{ saturday: baking scones! }

One of my favorite things to do in the mornings--on weekends especially--is bake special treats for everyone to wake up to. I've been thinking it would be fun to try sharing some of my most-loved recipes with all of you, because who wouldn't want to try making scones at least once? I don't have the cutest vintage kitchen with matching accessories like some of my favorite bloggers (yet!) but I still thought pictures might be fun and help illustrate the process for those of you who might not be too familiar with baking just yet!

I have to go ahead and credit this recipe for what I'm writing about today--it really lives up to its name. It's an excellent base, and you can adapt it literally any way you want to. I would pay special attention to the reviews, because I did find that reducing the amount of butter and baking powder yields a more favorable result. However, it's entirely up to you, which is why this is one of my most-used recipes.

The original uses currants (which sound delicious, but I've never actually seen any around here...) but so far I've tried blueberry, raspberry, chocolate chip, multi-berry lemon, and now, as of today, blueberry chocolate chip! I'm sure there's a whole other realm of savory scones I have yet to try, but that's for another day.

Scones can seem kind of daunting. Marcus and I used to go to this bakery in Flagstaff every Sunday for these huge ones that we had to split with a glass of milk. I always wanted to try making them, but they seemed to easy to mess up.

Not the case!

I went ahead and outlined the basics of how these scones are made, but for exact measurements, visit the instructions I linked above--I wouldn't want to steal all the attention away from the original author who was generous enough to share such a successful recipe!

You need basic ingredients for this:

• Flour - I haven't tried anything so far except basic white all-purpose, but I'm really curious to experiment with wheat or coconut flour.
• Sugar - what's really nice is that you don't use a whole lot, but you still get just the right amount of sweetness!
• Butter - the recipe calls for five tablespoons, but I've always scaled back to three and they're still pretty decadent.
• Baking powder - again, I'd consider using a teaspoon less than the recipe calls for.
• Salt - pretty standard for baking.
• Milk and sour cream - I actually always use plain fat-free yogurt in place of the sour cream, and it works wonderfully.
• Any berries, chocolate chips, or other such toppings you desire! 
• There's also an optional egg wash that includes one egg and a little milk. The idea is that you dust it over the scones before baking. However, I've tried it with and without this, and don't notice much of a difference either way. Up to you!

Here we go! A brief demonstration, because who doesn't like pictures?

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl together: flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Make sure they're mixed well!

My personal favorite part: adding the butter! It seems to work best if you place your block of butter in the freezer, then grate it into the dry ingredients. It's really fun, and it looks really cool. Am I the only one who loves the color of butter?

Throw in your toppings. The recipe calls for something like 1/2 cup of currants, but I always end up adding more. Today I used blueberries and chocolate chips, and I think I might have just skipped measuring! ;)

Mix everything thoroughly. It's important to distribute the butter evenly so that every scone achieves maximum fluffiness!

Combine the yogurt and milk in a separate bowl. I like to whisk them, because it gives me an excuse to use mine. (Not a whole lot of recipes seem to require whisking anymore, which is really too bad...)

Pour the wet ingredients into your dry ones all at once, and mix them well. The recipe cautions against over-working the dough. So far, that's been avoided on my end, but I'm always a little nervous about either over-mixing them or risking leaving chunks of flour just sitting there. Eventually it'll all combine into one huge ball--and a lot of my berries exploded, turning the dough blue in some places!

Pull the dough apart and shape them into little balls on a baking sheet--I try to make them vaguely triangular, but you'll see that they never really turn out that way. It's best to let them rest for about 10 minutes to let the baking powder activate--I use that time to wash my dishes! Afterward, place those babies into the 400-degree oven!

After about ten to twelve minutes, they should be about done, but I know it depends on the oven. When they stop being squishy and start getting golden brown on top, you know it's almost time to enjoy them!

My household in particular enjoys them plain with lots of milk, but you can also serve with clotted cream (never seen that before, either, but it sounds delicious) and jam. My brother tried it with the jam once and decided it was only so-so.

There you have it! Scones are actually really easy and don't take very long at all. Chances are you'll try making them and immediately want to whip up another batch with other toppings. I know I'm looking forward to fall so that I can do pumpkin or cranberry! 

Let me know if you try this great recipe, and tell me how it turns out! What kind of fillings did you use? 

-Katie

the best invention ever

Everyone, stop whatever you're doing for a second, because I need to tell you about this right now.

To the casual observer, this might look like ordinary, slightly melty chocolate ice cream.

Not so!

It is, in fact, made of a few simple ingredients, none of which is milk! This is actually banana ice cream!

That's right!

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of this, so this is most likely not the revolutionary discovery I'm making it out to be. It just feels like one because I've been meaning to try it forever, and when I finally got around to it this evening, I promptly ate all of it. At once. I never eat ice cream--now I may never go back--and here I am downing an entire bowl of this delicious chocolate creaminess!

Basically, here's what it is. Frozen sliced bananas, placed into a food processor, are loudly blended until the consistency is sort of sticky and creamy. Personally, I proceeded to add a tablespoon of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder, a dash of vanilla and maybe a tablespoon or two of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Notice how many of these ingredients are specifically unsweetened. However, when the dish was finished, you would have no idea that there was absolutely no added sugar. I might be biased, because I love bittersweet things, but this was so perfect without anything put into it.

So, for anyone who is:

• Vegan
• Lactose intolerant
• Watching their sugar intake 
• Interested in trying this amazing treat

This is essentially a gold mine. On top of that, I'm pretty sure this is way healthier than a regular serving of chocolate ice cream, considering that it's minimally processed and has only one main ingredient (plus any flavoring you want to add--it's just as delicious by itself). Also, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but that is a decent sized serving, and I'm almost positive it's only a little over 100-120 calories (again, depending on the individual ingredients). Let's see those sugar-free yogurts and teensy "healthy" snack packs of cookies top that!

Did I mention it's really cheap? A pound of organic bananas is a tidy 69 cents at most stores where I live, and one is all you need for one serving--so, you can get seven or eight of these for less than a dollar all by itself. A giant box of unsweetened cocoa isn't too bad, maybe $2 or $3, if you find it on sale! Vanilla is nice, but not essential, and I found mine for $1.99 at Fry's. The almond milk is the only thing I can see being slightly pricey, but we buy it for $2.99 every couple of weeks and it seems to last forever. One or two tablespoons certainly won't use it all up! If you also felt like shopping around for in-season fruits to add to this, you'd find yourself swimming in possibilities.

Now, shortly after finishing my dessert, I'm eagerly plotting my next attempt. The possibilities are suddenly endless. I almost fainted when I realized I could chop up some pineapple and orange, toss it into the food processor and make my own little healthy Dole Whip. What else? Peanut butter, mint, strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chunks, whatever! I'm pretty sure unless you go insanely overboard, no matter what you choose to do with this recipe, it'll be infinitely better for you than ice cream...plus, as I said before, look at that bowl! I got to eat that entire thing. Okay--Marcus did try a bite, proclaim he wasn't a fan, then promptly ask for four more. Actually, right now I'm making him his own. The bananas are in the freezer. The things we do for love.

Anyway! Please, try this if you have the time and ingredients sitting around! 

The original recipe is right here, and there are step by step instructions with pictures and other flavor suggestions. 

So, there you go! Banana ice cream. It's really fun, leaves a lot of room for creativity, and I kind of like that I get to wait for the bananas to freeze for an hour or so...it gives me just enough time to look forward to what I get to eat!

If you try this, please tell me how it goes! What combinations did you try? Did you like it? Does it compare to regular ice cream, or do you prefer the original?