Category Archives: Baking

Gluten-Free Butternut Squash Scones

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Ashley| 1 Comment

Scones

I AM BACK! Yes, it’s true, I’m really back.  And I know, promises mean nothing these days, because I’ve made so many of them, and broken them right after, but I really mean it this time.  Please baby, don’t go.  I need just one more chance!  It’ll be different this time!

Okay, but in all seriousness, life’s been kind of crazy.  Yeah yeah yeah, it’s crazy for all of us, I know.  I was definitely lazy during the month of December.  But I really intended on getting some serious Drunk Squash in during the month of January.  Unfortunately, though, I don’t have a bedroom right now and I’ve spent the past week living in my friend’s apartment.  To say that I haven’t been baking or cooking much at all would be an extreme understatement.  In fact, I would guess that 80% of my food intake has been quinoa mixed with hummus and hot sauce.  Well balanced, eh?

Squash

But I recently went through my pictures and found documentation of a really great scone I made back in December.  And I can call it “really great” without being accused of pride (or exaggeration) because it was quite a popular recipe on the interwebs a few months back.  In fact, I took it upon myself to follow the links to find as many documentations of the Starbucks Pumpkin Scones as I could:

Mix

There you go… 12 different places to find the recipe.  And I’m about to add the 13th.  Actually, no, I’m not about to retype the recipe, you can find it on twelve other websites after all.  So why am I even talking about these fabulous scones (besides simple pride in following the wise advice of many food bloggers)?  Well, I did mine a little bit differently and wanted to share the idea.

When I made these scones, I was preparing for my final thesis seminar.  My classmates and I had a breakfast potluck to celebrate finishing our theses, once and for all.  I decided that I wanted to make scones, but one of my classmates was gluten free and I wanted to make sure that she could eat them too.  I try to be inclusive, both because I have friends with gluten intolerances and know how much they miss out on during food events, and because, as a vegetarian, I also know the feeling of sometimes dreading potlucks.  So I grabbed myself some Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour and used that instead of all purpose gluten-full flour.  Also, I didn’t have any pumpkin, but I did have a large amount of already-cooked butternut squash just begging to be eaten, so I used that instead.

Cut

I had never baked with gluten free flour before, and had always assumed that it would require a difficult task of mixing non-gluten flours in precise and confusing amounts.  After I heard about the pre-mixed, all purpose gluten-free flours, I wondered if they would be more finicky or stranger than gluteney flours.  To my surprise, using the gluten-free flour was so easy!  And when I brought the scones into our meeting everybody was surprised to hear that they were completely glutenless.  And that, my friends, is what I would consider a success.

Cookin

(Also, for the record, bnut squash makes a great substitution for pumpkin.  It’s a personal favorite of mine for its large ratio of squash meat to skin/seeds and its hearty natural sweetness.)

So there we go, I found a popular and foolproof recipe and, perhaps foolishly, decided to alter some basic parts of it.  However, the story ends happily.  You can turn the famous Starbucks Pumpkin Scones into successful Gluten-Free Butternut Squash Scones!

Scone

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Mixed Berry Jam

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Ashley| 2 Comments

Berries

Like I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been staying at my parents’ house trying to keep myself busy.  It’s strange being back in town for such an in-between amount of time.  I used to live in the dorms at school, so every summer and winter break I’d live here and work.  Now that I live full-time in Oakland, however, I find myself feeling very in-between during these brief visits.  It’s not long enough to work, but not short enough to feel rushed.  Instead I watch too much tv, pray for the sun to come out, and ruin my sleep cycle.

Mixing

When I’m home, my mom and I catch each other up on our latest food obsessions (foodsessions?), whether it be her margarita cupcakes or something strange that I pickled.  Anyway, there’s a very cool store in town called Happy Girl Kitchen Co. that has lots of lovely pickled and fermented and jar-ed local produce, and my mom told me about a big flat of berries that she wanted to buy from them.  So a few days after she made the order, I went by the store and picked up a bright bunch of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

Cooking

A day later, and after some serious mashing and simmering, we had six jars of some delectable mixed berry jam.  I used the Happy Girl Kitchen recipe that they sent my mom via email, so I’m not going to reproduce it in full here.  It was basically a very simple process: Mix all the berries (washed and de-stemmed) in a big bowl with 4 cups of sugar and the juice of two lemons, let that all sit overnight, and then the next morning mash it all together and simmer on the stove until the jam gels.  Tada!  We didn’t use any extra pectin, but had we the jam would probably be a little more like smackers jam and a little less preserve-ey.  I like it this way, though, and can’t help but mix it in with yogurt and slather it on any bread I can get my hands on.  A perfect companion for all of that tv-watching I’ve been doing…

Jam

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Posted in Baking, Breakfast, CSA, Dessert, Jars

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4th of July Strawberry Pie

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Ashley| 4 Comments
hand Pies

Happy late Fourth of July folks.  Yesterday I headed to a friend’s house and enjoyed some lovely company as well as some tasty veggie dogs.  I’m usually not a big processed soy faux-meat fan, but there’s just something about eating food straight from the grill and loaded up with ketchup and mustard.  Especially on the Fourth.

Filling

To prepare for the festivities I ran out and bought some puff pastry and some strawberries.  Earlier last week I saw this recipe for Cherry Hand Pies on Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, and was stuck with the idea as a perfect treat.  I looove me some pie and the idea of bringing it on the go made me swoon.  No bothering with slicing or plates or forks for me, just a delicious handheld single pie.  It’s the sophisticated cousin to the poptarts of my childhood.  Oh and not to mention the fact that having a set size makes my inner food-hog very satisfied.  No waffling between big and small slices or trying to hide the fork from the (always stealing bites of my food) boyfriend…

In short, the hand pie is a perfect dessert.

