The Old Fashioned Way: Nicole Rees's Simple Cream Scones

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Living in a 450 square-foot apartment is tricky if you love to cook and bake. Wall shelves help, as does a freestanding counter island. Baking pans are stacked in unnatural positions and wedged in tiny cabinets, and we have a bread board hanging on a nail on the wall. Luckily, we did manage to find an apartment with a dishwasher—though it's insalled directly under the sink, rendering it impossible to rinse dishes and put them into the dishwasher with any sort of grace. Needless to say, we don't have lots of big kitchen appliances.

Every time I read a cooking magazine or pick up a new cookbook, I am reminded of my longing for a food processor and (sigh) a Kitchenaid mixer. So many recipes call for these tools without explaining any alternatives. That's why I was so excited to receive a copy of Baking Unplugged from the kind folks at Wiley publishing.

In Baking Unplugged, Nicole Rees provides recipes for old-fashioned treats that don't call for any fancy equipment. With a whisk and a spoon (and a few other low-tech tools you probably already own), she makes breakfast treats and old-fashioned desserts to satisfy a sweet tooth. The yeasted cinnamon rolls sound amazing, as do the lemon squares with grated hazelnuts in the dough. (That one is very high on my to-make list.) Her directions are simple and clear, though I do wish there were pictures of the finished dishes. A long introduction explains baking down to the simplest techniques and ingredients: she wants to impart all the knowledge of old-fashioned baking the way your great-grandmother might have done.


Many of Rees's techniques and tricks for baking by hand make perfect sense, and I wish more cookbook and magazine writers would follow her lead and at least mention how a dish might be made without a mixer. Besides, it is kind of satisfying to put a dough together the old fashioned way. However, I'm unlikely to follow her all the way down this road. Whipping cream with a cold whisk may be possible, but I'm not that eager to try when a small electric hand mixer can do the job in a fraction of the time. (And without the arm cramp.)

I had never made scones before attempting the recipe in Baking Unplugged, and I was amazed at how quickly they came together. You could easily bake these in the morning before friends came over for tea or brunch. (Though they can also be frozen and rewarmed with decent results.) Straight out of the oven, they are trancendental. They're simple, tender, and flaky, with none of the off, stale flavors you find in coffeeshop scones (plus, a fraction of the cost!)

I used local cream from the farmer's market for this recipe, which I highly recommend. Because the scones have more cream than butter, and no other flavorings to distract you, the taste is one of farm-fresh dairy. They're not greasy at all. They were a touch too sugary for my liking—perhaps this is what the author means by "retro" baking. I'll scale down the sugar a tiny bit when I make them again (and watch the sugar in other recipes in the book.) I just may not have quite the same intense sweet tooth as Nicole Rees. But I'm glad her sweet tooth guided her toward writing this book.

Cream Scones
From Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees; Wiley 2009

Makes 8 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar (I would consider a little bit less)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream plus 2 T for brushing
1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
sugar for sprinkling (crunchy turbinado sugar would be good)

Preheat the oven to 375°. Stack two baking sheets together and line the top one with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir the vanilla extract into the heavy cream. With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until a few pea-sized lumps remain. With a fork, gradually stir in enough of the 3/4 cup heavy cream until the mixture just starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and very gently pat into an 8" round about 1 1/2" high. Using a chef's knife or bench scraper, cut the dough round into 8 wedges. Transfer the wedges to the baking sheet, spacing the scones at least 1" apart. Brush the tops with the remaining heavy cream and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Bake in the top third of the oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are golden. Transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool slightly, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve warm with jam.


PS: I've added the book to our Amazon sidebar over there --------> so you can pick yourself up a copy.

PiePiePiePie, Part 1: 40-proof pumpkin pie.

This one tends to go pretty smoothly (knock on wood). A few field notes:

1. I don't measure my spices in this thing. I used to smoke, so I run on the assumption that everyone who will be eating this pie suffers from a similarly depressed state of taste--thus, spices are hiiiiiiigh.

2. The liquor used is entirely at your discretion--I have, in times past, used bourbon, frangelico, butterscotch schnapps, and rum. The latter is really my favorite, as it adds a certain piratical bent to my humble pastry--and anything that makes me say "Arrrr!" is a good thing.



40-proof pumpkin pie

1/2 batch butter pie crust (enough for an open-top pie)

1x15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 c heavy cream
1/2 c liquor of your choice (this year, it's rum)
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon
ginger
cloves
2 large eggs

1. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs.
2. Add the pumpkin
3. Add the cream and liquor
4. Add the sugar
5. Add the spices (to taste) and salt
6. Mix everything thoroughly, then pour into your prepared pie crust.
7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes; then, reduce heat to 350 degrees, and cook for a further 40-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on rack for min of two hours. Refrigerate till serving.

Delicious! Tradition! Arrrr!

Step 1: Pie crusts.

7:50: Pumpkin and pecan pie dough in the fridge; graham cracker crusts in the pans! Go Team Efficient!

