Scones, Apple Pancakes, and Blueberry Pancakes

Here's another blog written using DragonDictate NaturallySpeaking. I'm writing this one at work, using my laptop computer. I wanted to see if I could get it to work here, and how well I would do with it. It's a bit hard getting used to it again after today's not using it, but hopefully if I use it every day both I and the program will become used to each other.

It will be particularly interesting to see how well this works with my recipes. The format of recipes is somewhat different than the format of regular paragraphs. This will probably take longer than it would just to type it. But if I get used to it I should be able to do it the increasingly quickly.

Many years ago when Doug and I lived in West Lebanon, Doug went to a bookstore and purchased a recipe book. I was a bit surprised at the book city bought. At first I thought it was rather strange since the recipes were very different from what I was used to. I eventually figured out that it was an English cooking book for baking. What I found particular helpful with the book or all the recipes for scones that it had. I did find the recipes for scones seemed a bit dry and bland, when using an English recipe. Since that time, I have updated the recipes. There's a little bit more sugar in these recipes, as well as more fruit.

Raisin and Currant Scones

1 3/4 cups flour.

1/2 teaspoon salt.

1 teaspoon baking soda.

2 teaspoons cream of tartar.

3 tablespoons butter.

2 tablespoons sugar.

1/2 to 2/3 cups golden raisins.

2/3 cup milk.

Cinnamon sugar to taste.

Preheat oven at 425 °F. Mix first four ingredients in bowl. Rub in three tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix in sugar, currants, and raisins. Then add milk and mix until soft dough forms. Dump onto floured counter top and knead for one to two minutes. Pat into 8 to 9 inch round. Rub top with some milk and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cut into eight equal wages. PAM cookie sheet. Place wedges on cookie sheet and bake at 425° for 10 minutes.

The scones are really great. They're moist and soft with a crunchy outside. Sometimes I would make them and take them with us when we went skiing. They travel really well and stay nice and fresh for most of the day. They also freeze really well. I also have a recipe for apple scone, but I generally use the recipes straight from the cookbook and I don't have the cookbook with me right now. I'll try to put it in another post.

I'm also going to include a recipe for apple pancakes. I first started off making more traditional apple pancakes with minced or shredded apples mixed in with regular king cake dough. Somehow it just didn't seem apple--y enough. I eventually modify the recipe to where it is now. Surprisingly enough, it took me several weeks to determine that this was basically potato pancakes done with apples. The taste is pretty different though.

Apple Pancakes

8 to 9 large Macintosh apples, peeled and shredded finely.

4 eggs.

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour (add more if apple is especially juicy)

butter for griddle.

Cinnamon sugar.

Set griddle or frying pan on low. Mix together, apples and eggs, sugar and flour. Put 1/3 to 1/2 cup on hot buttered griddle and flatten out. Slip when browned, and brown other side. Cook on low. When done serve sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

These pancakes are incredibly yummy. They're also not very low in carbs. As a consequence, I haven't eaten them very often recently. Tara and Mark are especially fond of them, and I know Eric likes them as well. These are great to eat but a lot of work due to all the shredding.

As my final recipe for the day I'm going to discuss blueberry pancakes. My general feeling regarding fruit and pancakes is the more the better. I feel there should be just enough dough in a king cake with fruit in it to hold the pancake together. Sometimes that almost seems like too much! This was another recipe that I created by starting with a relatively mild recipe and just adding more fruit until achieve this effect. You can also make the recipe without the blueberries and makes a very nice regular king cake. They're very good at sucking up syrup, which some people really appreciate.

Blueberry Pancakes

2 eggs

milk to make 1 cup liquid when joined with eggs.

1/4 cup Saco buttermilk powder (may substitute one to two very large tablespoons of yogurt here).

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup flour.

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 pint blueberries, rinsed.

Put griddle onto heat at low setting. Whisk together eggs and milk. (I mix these in a measuring cup, and gently place the eggs in first then add enough milk to make 1 cup of liquid.) Add dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly blended and without lumps. Add cleaned and drained blueberries. Drop by very large tablespoons onto hot greased pan. Spread them out a bit. When browned on one side flip and brown on the other side. Serve sprinkled with plain sugar. You can also have them with maple syrup, if you wish.

As you can see I have very many recipes that work well with breakfast. Some of them are low-carb and some aren't. I've always really liked breakfast, and if I hadn't come up with some low-carb replacements for all these wonderful breakfast treats I probably would be back eating and fat again.

This is probably enough dictating in enough recipes for any one day. I'm going to save this particular version and will load it up on the Internet this evening when I'm home. I do find them having to sit with my arms crossed across my chest to keep from typing things since that is still going to be faster than dictating. Part of it is the cause to think my way through the next sentence. Sayonara, for now.