So, not wanting to be one who shows up empty handed to a party, I hauled ass to the grocery store and bought a package of puff pastry and a quart of strawberries.  I liked that Tracey made her hand pies with cherries, but I was really feeling in the mood for fresh strawberries.  They were calling out to me from the berry stand.

Precooked Pie

I ended up following the recipe almost exactly.  I changed the cherries out for strawberries and just ended up cooking the entire quart.  It was more than I needed, but I froze the extra filling for another day (mini pie?  crumble?  ice cream mix-in?).  Also, oh by the way, I was amazed at how quick and easy the whole process was.  The only time I found myself nail-biting was during the “chill for 30 minutes in the fridge” moments.  And the only suggestion I have for the other impatient cooks out there is to put on a good show or pull out your current book.  The time goes by fast as long as you aren’t in a hurry to get to a barbecue.

4th of July Strawberry Pie
Print
Recipe type: Dessert
Author: very slightly adapted from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 12
The perfect dessert for a summer barbecue, they’re handheld and simple, yet oh so delightful.
What Do You Need?
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 quart sliced strawberries
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 lb puff pastry
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 tbsp water
Make it Happen
  1. Combine the cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Add the strawberries, sugar, vanilla, and salt to a saucepan and heat on medium.
  3. You want to cook them for about five minutes until they get juicy, then add the cornstarch mixture.
  4. Bring to a boil, making sure to stir pretty consistently.
  5. When it reaches a boil, take off the heat and let cool to room temperature (I popped the pan in the freezer for a few hot seconds to speed the process up).
  6. Unfold your puff pastry (there should be two sheets in a package) and cut each sheet into 6 equal rectangular shapes (they’ll be adorably miniature).
  7. Place a spoonful of filling into the center area of each rectangle and fold over until you make a nice little pocket. Seal the edges with a fork’s tines and slice steam vents in the top of each mini pie.
  8. Beat the egg white and tablespoon of water together and then wash over the top of each hand pie. Then let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  9. Preheat oven to 375F.
  10. Bake the pies for 30 or so minutes. You’ll know they’re done when they’ve puffed up and turned a nice golden brown color. Also the aroma in the kitchen will be driving you wild.
  11. Cool and devour!
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Pies

And, oh by the way, these babies were kind of a hit.  You’ll amaze your friends into thinking you’re some kind of genius baker.  And I guess making such a tasty yet easy dessert does make you some kind of a genius baker.  I give them two thumbs up, you should definitely try them next time you’ve got a barbecue to attend or an extra quart of strawberries.

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“Life is Great” Cookies and a Fond Farewell

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Ashley| 8 Comments
Budrow

Well, yesterday was a sad day because my sweet old puppy dog Buddy died.  Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, but he’s been in my thoughts.

It’s a hard thing, to lose pets.  They become such integral parts of your family that it’s hard to imagine life without them.  And, granted, I’m not living at my parents house, but I still can’t think of their place without Buddy being a central part of it.

However, he let my folks know that it was his time, and I’m glad that he will no longer be in pain.  He was such a great pup, though, I miss him so much.

Bud

And I’m sorry to start this all out on an unhappy note.  I just wanted to take a moment to share those thoughts.  And I really do think that celebrating life (whether it be a human’s or a puppy dog’s) is sometimes the best way to honor death.  I’ve been thinking of funny Buddy stories (such as the time he somehow became the centerpiece of my junior year prom pictures- see first photo ha!) and just trying to realize that death is a part of life, and it was his time.

So yesterday I made a batch of cookies.  It wasn’t necessarily meant to be in homage to Bud (if I wanted to do that I should have stuck with ribs or ground beef… no dog can deny those treats), but I ended up kind of thinking about them as a cheer-up for me and a celebration of life.  Like I said, cookies wouldn’t have been Bud’s first choice, but they’re still really delicious for humans that want to celebrate life.

Cookies

I used White On Rice Couple‘s recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cookies and almost followed the directions exactly.  Instead of rolling logs and slicing off cookies, I did the ol’ lazy spoondrop method.  Also, I added sliced strawberries, coconut flakes, and homemade “chocolate.”  I didn’t have any chocolate at home, so I used this Raw Vegan Coconut Oil Chocolate recipe from Love Veggies and Yoga.  (It’s oh-so-easy, by the way.  I just made up the chocolate, spread it on wax paper, stuck it in the freezer for fifteen minutes, and then broke it up into chips to add to the cookie dough.)

Mix

“Life Is Great” Strawberry, Coconut, Chocolate Cookies
Print
Recipe type: Dessert
Author: adapted from White On Rice Couple
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: manymany
Sweet, chewy, fruity, and chocolatey. Four adjectives to describe these cookies that make you want to celebrate a life well lived.
What Do You Need?
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • just under 1/2 cup “chocolate”
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh strawberries
  • 1/4 cup coconut flakes
Make it Happen
  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Beat together butter and sugars.
  3. Add eggs, vanilla, and sea salt.
  4. Stir flour and baking soda into the mix (one cup at a time).
  5. Then stir in “chocolate,” strawberries, and coconut flakes.
  6. Place spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet or silpat mat and cook for about ten minutes. (I like them chewy and slightly underdone)
Notes

Including time to make and freeze “chocolate,” prep time would be about 25 mins.
Also, increase cook time by the amount of batches you put in the oven.

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Cookies

They ended up very delicious and a perfect way to celebrate the happy life of good ol’ “The General” Buddy.  You don’t need to be combatting sadness to love these, though.  They’re full of lots of sugar and lots of butter, so they make a delectable indulgence that can’t be beat.  Enjoy, and love to all.

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