Whole Wheat Cheddar Scones

The last bout of baking books I ordered, I had two I knew I wanted - The Essential Baker & Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More. Either those two books didn't add up to $39 to get the free shipping, or I just got really enticed by this little Simply Scones cookbook. Because really, what's better than scones?? I think the brownie scones really helped win me over, but so far all I've made are the cheese scones. Cheese scones are the kind I grew up eating (and I'm undecided as to whether they have to be refrigerated).

Lisa and I have been talking about scones as she seems to be the master of making healthy and delicious scones - like Coconut, Currant and Cashew Yogurt Scones and Sour Cherry Jam Scones! And go check out how beautiful and high they are. Mine were so flat. Lisa says that you can take out the eggs without replacing them with anything and the scones should be fine, though they will be drier (correct me if I'm wrong Lisa!) My guess is that you'd need to add a bit more milk though if it seems too dry, or yogurt can act as an egg replacer. Mmm yogurt cheese scones. (Edit: Lisa says she replaces an egg with 1/4 cup soy yogurt. And that "a scone made with eggs gives you a more "cake-like" texture where as a scone made without eggs has a more "bread-like" texture".)

This is a simple scone recipe that you can modify and make whatever kind of scone sounds good to you! I think it would be good with a mix of dried fruit, such as apricots, figs and raisins. And I like that there's no sugar in it.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones
Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits
Apricot Orange Scones

Whole Wheat Cheddar Scones
Adapted from Simply Scones

Makes 8 scones.

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Generous dash ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/3 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Stir in the cheese. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender or two knives used scissors fashion, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir together the milk and 2 eggs. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Spread the dough into an 8 inch diameter circle in the center of the prepared baking sheet. With a serrated knife, cut into 8 wedges. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean.*

Transfer the scones to the wire rack to cool. Serve warm, or cool completely and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

*Personally it seems really weird to test a scone with a toothpick, but maybe that's just me.

Santa Fe Pasta Salad

I'm not the kind of person to spend a lot of time on the presentation of food, though I think people who do make that effort make the food and photos look so amazing (such as La Tartine Gourmande who often shares food styling tips as well). I'm more the kind of person that wants to mix everything up and just eat it. I'm known for cutting all of my food up into bite size pieces and stirring it all up together. I've done that with many burgers (veggie burgers of course) and with sandwiches that are impossible to eat like regular sandwiches. It's just easier to eat that way and I want a bite of everything each time! So, yes sometimes I feel self conscious about the presentation of my dishes, especially after looking at many beautiful photos on people's blogs. But that's only sometimes. Most of the time it doesn't bother me because I'm just worried about it tasting delicious and I like to tell myself there is a home cooked/baked feel with the way I present food.

As I was writing this post, I realized how many things I've been making from the Rebar cookbook. I guess I'm trying to take advantage of the time that I have now (since many Rebar recipes take a while to make) before I start my very time consuming program in September. Anyway, I've never really made an elaborate pasta salad before so I thought I'd try out the recipe for Santa Fe pasta salad. It was easy to make, and I thought it tasted good but my boyfriend extremely loved it and also discovered how delicious grape tomatoes are. Being a pasta salad, I ate it cold but I think it would taste good hot as well.

I'm sending this to Ruth for her weekly presto pasta night roundup!

Santa Fe Pasta Salad
(adapated from Rebar)

serves 6-8

Dressing
2 red peppers, roasted
4 cloves garlic, roasted
2 tsp chipotle puree (take a can of chipotle peppers and puree it)
2 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
3/4 cup olive oil

Salad
4 cups dry fusilli pasta
3 cups corn, fresh or frozen
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp minced sage or 3 tsp dried sage*
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 pints grape tomatoes
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Begin by preparing the dressing. Seed and peel the roasted peppers. Place them, along with the garlic and chipotle puree in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add maple syrup, vinegar, lime juice, salt and blend. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil until well incorporated and thickened. Set aside.

2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Toss corn with oil and salt and evenly spread it out in a small baking pan. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

4. To assemble the salad, toss pasta in a large bowl with enough dressing to coat. Add corn, sage and green onions and toss well. Add more dressing to taste and season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, garnish with grape tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese and pine nuts.

*I used dried sage and added what looked like enough. I'm not sure if 3 teaspoons dried sage is really about equal to 4 tbsp fresh minced sage.
General note - the cookbook suggests adding avocado to the salad as well if you want, and I definitely agree that it would fit in perfectly here. Plus avocados are always so delicious.

Macaroni & Cheese = Happiness

Macaroni and cheese is hands down one of my favourite things to eat. Actually I'm going to go all out here and say it is my single favourite main course. Usually I make it the way my mom taught me (which oddly seems to be different than how she makes it now, so I guess something got lost along the way for one of us) but in any case it's delicious and easy. However that is not the mac and cheese I am posting about right now! Though I should definitely post about that one too at some point. I read awhile ago about a macaroni and cheese showdown and was extremely jealous. I want to have a macaroni and cheese party. Or cellentani and cheese party (cellentani is a straight tube of pasta that has been twisted into a little spiral - I've also seen it called scoobydoo pasta).

