I found a super easy truffle recipe online so I decided to make truffles on this snowy Saturday, but I didn't really like the chocolate combination the recipe called for and I also didn't like that the outer coating chocolate was not tempered, so I decided to change that as well.
The recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chocolate-truffles-with-sea-salt/), but I've changed some of the essentials.
Truffles
8 oz bittersweet chocolate. Depending on what you like, you can use 60% cacao, but I bought 70% at the store because I'm not as much of a fan of 60%.
8 oz semi sweet chocolate.
Small can of Sweetened Condensed milk
Over a double boiler of simmering water, add the chocolate and the sweetened condensed milk. Keep mixing until totally melted. Put in the refrigerator for about 2 hours so it can become workable. After 2 hours, take chocolate out of the refrigerator and roll chocolate into small balls. This will become the middle of the truffle.
Once all the chocolate is rolled into small balls, it is time to temper the chocolate. Tempering means heating and cooling chocolate to dip or coat things. Tempering will also give chocolate a nice shine and won't melt in your fingers. Those truffles from Godiva and Lindt have a tempered chocolate coating. When you temper, it just means that you are distributing the crystals evenly in the chocolate. For tempering, you need a candy thermometer. Make sure it measures temperatures under 100 degrees as well as over.
While the process of tempering is easy, you have to remember that chocolate is very very picky.
Here is the method I use to temper chocolate as adapted from Ghirardelli's website:
Grate or chop the desired amount of chocolate. Place two-thirds of the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler. Heat over hot, not boiling, water, stirring constantly, until chocolate reaches 110°–115°F.
Place the top pan of the double boiler on a towel. Cool to 95°–100°F. Add the remaining chocolate to the top pan, stirring until melted. The chocolate is now ready to be used for molding candies, coating, or dipping.
When you take the chocolate off the stove and start dipping, it cools very quickly. Stay near the stove and warm the chocolate on the double boiler every so often so it does not harden as you dip. It is very hard to get the chocolate as perfect as the store bought truffles, but that's what makes these special. Let them sit out for awhile to harden. Immediately after dipping each truffle, you can add a topping to it, like toasted coconut or nuts or anything else. You might want a friend to help you with this part because like I said, properly tempered chocolate will harden quickly. So irresistible!
I haven't baked since Thanksgiving. Since the semester is drawing to a close and the work was piling up, I decided to take a bit of a hiatus, but now that I have a month and a week off (ahem!), I'll be doing lots more baking. To start things off I made these:
Are they not just the cutest, most scrumptious things you have ever seen? The recipe was so easy, and, I think, if you're going to go through the trouble of making homemade cupcakes then you might as well make your own frosting. This frosting is a basic buttercream. It's a little on the sweet side, but the cupcakes are not sweet at all due to the unsweetened cocoa, so the flavors balance out nicely. I used a large star tip to apply the icing.
I got the cupcake recipe from the Cupcake Bakeshop blog by Chockylit, who is just the queen of anything cupcakes. She can make cupcakes from absolutely any ingredients. Anyway here is the recipe:
Devil's Food Chocolate Cake makes 24 cupcakes or over 50 mini/ 350 degree oven
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Measure out everything but the eggs directly into your mixer bowl.
2. Mix on low speed just until incorporated.
3. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes.
Measure out into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers (or grease each cup if you're like me and don't like buying cupcake papers that will just be thrown away anyway). Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool completely before frosting.
As you saw in the picture above, I did mini cupcakes. The cooking time for these was about 15 minutes. If you decide to do mini cupcakes as well, fill each cup about 3/4 full.
Here's my Buttercream Frosting recipe:
This made a little less than I thought, so you may want to make a serving and a half of icing.
2 cups confectioners sugar
a little bit of vanilla
1 stick butter at room temp.
2 tablespoons milk
With electric mixer, cream the butter until creamy. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add in the vanilla once the butter is creamy. Add the confectioners sugar a little at a time, beating slowly after each addition. Once all the confectioners sugar is blended in, add in the milk and mix until it looks like it is spreadable.
Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before icing. To ice, you can either use a spatula or use a piping bag with a large star, which is what I did. Don't ice them too much!
