Scones

With all the marmalade now in my house, I need something yummy to put it on, yes? So, scones.
I love scones. Adore them.  I have tried many many many recipes. ( I've thrown a lot of baby shower teas over the past few years!) This is by far, hands down, absolutely my favorite recipe. It's also absurdly easy, and I have successfully changed it to make many different varieties of scones.

The original recipe from Gourmet is Dried Fruit Cream Scones and includes dried fruit and raisins. You can check out the link for the original. This is the base recipe I use.

2 cups all purpose flour (I also use white wheat flour, a little healthier that way)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl, stirring with a fork to mix well. 

Still using a fork, stir in the cream. I find the dough to be a little dry at this point, I usually add a little extra cream in, then use my hands to work all the dry ingredients in.  I don't bother to knead it on a floured board, I just work it in the bowl until it's a malleable dough.

Then I shape it into a roughly 1 inch thick circle and cut it into whatever shape I want the scones to be. Sometimes I use glaze like in the original recipe. (brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar before baking.) Sometimes I don't.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

They are great plain like this, or with dried fruit added.

To make savory scones (rosemary cheddar is one of my favorites!), I reduce the amount of sugar to a teaspoon or 2, then just mix in the herbs/cheese/whatever until it looks right.  ( you can brush these with melted butter before baking, without then sprinkling sugar on)

Marmalade Obsession

I may have mentioned I have a teeny tiny tendency to get carried away when I embark upon a new project. So, I'm a little obsessed with marmalade right. BSE (best sister-in-law ever) came up with the idea of making meyer lemon marmalade and was talking about it when we made the tangerine a few weeks ago. When I ventured into the backyard this weekend and saw a nice little crop of meyers just begging to be picked, I decided it was fate and I had to make some marmalade. I used the same Alton Brown Recipe that I talk about below, just substituting the lemons in for the tangerines. It turned out quite well, but didn't set up quite as nicely as the tangerine did.

In my googling for info on lemon marmalade, I came across a few things that have me off and running. First, is this wonderful article on Preserving Citrus. It has lots of interesting info on different techniques, but what I took away from it is that for a basic marmalade, you just need equal parts (by weight) of fruit, liquid and sugar. Second was the recipe for Spicy Balsamic Basil Orange Marmalade.
For my version I used tangerines from the tree, basalmic, fresh basil, tangerine juice and sugar.

Here's how I did it:
Cut tangerines into thin slices, then cut slices into 2 or 3 pieces.

Weigh the fruit and put into a large stockpot. (my fruit weighed about 600 grams)

I used a small bottle of good basalmic vinegar, then added enough fresh squeezed tangerine juice to make the liquid equal 600 grams. It didn't seem to me to be quite enough liquid to cover the fruit, so i added just a little bit of water.

Put the whole mess on the stove and boil until the fruit is very soft.

Then add 600 grams of sugar, and I put in a few dashes of hot sauce to give it just a little kick on the finish.
Boil until it reaches 222 degrees.

Then proceed with the canning process that I describe in the tangerine marmalade post.

It set up beautifully and now I am brainstorming all kinds of ideas. Sangria Marmalade is next!

I took pictures to show more of the process, but can't seem to upload them. I will keep trying!!

Tangerine Marmalade

I have a beautiful tangerine tree in the back yard. Every year, I think, "oh, I should really do something interesting with all that fruit". then I make a few Tangerine Martinis to get started and promptly forget to make anything else.  Now, I can drink my share of martinis, but even so, there is a lot of fruit that goes to waste on the tree.

So, I decided this year I should really make an attempt to take advantage of the bounty.
Tangerine Marmalade seemed a good choice since it uses a fair bit of fruit, and I've never made marmalade or preserves of any kind, so it was an adventure too.  Now, being adventurous, but not stupid, I promptly called my brilliant sister in law (who has made jam and such before) and sweet talked her into jumping on board with the project. All I had to do was show up with my bag o' tangerines and R had everything else ready to go.

We used Alton Brown's Orange Marmalade Recipe which seemed not only the simplest of the ones we looked at, but also the "purest" as far as using only whole, simple ingredients. (don't know that I can use the term "healthy" since it's almost all sugar!)
You can read Alton's recipe and instructions using the link above. This is how we did it.

Prep:
R ran jars, lids and rings through the dishwasher, and put her ginormous stockpot fitted with a bottom rack and filled halfway with water on the stove to start to boil.
Scrub 1 and 3/4 pounds of tangerines (give or take a few ounces, I'm not the most precise cook...)

To  make the marmalade, slice the tangerines with a mandolin (Alton says to then cut the slices in quarters, but  the tangerines were so juicy and falling apart we didn't).

Throw the tangerines in a big pot with the zest and juice of 1 lemon, 3 cups tangerine juice (juiced from more tangerines) and 3 cups water, boil and then simmer until the fruit is very soft, about 40 minutes. I used a stick blender at this point to break up the rinds a little bit since we didn't cut the slices in quarters.

Add 3 pounds plus 12 ounces sugar. Return to a boil and stir continually until the mixture reaches 222 degrees and a small dollop placed on a frozen plate becomes a soft gel after 30 seconds. This stage felt like it took waaaay longer than I expected. Like, it took forever. I could feel the mixture get thicker as I was stirring right before it was ready, it will also get darker.

Anyway, when it's finally ready, spoon it into the jars, wipe the rims, top with the lids and screw on the rings. Put the jars in the pot of boiling water and make sure they are covered by at least on inch of water. Boil for 10 minutes then remove with canning tongs. Let them sit at room temperature for at least 24 hours before opening. Unopened jars will last up to 6 months. Store opened jars in refrigerator.

Now, I just have to figure out how to eat 8 jars of marmalade. I think I'll start with homemade scones and Tangerine Martinis.