Baking recipes
Scroll through our posts below to try all sorts of delicious baking recipes from our instagram baking videos. New baking videos are posted the first week of each month on Instagram and Facebook.
To easily find one of our recipes type below:
Honey Oat Sandwich Bread!
Sandwiches are delicious! It’s a meal you can eat anywhere! What makes the best sandwiches? Home made bread! This is a jazzed up version of your typical white bread, it’s got a touch of honey and oats to make things extra delicious!
Soft, fluffy and ready for sandwiches!
Honey Oat Sandwich Bread
Yield: 1 loaf (9”x5” pan)
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1 1/2 cups Milk, warm
2 Tablespoons Butter, warm
2 Tablespoons Honey
2 3/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Oats
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Instant Yeast
In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients - flour, oats, salt and yeast. Toss to combine.
In a separate container stir together your honey, warm milk and butter. Then pour into the dry ingredients and knead with the dough hook in your mixer for 6-10 minutes, or until it forms a firm ball around the hook and isn’t sticking to the sides of the bowl.
Place dough into a greased bowl and cover. Let sit at room temperature until doubled, about 1 hour.
Place your dough ball onto a lightly floured surface and using your hands flatten into a rough rectangle shape that is about 8” wide.
Roll the dough up into a log, then pinch the seams together.
Place the dough log into a greased 9”x5” loaf pan, with the seam side going into the bottom of the pan.
Cover with saran wrap and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, or until the dough is starting to rise over top of the pan edge.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it.
Let cool and eat!
Butter Tarts! Classic Canadian!
What’s the most Canadian dessert? I would say it’s a tie between butter tarts and Nanaimo bars, but butter tarts are definitely MY favourite! These little tarts are basically a buttery vanilla sugar pie, I love butter, I love sugar, what more do you need…RAISINS! Ok some people hate raisins in their butter tarts, I believe they are crucial, but do what you love, that’s the fun of baking, you can make them exactly how you want! The way I make my butter tarts is by adding the raisins before the filling, instead of mixing them together, so you can even make some with raisins and some without and then judge how you prefer them. So many options!
Look at those gooey edges!
Butter Tarts
Yield: 12 tarts (made in a muffin tin)
Preheat your oven to 375*F
Pie Dough:
Alternatively, you can skip the pie dough step and buy the frozen tart shells from your grocery store, just fill and bake them straight from the freezer, no thawing required!
2 cups Flour
1/2 cup COLD butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup shortening (you can replace this with butter if you prefer, I just like the texture it brings)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4-1/2 cup COLD water
Filling:
1/2 cup Raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon Dark Rum (optional)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 teaspoon Salt
In a large bowl combine your flour, salt and sugar for the dough.
Toss in your cold butter and shortening and using your fingers pinch and rub the butter into the flour until it looks crumbly like sand, but still has some large pea sized chunks of butter - this is going to make things flaky!
Add your cold water, start with about 1/4 cup, and see how it feels, depending on your flour and how the butter has been incorporated, you might not need the full amount, You want the dough to stay together when pressed in your hand, I used about 1/3 cup in my dough.
Your bowl should still have some drier bits at the bottom, that is perfect, then dump the bowl of pastry out onto your counter and give it a few kneads until it comes into a nice ball, then press into a flat disk or rectangle and wrap in saran wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Once your dough is chilled, roll it out on a flat surface to about 1/8-1/4” thickness and cut into about 4” diameter circles, you want a circle that will fit into the cavity of a muffin tin, so see what fits best in yours. Or maybe you have actual tart tins, you can definitely use those too!
If you run out of dough, just lightly press the scraps together and continue cutting out the rounds.
Take each circle and press it into each cavity of your muffin tin, making sure to press in the corners so they are filled with dough.
Once all your muffin cavities are lined with dough, poke the bases a few times with a fork, this is called “docking” and helps any trapped air release during baking.
Pop your muffin tin into the freezer to firm up, at least 20 minutes.
Now for the filling, you can skip this step but it makes things more decadent, take your raisins and cover them with boiling water to soak. Just enough water to cover them, the amount doesn’t matter as we will be draining it all off. Soak 10+ minutes.
Once your raisins have soaked, drain them off, and squeeze out any excess moisture. Then toss with the 1 teaspoon of Rum! Set to the side.
In a large bowl combine all the rest of the ingredients for the filling - brown sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, egg, salt and vanilla. Stir to combine.
Now to put everything together! In your chilled tart shells, evenly distribute the raisins into the bottom of each tart (or however many you want raisins in!)
Scoop your filling mixture on top of the raisins in each tart shell, then pop into a preheated 375*F oven for about 15-25 minutes until gold and bubbly! The longer you bake them, the thicker your filling, if you like them gooier, bake them a little less.
Let cool and devour!
Crepes Suzette! It's FLAMBE time!
This dessert was popular in the days of white gloved waiters, but no white gloves necessary! First you make crepes which are already delicious, then you make an orange caramel sauce which you FLAMBE! So fun and exciting! Both the crepes and orange caramel sauce are delicious for other uses, like crepes filled with nutella and bananas, or ice cream with orange caramel sauce on top! Yum!
These crepes are saucy!
