Chocolates & Dreams

It was just a few days back when we were all celebrating Christmas and waiting eagerly to welcome a New Year. Suddenly a month of that New Year has passed us by. How time flies. And, with its flight it has left me a little in disarray. With a lot of travelling and other things that have occupied most of the month I had almost let this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge pass. But, how could I let pass an opportunity to bake Scones, especially those that had been remade 16 times and were at a point of complete perfection.
This month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Audax from Audax Artifex. A beautiful blogger and a lady who so particular in her quest for perfection that she had 288 recipes of scones bookmarked and made them 16 times till she was happy enough to hand over the recipe to us. Who can say no to such an easy task? A simple recipe; simpler steps, and the output, a delicious, ‘flaky or moist’ scones.
Scones :
Notes :
1. Triple sift the dry ingredients –It is recommended to sift the dry ingredients thrice from a height as it help incorporate air into the mix leading to lightness of the scones and equal distribution of the leavening agents.
2. Rubbing in the fat – When the fat is rubbed in to form a fine grain the dough is tender. On the other hand, the larger the fat pieces the flakier the scones. But, what is most important is to rub in the frozen fat as quickly as possible.
3. Moistening and bringing the dough together - Add all the liquid at once to the rubbed-in dry ingredients. When mixing the dough, stir vigorously from bottom to top and mix just until the dough is well-moistened and begins to come together. It should be wet & sticky.
4. Handling the dough – It is important not to overwork the dough but under-working is also a common mistake. Overworking leads to tough, dry and heavy scones while under-working leads to crumbly ones.
5. Kneading or folding/turning the dough – This is where you decide whether your scones has distinct layers or not. When the dough is simply kneaded by 1) only kneading the dough will create an even tender crumb while only turning and folding the dough will be flaky and have a layered effect.
6. Pat or roll out the dough –It is best to use your fingers to gently pat out the dough once it has been kneaded or folded and turned. Use a very light touch with little pressure and forming the dough into a rectangle to be cut into rounds for the scones.
7. Cutting out your scones – Use a well-floured cutter. You can use a sharp knife to cut out shapes. The knife should be floured before each cut.
8. Baking your scones – Always preheat the oven.
9. Extra comments about resting the dough – In her researches Audax found that resting the dough in various stages in the recipe had different effects on the scones. If you rested the mixed dough (in the fridge) for 20 minutes there is a huge improvement in the dough's handling qualities and the final scones height, lightness and crumb are outstanding. Also she found that if the patted dough was rested, covered in plastic for 10 minutes in the fridge that the rounds were easier to stamp out and the baked goods raise higher and have a better crumb.
All purpose flour 1 cup
Fresh baking powder 2 tsp
Salt ¼ tsp                                                                                                                                                       Frozen grated butter 2 tbsp
Cold milk ½ cup                                                                                                                                                 Milk 1 tbsp, for glazing the tops of the scones
•Preheat oven at 240°C for 10 minutes.
•Triple sieve the dry ingredients in a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the ingredients until cold.)
•Rub the frozen grated butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
•Add all the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough. The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be.
•Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth.
•To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture.
•Pat or roll out the dough into a 6” by 4”rectangle by about ¾” thick. Using a well-floured scone cutter, stamp out without twisting the scones or just cut squares or wedges.
•Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
•Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
•Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.
Serves: 8, 2” scones or 5, 3” scones or 8 squares and wedges.Delicious with Black Current Preserve or Orange Marmalade.

Enjoy ! ! !

To see all the other amazing scones go HERE.

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR ! ! !

Here I am, after one of my disappearing acts, AGAIN. I am really good at this, disappearing I mean. A girl has to do this for her sanity sometimes & other times when she has no option. This time around I had no option. My fingers itched to write about all that was happening around me, all that I was doing & experiencing but with the whirlwind of activity that was afoot I had no time to write. I cook & baked but never got to photograph anything. The plum cake that turned out far to rummy to be called a plum cake was named rum cake & disappeared in our tummies without any pictures. The Gajar Halwa disappeared twice without trace , this time I will post about it.

The year ended with a visit from my aunt, uncle & sister on the 31st of December. It also brought along with it the blossoming of the lone rose in our garden.

The year began with the 1st Birthday Celebration of a friend’s daughter & an afternoon spent catching up with friends & delicious food.The evening was spent watching “Key Tumi” a play based on the writing of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore. Beautiful Bengali recitation by the evergreen Sharmila Tagore & Shoumitra Chatterjee & Rabindra Sangeet by Lopamudra Mitra & Paramita Chatterjee filled our evening with complete bliss & satisfaction.

Santa came a little late this season wearing a postman’s uniform with an amazing & much anticipated gift pack from Mortimer Snodgrass that I won in a giveaway from Evelyne Budkewitsch beautiful blog Cheap Ethinic Eatz. What an amazing array of gift came my way. A table saw that can cut cakes & lettuce with equal ease, Joyce Green is an all natural citrus reamer made from a combination of wood & plastic, a sprout making kit, a pepper grinder with three different pepper settings, and some sexy hot chili pepper to cool my drinks without making them watery. I hope I have more surprises coming my way this year.  

Then my friend Tashi came to meet me with her son Zino. We meet after 5 years. The last meeting had been my wedding reception. I have no recollection of what we talked about but had been mighty pleased she could come. Now she has a 2.5 year old son who is a handful & a bundle of joy. I sometimes wonder how time flies …

December & January have also been a busy time for my Dreams …
Chocolates & Dreams was started with a desire to share all that I make in my kitchen, experiments, tried & tested recipes, failures, improvements everything. It was my way into the world of food & happiness. I am happiest when I am whipping up a cake or rolling out dough on the kitchen counter with music in the back ground & a house to myself. The Dream was to always start of a little bistro of my own, a small place where pancakes, waffles, muffins, French toast would be served with a dose of music, discussion & all things fun. What it would also sell would be home made soft filled chocolates for the chocoholics craving soul. The dream has partially taken flight. With order of chocolates going out steadily I have been a little tied down & away from the blog. But, I promise to be regular between all that will go on because this blog is my lifeline.

Chocolates are now available on order in the Delhi & NCR region. So just send me a mail to chocolatesanddreams@gmail.com if you would like to order.