to medium high and reduce the sauce (however I suggest you do not go to check email while reducing the sauce.  If you do not listen and become distracted you may need to add some water to the pan because you reduced it too much).

Maple Glazed Root Vegetables with Thyme

This may not be a surprise to anyone else, but I am amazed at how much adjusting I am having to do to my work schedule.  I am lucky that I come home with my boys after picking them up from school.  However at that point all I want to do is touch base with my children about their day and then plop down on the couch checking e-mail, food blogs and facebook and this blog.  However while I do have time to check in with my children, and even the time to start Sebastian on his homework, (or as is sometimes the case argue with him about it), I need to start dinner almost right away.  It feels like our bedtime routine starts when we come home, if I don't start dinner soon enough our routine is off.

Mostly I am loving where we are right now as a family.  With both boys in school and my new job everyone has something to share at dinner.  Somehow it makes it more cohesive, or maybe that is the reduction in the whining recently over the food I'm offering, as the boys are learning to try more.  Julian's application of classroom rules and expectations at the dinner table is often hysterical.  One night he sat across from me as I told a story with his hand raised for his turn to speak.  However he did not sit there silently, "I'm being an active listener by raising my hand and waiting to speak... are you done yet?"

Happily I am still loving my job.  I am just having a hard time with fitting everything in.  It is a good thing I value cooking!  With a busy schedule it is even more important to have a game plan in the kitchen, especially when faced with a pile of vegetables to deal with.  However that sounds like planning and my cooking is more often based on whim then planning.  This is one of the successes I had recently when heading into the kitchen with the inkling of an idea but not much of a plan.

This dish is inspired by the carrots I had last week at an Americorps conference at the Stoweflake resort.  The food was surprisingly good, and most of us where getting seconds.  However that may also be because an Americorps position is supposed to pay a rate below the poverty level.  So folks may have been calorie loading.  The local food movement made its way to the labels at the buffet, however the meaning seemed to be a little lost.  So for breakfast, in October, in Vermont, the strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple and watermelon were labeled, "Seasonal Fruit."  Sure, somewhere, just not here.  However the maple glazed carrots are perfectly seasonal here right now, and will be all winter.  I added parsnips and turnips to mine as I got both this past week at my CSA.  I also added a fresh bay laurel leaf and some thyme to help balance the sweetness of the maple syrup and the vegetables.  Everyone enjoyed my rendition, although I will admit the boys did not eat the turnips.

Maple Glazed Root Vegetables with Thyme

Inspired by Maple Glazed Carrots at The Stoweflake, cooking technique adapted from Cooking with Shelburne Farms Honey Glazed Carrots

6 cups root vegetables peeled and sliced into similar sized pieces.  (I used carrots, parsnips and turnips.  Potatoes, kohlrabi and beets would all be good.  If using beets cook them separately to avoid making a pink mess of the other vegetables.)

2 Tbsp butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 - 5 Tbsp maple syrup, preferably Grade B (I used 2 Tbsp but I felt it could have used more)

3/4 cup water

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 tsp kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 fresh bay laurel leaf (optional)

Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat and add all the other ingredients.  Put the lid on and shake the pan to coat all the vegetables in the liquid.  Simmer over medium heat for 5 - 7 minutes, until the vegetables are just becoming tender.  Take the lid off the pan, increase the heat to high and cook, stirring, often until the vegetables are all coated in a glaze.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, remove the thyme stems and serve.

Pancakes

Pancakes are a standard breakfast around here. At this point I have changed the original recipe so much that the one we use is completely my own. We make them enough that both Lewis and I have the recipe memorized. This means it is much faster to prepare a batch as there is no referring back to a recipe to slow you down. Because of this these even get served on crazy school mornings. It also means I can tell you what happens when almost all of the ingredients get left out, cooking before having coffee is always a dangerous activity if you were hoping for consistency.

My boys love this recipe and at this same time they often take them for granted. If they appear too frequently they have been known to whine and ask why we can't have popovers, crepes or something else equally time consuming. I wonder if the two of them will ever realize just how spoiled they are at the table?

On the way back from vacation in Cape Cod we stayed with my brother and his family. Before going away I made up a triple batch of the dry ingredients for pancakes so we could make breakfast for both families. My brothers says his two daughters are both horribly picky eaters, vegetarians who pick the tofu out of things and discard it. When we made these pancakes for breakfast my brother had to insist that his oldest daughter, Vina, try one. She grudgingly took one bite and then happily devoured three pancakes.

While she was eating them Vina declared our pancakes "better then daddies", daddies pancakes had already been declared "better then mommies". About a minute later she asked if she had hurt daddies feelings. The answer was no, he was just ecstatic to have something she wanted to eat. When everyone was done with breakfast he quickly followed our instructions for freezing the pancakes to have another day. I don't think I have ever seen him listen to something I have to say quite so closely.

We had a lot of fun at my brothers house, even with my nieces telling Sebastian and Julian that they don't like playing with boys. Most of Julian's best friends are girls and Sebastian has several girls he play with as well, they were both mystified. There was also a small problem with our food joking clashing with the girls fear of meat. Years ago we went through the drive through at the bank and my children were both given teal blue lollipops. Both boys asked what flavor they were. Honestly what food in nature is teal blue? So I told them they were liver flavor. Ever since then teal blue lollipops are liver flavor, sometimes my boys even request liver flavor now. Well at one point all four cousins were sitting around the table and Sebastian told them the lollipops we had for the car ride were liver flavored. As an exacting vegetarian Vina freaked and ran from the table. We convinced her it was not liver, and order was restored. Its a good thing we did not try to serve liver flavored pancakes.

