Dinner of Poppy Seeds and Lemon

The mention of "dinner", "poppy seeds", and "lemon" in the title might lead on to believe that I made some pasta or rice dish accompanied by a sauce of poppy seeds with lemon juice and zest. Or a salad with lemon poppyseed dressing. None of those was on the menu. In this case, dinner was breakfast.

Lemon poppy seed scones, to be exact.

These were made with a combination of all-purpose flour and King Arthur's cake flour blend, baking powder, the zest of two lemons, 40g of Dutch blue poppy seeds, an egg, cream, salt, and sugar.

At times, I tend to use bread flour instead of the KA cake flour blend for my scones. That will be my next experiment for a new version of these lemon poppy seed scones.

Close up using manual focus on macro lensAnd another version will be using all-purpose flour as the only flour. Whoever said you shouldn't play with food clearly did not know how to have fun.

WEEKEND IN THE KITCHEN::Research and Good Food

Saturday was off to a slow start. The sun made an appearance as I sat at the kitchen table with my black baking/cooking journal and my iPad. With pen poised and ready, I Googled "Neapolitan cuisine". Wikipedia is a great resource for providing background information on recipe basics and techniques. I scrolled down to the "Pasta dishes" section and decided on pasta e patate, a variation of the Croatian staple of pasta with beans. I jotted down some ingredients, worked through the techniques of putting it all together, but it wasn't until Sunday that I was able to make it.

The usual Saturday morning scones was pushed off to Sunday morning. So, after a simple breakfast of coffee, bread, butter, sour cherry jam, almond butter, and honey (we all like different toppings on our bread), I started with the Neapolitan pizza dough. Four ingredients consisting of Caputo flour, yeast, salt, and water. No oil, no sugar, nothing but those four ingredients. With the low yeast to flour ratio, the rise was slow and the result was a delicious thin, chewy dough.

This time I decided to make one pizza solely for the kids and another for us two adults instead of the usual splitting the toppings down the middle and waiting on the second pizza to finish baking. Afterwards, I came to the conclusion that I prefer my original method as I do not have to wait for "our" pizza to finish its 6 minutes of baking on the stone (on the convection setting). The toppings included olive oil, Greek feta, and Kalamata olives for the kids and the same for us - with the addition of chopped garlic, fresh thyme, and red peppers - topped with crushed Urfa and Aleppo peppers.

Along with the pizza, I made a vegetable soup with onions, shallots, leeks, garlic, fresh campari tomatoes, celery, carrots, celery root, fresh thyme sprigs, salt, and pepper. The vegetables were passed through a sieve and the flavorful liquid was returned to the stove to be cooked with acini di pepe. My middle daughter calls this "punkte soup" - "punkte" meaning "dot" in German. The girls had requested the soup. The boy wanted no part of it. I'm hoping his taste buds get a bit more adventurous soon. He cannot survive on almond butter, honey, bread, and desserts alone (though he thinks he can).

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the longer days of sunlight starting next week is to be able to photograph my finished dishes before the sunlight dissipates. Although my husband keeps reminding me that my digital camera is able to shoot far beyond my usual ISO of 400 or lower, I cannot help but remember Bryan Peterson telling us that he rarely shoots over ISO 200 - even at night. That means a tripod with a long exposure. For now, I prefer using the light I have and not spending too much time processing the RAW images.

Sunday morning scones. I had written a recipe for banana oat chocolate scones the previous weekend but never got around to making them. This weekend I decided to change the recipe to a simple oat chocolate scone using chopped Valrhona chocolate.

"These taste good", my husband commented, "...but you already know that." Actually I didn't but was glad when I tasted them again yesterday. I had saved a few for the kids' school lunches and for a midday indulgence with a strong cup of Turkish coffee after I dropped off the younger two at school. Treasured quiet time. I almost believe they tasted better the second day. Almost.

Since my husband had a flight in the early evening, I started on the cake in the hopes of being able to have time to sit at the Sunday dinner table for a slice of cake before he leaves. That was the intention. The reality was that I packed up almost a quarter of the cake for him to take on his trip. Sunday dinner would have to wait until next weekend.

Though I had several options for a cake, I revisited the orange poppyseed kuchen I had made in Berlin, paying attention to the notes I'd written - add more buttermilk, more poppyseeds, and a few other adjustments. Besides baking it in a 12-cup bundt pan as opposed to a 9-inch springform pan (which would have been a better choice), the results were better than expected. I loved the bursts of poppy seeds with every forkful and the bright orange zest speckled throughout.

My summer in Berlin was filled with cake experiments using baker's math and batter cake formulas. Baker's percentage is a great method that's allowed me develop a myriad of cake recipes with ease. Since all of the ingredients are percentages of the weight of flour in a recipe, one can easily scale from a 9" springform pan to a larger or smaller one. The other formulas I used were ones for batter cakes which I'll mention in another post.

With the cake cooling, it was time to make the pasta and potatoes dish. It might seem a strange combination to some but the technique reminded me of a risotto - only with potatoes. The white wine and fresh mini San Marzano tomatoes (grown in Marfa, Texas) combined into a spectacular bowl of Neapolitan delight. The only change for next time is to cook the pasta 5 minutes less. It should not be al dente rather cooked through, but not mushy.

Despite the fact that the weekend was rushed and we didn't get to sit at the Sunday table, we enjoyed good food on a fairly warm pre-Spring weekend.

The kids found the scones delectable, taking note of my having added chocolate for them. Overall, I savored the time I had to research and write recipes this weekend - something I look forward to doing on a peaceful Sunday morning while the kids are still asleep.

