Cherry and White Chocolate Scones

Baking for others is one thing I truly enjoy. Each summer I am able to bake for many special people near and dear to my heart. One of those special people is my brother. His summer job always kept him on the run so I make him cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, leaving them in the fridge for him to grab whenever he has a spare moment to eat. One of his favorite breakfast bread options are scones. When I found this recipe over at David's, I couldn't help but pass it up.

These scones are very easy to make and bake up beautifully. I apologize that this is not a gluten free recipe, but by subbing your favorite GF flour blend I am sure it wouldn't be too far of a stretch for it to be a lovely gluten free recipe as well. G gave me a scone pan for Christmas, knowing all along that I would have to use it. Next time, however, he will have to eat some gluten free scones, since I will not mix a wheat and gluten free pan.

David Lebovitz's Cherry and White Chocolate Scones

adapted from David Lebovitz

makes over a dozen good sized scones

1 REAL egg

1/2 cup cream (raw is best)

1 1/3 cup wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

1/3 cup stoneground cornmeal

1/3 cup organic cane sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

6 Tbsp grassfed butter, cold and in cubes

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped cherries

To make the scones:

1. Preheat you oven to 400 F degrees.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and cream.

3. In a larger bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

4. Using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small peas.

5. Add the egg/cream mixture and stir until combined.

6. Fold in chips and cherries.

7. In large spoonfuls, spoon the scones out onto a lightly greased cookie sheet until desired size is reached, or press into a scone pan. Dough will be sticky.

8. Place into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until scones are golden brown.

9. Allow to cool or enjoy a few right from the oven!

I can't help but wonder what some chopped walnuts or macademia nuts would taste like in these. Scones have several elements of texture, however, and folding too many things into scones makes them loose their, err, sconeness. For those of you who are not inclined to white or dark chocolate, try stirring in some macademia nuts instead. These scones keep quite well in the fridge and they freeze well, too. Don't be shy about making a big batch!

Chocolate Chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies have to be one of the greatest cookies of all time. Their wonderfully buttery-chewy-gooey insides are incased in a crispy layer of fantasticness (I'm a blogger, I reserve the right to make up my own words. Look for it in next years copy of Webster's.) on the outside, protecting the good stuff (chocolate, duh!) from the elements of the hostile outside world. This cookie's sole purpose is to take up residence in your mouth. Dancing on your taste buds. Moving down your esophagus by peristalsis (I'm a human biology major - I couldn't resist) into your stomach where they will make you warm and fuzzy inside. Chocolate chips for pleasure, and butter for lasting joy. Classic. Yummy. How could you ever describe such a cookie?

Until this past summer I had not attempted to make a gluten free chocolate chip cookie. I was scared of failure, scared to make something that would not live up to it's exceedingly high expectations. Chocolate chip cookies must always be perfect. The greatest American tradition should be respected, not baked to failure. After making these I realized - Oh goodness, why did I wait?

(Later I feel especially embarrassed because you can have failures and failures of batches of cookies in the safety of your own kitchen where you don't have to tell anyone that you ate all the screw ups. We don't want to be wasteful!)

I did not actually do what I just said above. Those of you who do, don't feel bad. Try exercising some self restraint next time. Breathe, sit down, and realize that instead of eating all those cookies you could have crushed them up and made this.

These gluten free chocolate cookies were excellent! I didn't even tell people that they were gluten free, and the plate was inhaled before you could count to ten. Victory.

I decided to use the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip package because I thought why mess with something that's been tested for years? The fact that Nestle has probably already developed recipe perfection since it's on the packaging means the recipe must be good. All I did differently was exchange the wheat flour for a combination of gluten free flours. For my first attempt gluten free chocolate chip cookie, I am immensly satisfied. Not quite perfection, but close to it. Just look at the texture! Imagine biting into it.

Now throw off the guilt of those holiday sweets, grab your nourishing grass fed butter and go make these cookies!

Original Nestle Chocolate Chip cookies

adapted from the back of a Nestle package

makes about four dozen?

1 cup oat flour (grind your own with GF oats!)

1 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

Or, instead of above use 2 1/4 cup of your favorite GF mix

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup or 2 sticks grass fed butter

3/4 cup organic cane sugar

3/4 cup organic brown sugar, packed

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 REAL eggs

2 cups chocolate chips, I use Enjoy Life

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

To make the cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees non-convection, or 350 degrees convection.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.

3. In another medium sized bowl, beat together butter, sugars and vanilla until creamy.

4. Add each egg separately, beating well after each addition.

5. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

6. With your handy-dandy wonderfully useful cookie scoop, scoop out the batter in tablespoons and onto ungreased baking sheets.

7. Place into the oven and bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown - don't over do it, cookies are better under done then over done.

8. Cool and enjoy! Be sure to share with loved ones!

There are several variations to the taste, texture and process of making chocolate chip cookies. Everyone seems to have their favorite recipe! What is yours? Feel free to post a link in your comments and we will all share our favorites.

In the meantime, these are some recipes have caught my eye:

Elana's Almond flour chocolate chip cookie

Shauna's GF 36-hour chocolate chip cookie

Joy's Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie

Karina's Buckwheat chocolate chip cookie

What to do with soured Raw Dairy products?

Have you ever bought some raw milk and cream from your lovely local farm and gotten so busy that you could not find the time to eat or use it up? It is too expensive, not to mention nourishing to waste... So what is one thing that you can do with soured raw milk cream? You turn it into a breakfast cake! The cake in the pictures are my attempt at making a date-nut-coffee-cake-like gluten free breakfast option, while not wasting cream! The top has a lovely dry flaky layer (like the top of box brownies) while the inside has a layer of cinnamon, nuts and dates. This coffee cake (sans the coffee) is certainly a work in progress. I don't believe the flavors are quite there yet, but my mom loves the dry texture!

How do you use up your soured raw dairy products?