So I had leftover pumpkin and decided it was finally time to make those scones I have been saying I would make. Like the pecan pie, I've never made pumpkin scones. Again, I found a recipe that looked good and had at it. They were SO easy to put together and only 10 minutes to bake. The drizzle took 2 seconds to put together. Like the other scones I made, I made sure to line the baking sheet with foil and coat the foil with non-stick spray. They didn't stick at all. Oh and make sure you let them cool all the way before adding the drizzle. I was a bit anxious and put it on too early, but oh well!
Here's the recipe: (recipe courtesy of green tea blog with some of my additions)
Oven at 425 degrees
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
For the drizzle:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
some cinnamon and nutmeg- eyeball it
2 tablespoons milk
In one bigger bowl, mix all dry ingredients. With a fork, your hands, or a pastry blender mix the small pieces of butter in the dry ingredients until it looks like coarse meal.
In a separate smaller bowl, combine the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla.
Put the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't over mix or you'll end up with tough scones. Once combined, pat the dough into a circle until about 1/2 inch thick or so. Cut the dough in half and then cut triangular scones. Bake for 10-12 minutes and cool.
Drizzle:
Mix all three ingredients together and stir to combine, but remember don't drizzle until the scones are cool!!
I made two pies recently. I made pumpkin pie using the same recipe that I had already posted and I also made pecan pie, which was a first for me. I found a recipe on foodnetwork.com that looked good. I have no experience with this type of pie, but this looked like a typical recipe. Anyway, it came out well, except the crust stuck a lot to the pie plate for some reason. I may spray the plate with non-stick spray next time to see if that works. I also think I baked it a little too long. The recipe says to bake until the edges are set, but the middle is still fluffy and I think I just left it in the oven too long, but it still tasted good.
The recipe says to toast the pecans and that's highly recommended because it added a nice toasty flavor to the pie. Only toast the pecans once you chop them coarsely because the more surface area to toast, the better they taste. To toast pecans, set the oven to 400 degrees and place the pecans on a baking sheet. I'd say keep them in the oven for about 5 minutes, turning them once. You want to see that they have browned, but are not too brown.
And I skipped the bourbon.
Oh, for the crust, I used the same recipe I posted with the pumpkin pie, so you can find that there. But you'll want to pre-bake it. So once you make the crust, stick something heavy on the bottom so it doesn't crack /or bubble, cover the crust in foil, bake at 400 degrees for 20 mins., remove the foil, reduce heat to 350 and bake 10 mins. or until golden.
Here's the recipe: (recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com)
Happy Baking! Sorry no picture; it was eaten before I thought of taking one:(
Oven: 350 degrees
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 cups chopped toasted pecans
1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
In medium saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stirring constantly, continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the nuts, bourbon, and the vanilla. Set the mixture aside to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. (If the crust has cooled, return it to the oven for 5 minutes to warm through.) Whisk the beaten eggs into the filling until smooth. Put the pie shell on a sheet pan and pour the filling into the hot crust.
Bake on the lower oven rack until the edges are set but the center is still slightly loose, about 40 to 45 minutes. (If the edges get very dark, cover them with aluminum foil half way during baking.) Cool on a rack. Serve slightly warm or room temperature.
Last minute decision tonight to bake. I've had this recipe bookmarked for like a month now, so it's definitely about time. Nothing much to add to the recipe, except that I added two chocolate morsels to each cupcake cup for some extra chocolate-y goodness. Make sure to let the cupcakes cool all the way before putting on the ganache and make sure to put the ganache on while that is still hot because it will harden. Happy Baking!
This recipe is courtesy of zoecuisine.com
Cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes or until light yellow and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl down once during mixing. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. The mixture might look curdled, don't be concerned!
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking powder and soda together. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Make sure to scrape all the flour off the sides of the bowl into the batter.
Line mini cupcake tins with paper cupcake cups. Spoon a heaping teaspoon full of batter into each cup. The cups should be filled about 3/4 of the way to the top with batter. Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Let cool completely before frosting.
Makes approx 30 mini cupcakes or 1 - 9" round cake.
Ganache Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz (1 large bar) good quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions:
Place chopped chocolate in a medium size mixing bowl. In a small saucepan heat the cream until boiling. Remove from heat and pour the hot cream directly over the chocolate. Stir with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated and smooth.
