It seems I had a lot on my mind this weekend and found baking a solitary pursuit that allowed me to concentrate on other things like measuring, kneading and folding, but also gave me time to think. Never underestimate the power of the smell of baked goods in your home. It is addictive. Chocolate, sugar, eggs and cream, such simple ingredients that combined with my wayward oven fills the air with comfort. I am actually beginning to enjoy baking!
First up were these Plum Coffee Cake Muffins that were so easy. I love opening the oven and seeing those muffin tops all golden and sugary. They popped right out of the pan and each was perfect.
Then on Sunday morning, following the success of the muffins, I prepared to make my first scone. Chin chose the chocolate recipe. (How can you not love a man who loves chocolate?)
So back to the dough again. Same issue as before, it seemed a little dry but who am I to know the difference. I finally bought a ruler so that when Martha says to roll the dough out to a certain size, I can do that with confidence. I rolled out my dry chocolate dough to the required 11" x 3" and cut them into six pieces. Martha says they are to be six squares, but I could not figure that one out since the original shape was a rectangle. So I cut six rectangles. BIG rectangles. They did not look like the ones you get at Star$. The most fun was chilling the scones. Unlike Martha, I only have one refrigerator, average size. The scones have to sit on a big-a** baking sheet covered in plastic. I had to spend 10 minutes rearranging my fridge in order for this baking sheet to balance precariously on the tops of assorted containers and firm vegetables which rest on the bottom shelf! There were definitely some of my best Lucy Ricardo moments every time I had to open the fridge.
While my dough was being cool, I decided to make the Banana Loaf, which would be my last quick bread. I had bought all the ingredients which included shredded coconut and toasted pecans. Sounds delicious doesn't it? Except that Lily would hate it. The recipe makes two loaves (not confident enough to halve a baking recipe yet) and Lily would not touch any of it if I included nuts and coconut. So, I decided to omit the offending ingredients and instead added a package of Hershey chocolate chips. What you don't know is that I have to live up to my sister's banana bread recipe. "Auntie Ellen makes the best banana bread" exclaims my teenage daughter with the discerning palate (ketchup is a vegetable serving to this kid). I was determined to steal my daughter's banana bread heart away and what better way to do that than with...you guessed it...chocolate!
If you recall, my previous loaf pan experience was a disaster so I made sure to buy two spanking new non-stick metal pans. It worked! They came out as perfect twin peaks! By the way, no luck on being the Banana Bread champ. The title still belongs to Ellen.
Back to the scones: Martha says that they are very rich, almost too rich for breakfast so I decide to bake them while we are having dinner. What could be a better dessert? The smell was almost too much to bear, would I be able to resist? One would think so given how strange they looked - but looks are deceiving!
Martha would cringe until she actually bit into this chocolaty gift from the gods! The larger pieces of the chopped chocolate stay intact in the dough, but ooze just enough so that you have to lick your fingers. I had to have a taste but stuck to just a taste. Yeah for me and yeah for my colleagues who had a feast awaiting them this morning. 'Tis better to give than to eat it yourself and take in more calories with one bite than your whole morning's allotment!
My boss is convinced that I am trying to make everyone around me at work fat. Which is not a bad idea because then I can look like I am losing more weight! Hmmmmm.