THE WEEKEND KITCHEN::The Sweet and The Savory

This weekend brought about vanilla bean scones baked with both spiced vanilla bean sugar and vanilla bean paste. Flecks of vanilla beans dotted the scones, resembling one intense, but tasty, "connect the dots" artpiece.

It also brought about a rustic cake - a remake from the first cake recipe I developed in Berlin this past summer. As per my notes in my journal, I reduced the amount of flour, eggs, and butter. I also used lime zest and juice instead of the lemon zest and juice. The result? A delicious Rustic Yogurt Lime Cake.

The "Rustic" part is due to the fact that I had no mixers available to me in our rental apartment - either stand or hand. I even had to go out and buy a whisk and wooden spoons. Despite those limitations and more, I managed to develop quite a few recipes which I am now finally revisiting and retesting.

After the cake, dinner was next to be made. I went for a European dish known as djuveč in Croatian. Of course, my version is exactly that...one of many versions. I cook the rice on the stovetop while some versions bake it. I add beer which gives the whole dish a nice hoppy flavour. Green bell peppers are my choice as it provides a contrast to the red tomatoes. I also like to top this rice dish with Greek feta and warm up some flour tortillas or naan bread.

Lastly, came the čevapčiće. It was already dark when we got around to grilling these last night, but I managed to take a photo as the seasoned sausage-like ground meat was on the grill.

My favorite from this weekend? The cake...

KITCHEN NOTES: Recipe Development::Orange Chocolate Scones

The last Saturday morning of September greeted us with a pleasant yet unfamiliar sound. The sound of rain. I love when it rains. Mostly because we rarely get any rain, but it's a soothing sound that makes me happy nonetheless.

I look forward to lazy weekend mornings. Mornings that the children spend in bed cozily snuggled up in the duvets. Mornings when the middle child still manages to wake up before her siblings with her usual "When can we eat?" inquiry, followed by her insistent "I want to eat now!". Mornings when the oldest is not being rushed out the door to get to her bus or the younger two running to the minivan three days a week to get to preschool on time.

For Cinnamon, my middle child, this will be her last year going to school part-time, as she goes to kindergarten every day next year.

Sage still has one more year of preschool but I fear that the time will pass by quicker than I'd like. For now, I'll try to cherish these fleeting moments as long as possible, remembering to capture as many of them with my camera before it's too late.

Saffi giving Sagey a piggyback ride

So, on weekend mornings, I like to make something special for the kids. This particular Saturday morning the plan was to make Cranberry Orange scones. I used to eat those all the time at that chain coffee place I've successfully avoided for close to a year as I quickly got bored with their pastries and coffee. Cinnamon also liked those scones, but Saffron mostly preferred the lemon pound cake or the vanilla scones.

I was all set to measure out the cranberries and soak them in Grand Marnier when Saffron showed up in the kitchen asking what I was making. She didn't seem pleased with my answer and, honestly, I thought she was just being pouty. What's a mom to do in such a case? Well, change course. Leave out the cranberries and replace them with chocolate.

Chopped chocolate, orange, cream with cinnamon (to brush before baking)

So, that's exatly what I did. After several unsuccessful attempts this summer, I finally reached my goal of a cakey scone. Just the way I like it.

Orange Chocolate Scones

this batch made 16 scones

INGREDIENTS

125 grams all-purpose flour

100 grams cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt (I used Pink Himalayan)

60 grams granulated sugar

100 grams unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

2 large eggs

60 ml heavy cream

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

zest from one medium orange

1 tablespoon orange juice, freshly pressed

50 grams bittersweet chocolate (I used El Rey 73.5%), chopped

FOR TOPPING: 30 ml heavy cream mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 425°F. Line one rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

While measuring out the ingredients, place cubed butter in freezer.

Combine flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Remove butter from freezer and gently rub the pieces into the flour mixture until roughly combined. There is no need for the butter to be completely incorporated (I've left a few larger pieces). Set aside while preparing the wet ingredients.

Whisk together eggs, cream, Grand Marnier, orange zest, and orange juice. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Using a spoon, quickly bring together the wet and dry ingredients until they form a sticky ball of dough. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Turn out the mixture onto a well-floured surface and gently, but briefly, knead the dough. Flatten into a rectangular shape and cut into 16 equal portions. (You can also form the dough into an 8" circle and cut into 8 large scones). Brush with the cream/cinnamon mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

THE NOTES (as jotted down in my journal):

Although I had intended on baking cranberries into this scone recipe, the vision of the children picking them out and casting them alongside their plates changed my mind to something I knew they would enjoy on this rainy Saturday morning - chocolate. I could tell that Sagey thoroughly enjoyed the scones.

My previous attempts at writing scone recipes ended up with a cookie-like texture. Still good, but not the cakey version I was envisioning. The first scones I baked were Lemon Poppy Scones. That was back in early August in Berlin. The next day, I tried again and made Vanilla Scones. Then there were Lemon Buttermilk Scones, Cinnamon Spice Scones, and a recipe for Pumpkin Scones that I have not yet made (I'm planning on using real pumpkin, not canned, for these).

What the previous scone recipes all lacked was more fat and moisture. Actually, the Lemon Buttermilk Scones had no butter at all. By increasing the amount of butter, adding an extra egg, and replacing some of the all-purpose flour with cake flour, I was able to attain a tender, cakey scone.

Changes I would try for next time:

Surprisingly, I had no notes for this recipe other than jotting down "Yum!".

* For another recipe... replace chocolate with dried cranberries soaked in Grand Marnier.