Dip the cupcakes into the ganache while it is still warm. It will harden when it cools.
Pumpkin pie is such a traditional fall treat. It makes the apartment smell so wonderful. For my pumpkin pies, I like to use a graham cracker crust. Also, instead of the traditional evaporated milk, I like to use sweetened condensed milk and then omit any other sugar from the recipe. I think the sweetened condensed milk makes the pie fluffier. Even though I'm not adding any sugar to the pie itself, I like to add some brown sugar to the top of the pie, kind of like a streusal topping. A nice addition to the streusal topping could be walnuts. You'll see in the picture to the left that I did not spread the topping all over the pie, but that is definitely something you could do. Also, one last thing, I never measure any of the spices I add; I think that's a bit boring. I also usually only use cinnamon and nutmeg in my pies; I just don't like the taste of ginger. And if you have fine sea salt, use that.
Graham Cracker Crust:
1.5 cups finely ground graham crackers
6 tbs butter- melted
1/3 cup sugar
Use a rolling pin to mash the graham crackers. Put them in a bowl and add the sugar. Finally add the butter to this mixture and blend with spoon until all the dry ingredients are coated with butter.
Press into a 9" pie plate.
Bake this at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.
Pie Filling:
(Recipe courtesy of sparkpeople.com username jkaplan86, but with my substitutions)
15 oz pumpkin (not pie filling)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
Preheat oven to 425.
Mix all ingredients together. Place in the already baked crust.
Cover the crust with a thin strip of foil so it does not burn.
Bake at this temperature for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
After about 30 minutes in the oven, remove the foil and add the streusal topping. Before doing this, however, stick a knife in the middle, it should look fairly clean. You don't want to take the foil off and put the topping on too early.
Yesterday we did the quintessential fall activity...apple picking and pumpkin picking. I even got a mum. So of course I had to make an apple pie. I don't like apple pies with a top and bottom crust so instead I make apple crumble pies with a bottom crust and a streusal topping.
I'm not a master homemade crust maker at all, but I refuse to buy pre-made crusts. My crusts never come out looking pretty, but they always taste alright, so I suggest you try making your own crust because it really isn't that hard.
After much experimentation, this is my recipe for a single crust pie:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup shortening
pinch salt
enough water to form a ball
Combine the flour, salt, and shortening with a pastry blender or your hands:)
Put in a little water at a time while working to form the dough into a ball. Use as little water as possible to form the ball.
After forming the ball, it's a good idea to refrigerate it for a little bit because that makes it easier to roll out, but that's totally up to you.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and transfer to a 9" pie dish leaving a 1" overhang. Make a pretty edge with the overhang if you want.
Here's the pie recipe:
5 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced- add some lemon juice to prevent browning. Put in a bowl
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Topping:
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter
Here's an alternate topping recipe:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.)
Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.
Put this mixture in the pie dish
Make the topping recipe of your choice. For both recipes, you will combine the dry ingredients and cut in the butter to make a crumbly topping.
Spoon topping over apples. Be sure to cover all the apples.
Cut a thin strip of foil. Cover the edges of the pie crust with the foil and bake like this for the first 30-35 mins. Take the foil off and bake for the remaining time (about 5-10 mins). The top should be browned and the apples soft to the touch.
Here's how it should look when it goes in the oven:
You should let the pie cool all the way before serving so the juices soak up. You don't want to freak out when you think you've made a pie that's too liquidy! Don't forget the ice cream!
It's not like we don't already have a huge chocolate cake in the refrigerator already, but I decided to make pumpkin pie donut holes anyway just for fun. I'm sure they'll get eaten ;)
They don't come out perfectly round like the ones at Dunkin Donuts, but that's ok. These are unique and not done by some machine.
The recipe says to use a quart of oil, but that's WAY too much. I'd say to use about 2". Make sure to keep the temperature at a steady 375 degrees or else they might come out heavy and oily. Otherwise, this is a really easy and fun recipe!
Pumpkin Donut Holes
(recipe courtesy of cooks.com)
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 c. milk- I used skim
2 tbsp. oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Oil for deep frying
In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; blend well. Combine pumpkin, milk, oil, vanilla and egg.
Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.In deep fat fryer or heavy saucepan, heat 1 quart oil to 375 degrees.
Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil, 5-6 at a time.
Fry doughnut drops 1-1 1/2 minutes on each side until brown.
Drain on paper towel.
Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; roll warm doughnuts in mixture.
Makes 30-36 doughnut drops.
I made the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake once and it came out so good, but I thought I would try a different recipe this round, so I chose this one from joyofbaking.com. I added the frosting recipe to this entry in case frosting is more your style, but I used ganache instead, which is basically a smooth mixture of cream and chocolate. How can you go wrong there? Ganache was either invented in France or Switzerland, nobody knows for sure. The Swiss have great chocolate and the French have great bakers, so who really knows. Anyway, all of this happened in the year 1850. Anyway, I digress.
The ganache recipe below makes just enough for the top of the cake and the middle layer. If you're putting ganache in the middle layer, you'll want to whip it, so after it comes off the stove, take some out of the bowl and transfer it to another bowl to whip. Do this until it is a fluffy texture. The remaining can be poured over the cake. Smooth it with a metal spatula so it looks nice and smooth. I don't have a metal spatula, so mine did not come out as nice and smooth as I would have liked. Also, the recipe below calls for butter, which is a nice addition because it makes the ganache look super shiny. You can also add light corn syrup instead of the butter. Ganache should be poured over a cooled cake. Maybe even refrigerate the layers for about half an hour.
Anyway, here are the recipes:
Sources:
Stern, Bonnie. 'Desserts'. Random House of Canada Limited. Toronto: 1988.
Yockelson, Lisa. 'Chocolate'. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New Jersey: 2005
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
4 cups (1 pound) (454 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted to remove lumps
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Ganache
8 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
1 tablespoons cognac or brandy (optional)
Cake Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray, and line with parchment paper, two - 9 x 2 inch deep (23 x 5 cm) round baking pans. Set aside.
In a stainless steel or heatproof bowl place the chopped unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate and cocoa powder and stir until they have melted. Set aside to cool while you make the batter.
In a separate bowl, whisk to combine, the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy (this will take about 3-5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture and beat to combine.
Add the milk and flour mixtures in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat only until the ingredients are incorporated.
Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Butter or lightly spray a wire rack with Pam before inverting the cakes onto the rack to prevent the cakes from sticking. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Ganache Recipe: Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. If desired, add the liqueur.
Makes enough ganache to cover a 9 inch (23 cm) cake or torte
Frosting Recipe:
Melt the chopped chocolate in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool. Then place the melted chocolate, milk, confectioners sugar, salt, and vanilla extract in the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. (Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer.) Add the pieces of softened butter and beat on low speed for about 2 minutes. When the frosting starts to come together increase the speed to medium and beat for about 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the speed to high and beat the frosting for 1 - 2 minutes more or until it is of spreading consistency. If necessary, add more milk or sugar.
To Assemble: Place one layer of cake, top side down, on your serving plate and cover with a layer of frosting. Then place the second layer of cake, top side down, onto the first cake layer and then frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Can garnish with fresh fruit or shaved chocolate.
What can beat a chocolate cupcake with a cheesecake filling?! These are like little chocolate cheesecakes, but without all the work of a regular cheesecake! They're not very sweet, which can either be a good or bad thing! Bad because you can pop a million of these little things. You can make them in the full size, but I prefer mini just because they are such an easy snack to just grab.
Here are some ideas that seemed to work as I was making them:
When pouring the chocolate batter into the muffin cups, only fill to half. Use a tablespoon measure to measure out the appropriate amount of cream cheese to ensure you have enough. Be generous with it! This picture is dark, but they should look like this when you go to put them in the oven:
You'll notice the recipe calls for cocoa, I used regular Nestlea cocoa, nothing fancy. Also, the recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate, but I happened to have a bag of regular chocolate morsels already open, so I used that instead.
The recipe says it yields 30 mini cupcakes, which is quite accurate. The second time around, I put a little too much batter in the muffin cups, so they were a little bigger than I wanted them to be. So make sure, like I said, to only fill half way with the chocolate batter. Also, if doing mini cupcakes, bake only about 15 minutes depending on your oven.
For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make the filling: Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.
Make the cupcakes:
1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Butter, or use non-stick spray, a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups. Or use a mini cupcake tray instead.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons* of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely,** which is fine.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep well unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.
