Vanilla Bean Scones

Over the summer I developed a potentially dangerous obsession with petite vanilla bean scones from starbucks. Luckily, my good friend Katie from Good Things Catered came to the rescue and sent me the recipe so that I could make them at home and not have to buy them every day. It turns out, these scones were unbelievably easy to make and are hands down my favorite scones to make because they are not dry and crumbly like a lot of other recipes.

Petit Vanilla Bean Scones

Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter, chilled
2 vanilla beans
1 c. half and half, chilled

1/2 c. powdered sugar
water

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.
-In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
-Take butter out of fridge, cut into chunks and add to flour mixture.
-Cut butter into flour until pea sized or smaller.
-Scrape inards of vanilla beans and add to flour mixture.

-Add half and half and mix in with a spoon until just barely incorporated
-Using hands, knead together until mixture forms a ball.
-Turn dough out onto floured surface, divide into three equal pieces.

-Pat down each piece into rough circle at least a full inch thick.
-Cut each circle into 8 triangles and place triangles onto prepared baking sheet at least an inch apart.
-Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes.

-Remove from oven and let cool.
-Once cooled, make icing by placing powdered sugar in a small bowl and, add 1 Tbsp of water.
-Stirring constantly, add 1/2 tsp water at a time until icing just comes together and is barely pourable.
-Using spoon, drizzle a small amount of icing over each scone and let run down sides.
-Let icing dry completely and serve

Blondies

I made these under possibly the worst baking conditions ever, which is probably why they didnt turn out the way I wanted them to. The best thing about this recipe is that you can add anything into them to tailor them to your tastes. While I just used basic chocolate chips, I can see a plethora of alternative add-ins that would make for equally delicious blondies.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Deb says that these should go in an 8x8 pan, however, I doubled the recipe and still found the blondies to be too thin for even an 8x8 pan. This leads me to believe I did something wrong, which is entirely likely. I will be trying these again for the holiday season with white chocolate chips and cranberries so we will see if they turn out better.

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in chocolate chips or any other possible add-ins.
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. My oven runs hot, so I took them out at about 19 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Blueberry muffins

These are really basic and yummy muffins that aren't too sweet and aren't terribly bad for you. I recently brought them into the office and they were a huge hit.

Ingredients:
1 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. plain lowfat yogurt
1/4 c. milk
1 c. fresh blueberries
cinnamon sugar for dusting

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line 6 muffin cups.
-In medium bowl, combine flour sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and whisk to combine thoroughly.
-In large bowl, combine egg, oil. vanilla, yogurt milk and whisk to combine thoroughly.
-Fold dry ingredients into wet and stir until just combined (will be lumpy and thick.)
-Fold in blueberries and using ice cream scoop to spoon, divide batter evenly among 6 muffin cups.
-Generously sprinkle tops of muffins with cinnamon sugar.
-Place in oven and bake until toothpick inserted in center of muffin is removed clean, about 12-15 minutes.
-Remove from oven and let cool in tins for 2 minutes.
-Let cool completely on wire rack or eat immediately.