7:46:

"There's something about the smell of butter." --Shiv

"Yeah, especially high-fat European butter." --Biscuit

7:44 "Hear that? You just HEARD pie happen."

7:32: Food processor rules. I cannot do math.

7:04: We begin the important underpinnings of our sweet and delightful treats: the crusts. Biscuit's on your pate brisee, I'm pulverizing graham crackers. I get to play with Biscuit's 10-cup food processor; I fully expect to be unseated by its RAW POWER.

Graham Cracker Crust

10 Graham crackers
1 1/4c pecans
1/4c sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1. Pulverize the first three ingredients in your food processor until you have fine crumbs
2. Mix the butter in until it becomes slightly sticky.
   
3. Press into desired pans, lightly buttered

Butter Pie Crust Dough

For a double-crust pie, double the ingredients, divide the dough in half, and form two disks.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes; use a higher fat content European-style butter like Plugra for wildly-enhanced flakiness
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter and cut in, using on/off turns, until coarse meal forms. Add 3 tablespoons water. Using on/off turns, blend just until moist clumps form, adding more water by 1/2 tablespoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 1 hour. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Makes one 9-inch crust.

Apologies for our terseness, but we've got some shit to do. I'm sure you understand. ;)

Game On!

OK. It's Thanksgiving Eve Eve. 46 Hours to the main event. Which means it's time to cook!

On the agenda tonight:

Bourbon Pecan pie

Pumpkin pie

Mint Julep Tart (this one's an original, so bear with us)

Bailey's white chocolate cheesecake.

Gratin assembly (Artichoke prosciutto and Cauliflower cheese)

Grating of ALL THE CHEESE IN THE WORLD.

It's 6:54 pm. Liveblogging begins now. Say a prayer for our souls and sanity.

Shiv vs. Pie Crust: Mushroom, shallot, and fontina quiche.

I have a secret.

Despite the fact that I am well known throughout Brooklyn for my infamous, 40-proof pumpkin pie, I have never made a pie crust. That's right! And not only THAT, but I've never even made a pie that actually USED a traditional butter crust--only graham crackers. If you ask my Texan grandmother, that makes me a cheater. If you ask me, it just makes me kind of a wuss: years of horror stories of Crusts Gone Awry (too tough! too floury!) have left me afraid to try.

Until now.

In a fit of euphoric optimism, I decided the other day that it was time to throw caution to the wind and just go for it; this happily coincided with a massive craving I was experiencing for quiche. So, I bought a pastry cutter*, and went straight to a trusted source for my recipe: Martha Stewart, and her Pate Brisee. Being me, I wasn't totally faithful to the recipe--I made a half-batch, with whole wheat flour replacing 1 1/4 cups of all purpose--but fortune smiled upon me anyway and produced a nice, flaky crust (which totally decimated my pastry cutter, though I suspect that's far more a reflection on the cutter and the awesome power of nearly frozen butter than the crust) that went beautifully with the mushroom, shallot, and fontina filling.



As far as I'm concerned, the mushroom/shallot/cheese trifecta is perfect for quiche (though next time I might try either gruyere or a gruyere-asiago mix instead of fontina); I will probably experiment with other fillings further in the future (what's up, prosciutto and gorgonzola!), but I can already tell I'll keep coming back to this classic for more. For now, however, I think the time is right for me to start using my newfound understanding of crust to experiment with other forms of pie, both sweet and savory. Any suggestions?

**UPDATE! I made another quiche last night, using asiago, mushrooms, onions, prosciutto, and scallions. I made the crust in the food processor (and I'm NEVER going back), and it was AWESOME. Highly recommended for the carnivores among us.**



Quiche with mushrooms, shallot, and fontina cheese

1/2 batch Pate Brisee (the original recipe is scaled to make two crusts)

3 large eggs
8 oz fontina cheese, grated
12 oz mushrooms, stemmed and very finely diced
3 medium-sized shallots, sliced
3/4c half and half
salt, pepper, etc

1. Preheat oven to 350F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to about 12-in in diameter; press into a 9-inch pie plate (Trick: to ease the transition from surface to plate, sprinkle a little flour on the top, then fold it in half before moving. Sounds simple, but it's extremely helpful). Line the dish with foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights; bake 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and beans, prick the bottom of the crust several times with a fork, and pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven and set aside. This can be done up to 6 hours in advance.
2. In a large skillet, melt a bit of butter over medium heat; saute the shallots until they are just translucent; then, add the mushrooms. Continue to sautee over medium heat until the mushrooms have released their liquid, and then reabsorbed it. Season with salt and pepper.
   
3. Whisk together the eggs, half and half with some salt and pepper. Set aside
   
4. Grab your prepared crust. Line it with: half the cheese, then half the mushroom mixture, then the other half of the cheese, then the other half of the mushrooms. Pour the egg mixture over the top of that.
5. Bake at 350 until the custard has set; let it cool for 15 minutes before serving.
   

*Yes, I know, I could do it in the food processor. And from here on out, I probably will. But I figured that if I really wanted to understand the process, I had to do it the old-fashioned way, at least once.