When making pancakes for my family it takes one and a half of the original recipe to satisfy everyones hunger. For 1 and a half times the original recipe we add another whole egg rather then try to divide an egg. I feel the recipe is better with the slightly higher amount of egg that this results in. I have listed the recipe 2 ways below, the original quantities and one and a half times the recipe, this way if you want a larger batch you won't need to do math before having coffee.

Pancake Ingredients (original batch size)

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

1 large egg

2 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Pancake Ingredients (one and a half batches: enough to satisfy all 4 people in my family)

3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

3 Tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/8 tsp baking soda (I often just use 1/2 tsp baking soda here)

1 1/2 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Sift the dry ingredients together. Measure the milk and add the egg/eggs to the milk and whisk to combine and beat the egg/eggs (I use a large glass measuring cup and then whisk the 2 together by spinning the whisk between my hands. Both my boys can imitate this move perfectly with their toy whisk). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, a few lumps are fine, overmixing is not. Add the butter while still mixing in the wet ingredients.

Use a small ladle or measuring cup to pour pancake batter onto a preheated hot griddle that has a light film of butter on it (I set my electric griddle to 350°). If adding fruit evenly press it in to the batter on the griddle, if using frozen blueberries you do no need to defrost them first. Flip the pancakes when they appear to be dry around the edges and holes appear across the surface of the pancakes. If you are unsure if they are done lift a corner of a pancake with your spatula to check the color. Cook the second side until light brown and either keep warm in a 200° oven or serve immediately with butter and real maple syrup. Sometimes I serve them with a fruit sauce like apple or plum.

Rhubarb Crumb Bars

I had other plans for what I was going to post this week. Actually I had many other plans of dishes and techniques to post. However the other night I made the rhubarb crumb bars from Catherine Newman's blog and for many reasons I had to share this recipe first. I made them while Lewis was putting the boys to bed and after they came out of the oven we stayed up late eating them. We only stopped because we really needed to go to bed. The next day I shared them with friends who all wanted the recipe. So I thought I would share the recipe with my changes here while rhubarb is still in season.

Three years ago we were deciding (and by deciding I mean arguing) about whether or not to buy our current house. Lewis spent all his time pointing out the reasons we shouldn't move, and so I spent all my time pointing out why we should. For me one of the features of the house was it came with rhubarb in the yard. If I had this recipe already Lewis would have agreed to buy the house much sooner! Rhubarb is my type of gardening. It comes up in the spring without my doing anything, which matches up perfectly with my gardening abilities. Plus it is useful in the kitchen, I don't really care all that much about growing things just because they look pretty.

I am not sure what it was about the recipe for these bars that sent me to the kitchen. Whatever it was I am glad I did. I know it wasn't her description of them as "achingly sweet and jaw-crampingly tart." I am not one of those people who craves lots of sugar. After all I don't even like soda. Now butter, oil, fat and cheese are another story. So I chose to lower the sugar and sub in some maple syrup. I wanted the flavor of the rhubarb to come through without masking it with too much sugar. They are still sweet enough to tone down the rhubarb just not "achingly" so.

I also used some whole wheat pastry flour in place of half of the white flour. If you follow this blog that shouldn't surprise you. The extra flavor that it gave to the crust really helped to highlight and bring out the rhubarbs flavor. The only two no votes I have received on them is from my boys. Their friends Silas and Rosalie both loved them, so disliking them is not a kid thing. Oh well, more for Lewis and I.

Before I present the recipe we need to take a moment to talk about a new ingredient I have been playing with. On my last visit to King Arthur Flour I bought a bottle of chocolate extract. Since then I have been adding it to many sweet dishes. I added it to sour milk butternut squash waffles twice this past week and everyone said they were the best. So I added it to the rhubarb bars and we love the end result. I am not sure what it adds, I am sure it is fine without it. I just included it in the recipe for any of you who want to play with a new ingredient. In a dish like this that is not chocolate based it does not make it taste like chocolate, it just adds to the depth of flavor.

Rhubarb Crumb Bars

1 slightly heaping cup rolled oats

1 slightly heaping cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 slightly heaping cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar (I used raw sugar, the original calls for brown sugar, I was out)

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup butter (2 sticks, if using salted only use 1/2 tsp kosher salt) sliced into small pieces or chunks

6 cups rhubarb sliced if from a thin stalk, chopped if from a large stalk (original recipe says about 2 pounds before cleaning and trimming, for me it was 3 huge 2 inch thick stalks and 2 small stalks)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup (I used grade B)

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp chocolate extract (optional, but just so you know this is my not so secret new secret ingredient).

Heat the oven to 400° and heavily grease a baking dish that is 13 x 9 x 2 (or close to those dimensions) with butter. Combine the flours, oats, 1 cup of sugar and salt. Add the pieces of butter and toss everything to coat the butter with flour. Use a pastry blender or your hands to mix the butter into the dry ingredients. If using your hands just rub the butter into the dry ingredients. You want it to be in pea sized pieces.

Reserve a heaping cup of crumbs and then pour the remainder into the prepared baking dish. Press the crumbs into place to form a bottom crust. Spread the sliced/chopped rhubarb evenly over the crust. In a small saucepan combine the white sugar, maple syrup and corn starch. Stir in the water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens slightly, about five minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the extracts, or extract. Pour the syrup evenly over the rhubarb in the baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs over the top and bake for ten minutes. After ten minutes turn the heat down to 325° and bake for another hour. Serve warm or at room temperature. I am sure it would be wonderful served with vanilla or maple ice cream, whipped cream or Bird's Custard. We have been eating it plain, I am a little afraid of making it taste better.