Cheese Scones

I am the proud owner of The Joy of Cooking. The 75th anniversary edition to be exact. I was looking through it last night and decided that I would make scones for breakfast. So I did! They where pretty amazing. I added grated old Cheddar cheese and some Parmesan. Then I topped it with some smoked Jarlsberg, just because I had a bit laying around. This recipe is very easy. I used a cookie cutter to make the scones but you can shape it into a circle and cut it into triangles. I came out with about 10.

You will need
1 3/4 cup flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold cubed butter
2 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons reserved
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 cup cheese, reserve 1/4 cup for sprinkling at the end

1) Whisk together all the dry ingredients.
2) Add the cubed butter. Using a dough blender 2 knives combine together until small balls form.
3) Create a well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Pour in the eggs and cream and stir to combine
4) Pour out onto a lightly floured surface and gently kneed a few times. You just want any left over flour to be incorporated.
5) Roll the dough out into a circle and cut into triangles or using a cookie cutter cut the dough into pieces. Transfer to a cookie sheet.
6) Brush some of the reserved eggs on top and sprinkle some of the cheese on top
7) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
8)Enjoy!

Tip
1)Instead of cheese you can add herbs like basil or dill.

Homemade Pretzels

I had a lot fun making these. Trust me it is not as hard as it looks to make. Making pretzels is very similar to making bagels, in the sense that these are cooked twice. Once in boiling water and again in a very hot oven. The only downside of these pretzels, which was purely my fault is that I forgot to add the salt in with the flour. As soon as I bit into the pretzel I could taste that it wasn't in the dough. There is salt on the top of the pretzel so it sort of balanced it out. Next time I'll make sure I add the salt.

You will need
1 tsp dry active yeast
2 tablespoon plus 1/3 cup honey
1 cup milk plus 2 tablespoons
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
course salt(optional, enough to salt the tops of your pretzels)

1) Heat the milk to 110 degrees.
2) In a bowl, add the 2 tbs of honey, milk and yeast. Let sit for 20 minutes of until yeast starts to foam.
3)In a separate bowl add the 2 1/2 cups flour and the salt. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and stir to combine. The dough will be sticky, roll out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is to sticky. The amount of flour you will need to add will variety depending on the humidity and altitude of where you are.
4) Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a cloth. Let rise for an hour

5) Knead the dough for 5 minutes and cut into pieces. I cut mine into 5 then cut is piece in half. This way I ended up with smaller sized pretzels.
6) Roll the dough into logs. Place on a baking sheet and let rise for a further 5 minutes.

7) Shape the dough into pretzels. Take the ends of the log and fold them to the center of the dough, the ends should cross each other in the center. Pinch the ends to the bottom piece of dough, this is very important. If you don't do this your pretzels may open when boiled.

8) Heat a pot with water, add the 1/3 cup of honey and stir. Allow the honey to be incorporated in the water.
9) Place one pretzel at a time into the pot, do not crowd the pot. Cook for 1 minute then flip and cook for another minute.

10) Take the cooked pretzels out of the pot and place on a baking sheet. I used my stoneware pans, I find they bake bread nicer then a regular metal pan.
11) Lightly spread some of the 2 tbs of milk on top of the pretzels. Sprinkle the salt on top and place in a pre heated 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Tips
1) I didn't have course salt, so I use regular table salt. If you don't have course salt do the same.
2) You can make pretzels balls as well, I did. I made 6 regular pretzels and 4 pretzel balls.
3) Don't roll the logs to thin, they may break when resting.

Bagels

Bagels!, Nigella Lawson Bagels. My Adam and I made bagels yesterday. They turned out really well, I'm pretty sure I'll make them again. I used Nigella Lawson's bagel recipe, it's pretty simple. The only thing that someone times bothers me about her recipes is the measurements. I'm always using a scale, which is fine really because but I prefer recipes that are in cups not grams. I know that there is 500g in a pound and that a pound is 16 oz and so forth so I can just convert, I'm just ranting. So at first glance you will see that you need a lot of flour, 1 kg which is 2.2 pounds. This dough is basically like any other dough recipe but it is really hard to knead. Adam ended up doing all the kneading, the dough is really tough. Nigella says that if you are using an electric mixer to have it knead for about 10 minutes...which is more like 20 minutes if your doing it by hand. So be prepared, really it is a lot of work. Also just a side note. Nigella's recipe calls for Easy Blend yeast, I has dry active yeast on hand. I looked on the Internet to see if they were the same thing and it appears that they are. I assume that Easy Blend is just another name for Dry Active.

Recipe
1 kg(2.2 pounds) flour
1 tablespoon salt
15 g or 1 packet of dry active yeast or easy blend
4 tablespoons sugar or 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons malt
1 tablespoon oil
500ml warm water

Nigella says to add 2 tablespoons of sugar, and all of the yeast, salt and flour in a bowl. Which I would of done expect the day before I made her doughnuts. I did everything the recipe said and when it came time to roll the dough out I could still see bits of yeast in the dough. So I made a small change.

In a bowl add 2 tablespoons sugar, yeast, water and oil. Stir gently and let stand for about 5 minutes. This will allow the yeast to wake up.

In a separate bowl add the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Add the yeast mixture to the well and stir to combine. Nigella suggest using a wooden spoon, so I did. If using a electric mixer this can be done using the mixer, also remember to use a dough hook attachment.

Once the dough is formed dump the dough onto a work surface that has been dusted with flour. Knead the dough until smooth.

Place the dough in a bowl that has been oiled, turn the dough so all sides have oil on it. Cover the bowl in a piece of plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour.

Once the dough has risen remove the plastic wrap and punch down. Literally punch the dough. Knead some for a few more minutes then cut into 3 some what equal pieces. Roll each third into a log and cut into five pieces. Take on of the 5 pieces of dough and roll into a log then form into a circle. Pinch the ends together. Put bagels on a oil cookie sheet, or if you have it you can use a pizza stone. I used my pizza stone and a stoneware cookie sheet for my bagels.
If you are having troubles forming the bagels you can roll the third out and using a cookie cutter cut out the bagels. Just remember to make a hole in the center.

Let the dough rest for another 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500.

On the stove, heat a pan or pot with water. Once the water is boiling add 2 tablespoons of sugar or Malt. I've never used Malt before so I used sugar. Add a few bagels to the pot. Cook for about 1 minute, if using a shallow pan flip the bagels about about 30 seconds.

Cook the bagel for about 10-15 minutes, or until brown.