Don't worry if the cream cheese isn't centered; that's what makes each one unique!
I decided to make the same scone recipe this morning as I did yesterday because they came out so good. This time I used more non-stick spray on the foil and they didn't stick at all.
Tonight, or sometime this week because there are so many scones to eat, hopefully I will make some cupcakes or those Apple Cider donuts from Food Network Magazine I talked about.
I had a ton of buttermilk leftover from making the Apple Cider donuts last weekend, so I needed to find a recipe that used buttermilk. I never made scones before, so I decided to give this recipe from joyofbaking.com a try. They came out perfectly. I really like the flavor they have. I didn't have parchment paper home, so I used foil and I sprayed it with a very little bit of non-stick spray. They stuck ALOT, but I think using more non-stick spray would have worked well. I baked them for 15 minutes and left them in the broiler for a little more than a few seconds on each side of the pan (I rotated it once). But timing all depends on your oven/broiler.
(recipe courtesy of joyofbaking.com as adapted from Sara Foster's The Foster's Market Cookbook and Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)
1/2 cup (113 grams) (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
2/3 cup (160 ml) buttermilk
Egg mixture for brushing tops of scones:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven. Stack two baking sheets together and line the top baking sheet with parchment paper. (This prevents the bottoms of the scones from over browning during baking.) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat, or roll, the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 3 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Make an egg wash of one well-beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon milk and brush the tops of the scones with this mixture.
Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and then turn your broiler on high. Sift confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar heavily over the tops of the scones and place them under the broiler. Broil for just a few seconds, turning the pan as necessary, until the sugar has melted and turns golden brown. Make sure to watch the scones carefully as the sugar will burn very quickly. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
A really awesome website that has some amazing tutorials on it is baking911.com. The website is a little cluttered and has a little too much color for my taste, but it has TONS of useful information and detailed instructions about various baking methods.
When the Fall rolls around, I love to make everything with apples in it...apple pie, apple cobber, etc...But yesterday I made apple cider donuts for the very first time using my deep fry/candy thermometer. Let me preface this by saying that my first attempt using a candy thermometer was a complete failure and I was a bit afraid to try again, but these donuts came out delicious. They were the perfect texture and moistness.
I started out by frying the donuts 2 minutes on each side, but noticed they were coming out a bit dark, so I changed to 1 minute on each side and...perfection! Also, the recipe says to use a "board" when patting down the dough. I used a regular cutting board and it worked well. Be sure to flour the surface with more flour than you think you need because the dough is VERY sticky. Also, I don't have a donut cutter, so I used a glass and then cut the holes out with a knife. I didn't think this method was much more work than if I had used a donut cutter. Remembering to put the donuts on paper towels after frying is of the utmost importance because nobody wants a greasy donut!
Given the success of this [easier] recipe, there is a recipe in the October 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine that I am just itching to try, but if you are a first timer like me, definitely give this recipe, which I got from Chowhound.com, a try.
(recipe courtesy of username random amblings on chowhound.com)
Vermont Apple Cider Doughnuts
1 cup Apple cider 1 cup Sugar 1/4 cup Solid vegetable shortening 2 large Eggs 1/2 cup Buttermilk 3 1/2 cup All-purpose flour 2 tsp. Baking powder 1 tsp.Baking soda 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon 1/2 tsp. Salt 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg Vegetable oil or shortening -for frying
1 cup cinnamon-sugar mixed
Boil apple cider in small saucepan until it is reduced to 1/4 cup, 8 to 10 minutes; cool. Beat sugar with shortening until smooth. Add eggs and mix well, then add buttermilk and reduced cider. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in another bowl. Add to liquid ingredients; mix just enough to combine. Transfer dough to lightly floured board and pat to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2- to 3-inch doughnut cutter; reserve doughnut holes and reroll and cut scraps. Add enough oil or shortening to fill a deep pan 3 inches; heat to 375'F. Fry several doughnuts at a time, turning once or twice, until browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove to paper towels with slotted spoon. While still warm, shake a few at a time in a paper bag containing cinnamon sugar. Cool on a rack
The recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chocolate-truffles-with-sea-salt/), but I've changed some of the essentials. 