Anyway, this mac and cheese recipe comes from my beloved Rebar cookbook, and is one of the best I've had. It's the use of aged white cheddar (drool), lots of herbs (thyme, oregano, parsley), onions, and an awesomely delicious topping (fresh bread crumbs, pine nuts, more herbs, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese) that makes this macaroni and cheese so great. It's certainly more time consuming and complicated to make than regular macaroni and cheese, but so very worth it. The first time I made it, I thought fresh bread crumbs were the same as the dried fine breadcrumbs you can buy at the store. The fine breadcrumbs soaked up all the tasty sauce, so don't make my mistake! I just rip up pieces of bread for the fresh breadcrumbs now and it works really well. This recipe makes a huge amount of mac and cheese, so unless you're wanting to feed at least 6+ people and have leftovers, try halving it. And no I did not actually use macaroni this time because I didn't have any, so I used whole wheat penne (one of my least favourite pasta shapes to use for mac and cheese).

Audrey's Deluxe Mac & Cheese (with Crispy Pine Nut-Herb Crust)
(from the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook)

Serves 10.

6 cups dry pasta shapes*
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
1 large yellow onion, minced
2 tsp (10ml) salt
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup (80ml) chopped oregano**
2 tbsp (30ml) chopped thyme**
1/2 cup (120ml) chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup (60ml) butter
3 1/2 cups (840ml) milk
1/4 cup (60ml) unbleached flour
4 cups (960ml) grated aged white cheddar (about 330g)
4 cups (960ml) fresh breadcrumbs***
1 cup (240ml) grated Parmesan
1/2 cup (120ml) pine nuts

*I would use a bit less pasta, maybe 5 cups, because I like lots of sauce.
**Fresh herbs are best of course but dried works fine too.
***4 Pieces of bread ripped up.

1. Cook pasta in boiling, salted water until just done. strain and toss with a light coating of olive oil. set aside or refrigerate. (This step can be done one day in advance.)

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp (15ml) olive oil in a small skillet and sauté onion for 5 minutes. add half of the minced garlic, 1/2 tsp (2.5ml) salt and sauté until the garlic turns golden. transfer to a small bowl and stir in half of the chopped herbs. Set aside.

3. Next, make a roux for the cheese sauce. Gently heat the milk and keep it warm. Set a saucepan over medium heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle in flour and whisk constantly as the flour and butter turn golden. Gradually add the warm milk and 1 tsp (5ml) salt and whisk thoroughly. heat until the sauce thickens (about 10 minutes). Add the sautéed onion/herb mix, grated cheese and stir until the cheese melts. Season to taste.

4. Finally, make the topping. Combine the breadcrumbs with the remaining garlic, herbs, Parmesan, pine nuts, 1/2 tsp (2.5ml) salt, plenty of cracked pepper and the remaining 3 tbsp (45ml) olive oil. Mix together thoroughly.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. to assemble, combine the noodles and cheese sauce in a large bowl and mix well. pour into an oiled 8" x 12" dish.* Scatter the topping over the entire surface, working some of it into the noodles. Bake uncovered until golden and bubbly (about 45 minutes). Serve piping hot.

*Not necessary to oil the dish.

Yam and Leek Galette

Let me start this out by saying,
yams = white
sweet potatoes = ORANGE
Honestly, I'm not making this up.

The misunderstanding between yams and sweet potatoes really irks me. For a long time I had no clue which was which or how they were different - I never really cooked with either of them, so my experience was only in restaurants. "Yam" fries (which are always sweet potatoes), "yam" tempura (sometimes yam, sometimes sweet potato), candied "yams" that you eat at family holiday dinners (again, sweet potato). Anyway, up until I made this recipe I was unclear and consistently confusing myself in the yam vs sweet potato debate.

After I had gone on a researching craze to find out which foods are healthiest, I decided that I would try to replace regular potato with sweet potato as often as possible. Well I must admit, only partly for health reasons, and partly for its extremely yummy taste. (Sweet potatoes have lots of vitamin A (beta-carotene) and vitamin C.) Thus when I found a recipe for a leek and potato galette, I immediately wanted to use sweet potato instead. Sadly what I had were deceptive yams, so I don't think this galette was nearly as good as it could've been.

I've seen a few recipes for galettes (which you really don't need a recipe for) and really wanted to try making one. They're easy to make but it's a bit time consuming to thinly slice a ton of potato (thank you mandoline). I wasn't really happy with the flavour of this galette, due to the use of evil yams and Gruyère cheese. I think this was my first time trying Gruyère and I'm not sure I like the flavour - I'll have to try it again. Despite all this, I love what a galette is - "round and flat crusty cakes". My ideal galette, which I'll definitely be making in the future, will be real sweet potato, caramelized onions (which I hope don't end up burning in the oven, but they shouldn't), and I'm undecided on the kind of cheese (maybe Asiago or my favourite aged white cheddar?) Throwing some thinly sliced carrots in there might be interesting too. You can use this recipe as a guide for putting together whatever kind of galette you want! I think it's meant to be a side dish, but I ate it with salad for dinner.

Yam and Leek Galette
slightly modified from Everyday Food, April 2007

6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 pounds (about 2 medium sized) yams, peeled
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 leek, white and light-green parts, thinly sliced crosswise, well washed
6 ounces Gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (about 1 1/2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with rack set in top third. Line bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with a round of parchment paper. Place melted butter in a large bowl. Using a mandoline or cutting by hand, slice the yams 1/8 inch thick; add to bowl with butter. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. In prepared pan, arrange some of the yams around edge of pan, overlapping the slices.

2. Fill center of pan with more overlapping slices. Sprinkle with half the leek and half the cheese; season with salt and pepper. Repeat with another layer of yam and remaining leek and cheese; season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining yams. Using a spatula, press galette down firmly.

3. Bake until yams are tender, 70 to 80 minutes, pressing down firmly twice with a spatula during cooking. Run knife around edge of pan. Carefully invert galette onto a plate, remove parchment, and reinvert onto serving plate. Cut into wedges, and serve.