Crepes Suzette
Yield: 6-8 large crepes (I used a 10” skillet)
Crepes:
1/2 cup Milk
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Butter, melted
2 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Flour
Orange Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Butter
Juice of 1 Orange (about 1/4-1/2 cup)
2 ounces (1/4 cup) Grand Marnier (optional)
To make crepes, whisk together all the crepe ingredients until smooth and combined. If it is lumpy just pour it through a strainer. Let this sit in the fridge at least 30 minutes or overnight.
To cook the crepes, heat a non-stick skillet to medium high heat (or a crepe pan if you have one of those!). Grease the pan with a little butter or oil then pour a few tablespoons of batter into the pan and swirl the pan around to coat the base. You don’t want your crepes to be thick, so depending on the size of your pan probably 2-4 tablespoons.
Continue heating the crepe until it looks matte on top and not liquidy, then it’s all cooked! Peel it off the pan and place onto a clean baking tray. Then continue until all your batter is used up, placing each crepe onto the baking tray, the crepes can overlap a bit and they shouldn’t stick together.
Now for the sauce! Make sure you have ALL the sauce ingredients ready to go, you can’t walk away from this once you start.
Heat up a large pan over medium-high heat. Place a few teaspoons of sugar onto it and stir until it is melted, then add a few more teaspoons of sugar and continue stirring until it’s melted, then continue until all your sugar is used. This is called a dry caramel. Once all your sugar is melted, continue cooking until it is a nice golden brown colour.
Turn off the heat and carefully add your butter, stirring it gently until it is all melted and combined. Watch out this is going to be super hot and bubbly!
Now slowly pour in your orange juice, and stir to combine. Even though this is off the heat it is still going to bubble up and steam so be careful! If the sugar clumps up don’t worry!
Now put your caramel sauce onto a medium-low heat and cook until all the sugar clumps have melted and the sauce looks nice and smooth.
Now turn off the heat and pour in your grand mariner (if using), DO NOT POUR FROM THE BOTTLE! This can carry a flame back into your bottle and explode which would not be good! Just use a measuring cup or small container. Carefully using a BBQ lighter ignite your sauce, it might take a second and then it will be on fire! Carefully shake your pan until the fire burns itself out. If you get scared or the fire gets out of control, keep a lid nearby to cover the pan, this will put out the fire if you need. IF YOU HAVE A GAS STOVE your burner will ignite the pan, you might have to tilt it towards the flame, but it will catch on fire that way. If you are not comfortable with this, turn off your gas stove, move your sauce off the heat and ignite with the BBQ lighter as I had. Now your delicious sauce is all ready to go!
To serve, fold each crepe in half and then fold that in half, so it looks like a triangle shape. Then you can place the crepes directly into the sauce, or you can place the crepes onto a plate and pour the sauce on top! Yum!
Pavlova!
Pavlova is the fluffiest of cakes! It’s a GIANT meringue with a marshmallowy centre that you fill with whipped cream and top with fresh fruit! It’s our favourite dessert for any bakery staff party! Named after a ballerina’s fluffy tutu this cake is as light as air!
it’s a mountain of deliciousness!
Pavlova
Yield: 1 approximately 8” round pavlova
Preheat oven to 300F, then reduce to 250*F when you place the pavlova into the oven.
Pavlova:
5 Egg Whites, room temperature
pinch Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract (optional)
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
Filling:
1/2 cup Whipped cream
1-2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 cup Fresh Fruit
1 Tablespoon Sugar
In the bowl of your mixer place your egg whites and the pinch of salt.
Using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until they start to turn white and foamy.
While the machine is running on a low speed, slowly pour in the sugar until it is fully incorporated, then increase the mixer speed to medium high speed and whip until super thick and fluffy, at least 10 minutes. The meringue should not feel grainy when you rub it between your fingers.
Add the vinegar and cornstarch to the mixer and mix on a medium speed for 20-30 seconds until combined.
Using a bowl or plate, trace an approximately 8” diameter circle onto a piece of parchment paper, then flip oven the parchment so the outline is on the bottom of the paper, and place the parchment onto your baking tray. You can use a little baking spray on the pan to stick down your parchment so it won’t slide.
Load your meringue mixture onto your drawn circle on the parchment. Then gently spread it into the circle shape. You can use the back of a spoon or a spatula to create decorative lines on the side of your pavlova, or just leave it with a rustic look.
Place pavlova into a preheated 300F oven, then as soon as the pavlova is in, REDUCE the heat to 250*F and bake for 1.25-1.5 hours. The pavlova should be crispy feeling on the outside.
Turn off the oven, but leave your pavlova in the oven to cool - about 2 hours (or just leave overnight.)
Once your pavlova has cooled, whip your cream to soft peak and sweeten to taste with sugar (1-2 Tablespoons if usually good for me), place the whipped cream on top of the pavlova.
Chop up your fresh fruits and toss with a little sugar to taste - if your fruit is sweet enough don’t worry about adding any sugar. Place fruit on top of the whipped cream.
Serve right away! So delicious!
Homemade DOUGHNUTS!
Doughnuts are AMAZING! I love doughnuts! That is my birthday treat of choice. Home made doughnuts are truly the ultimate version of doughnuts because you can’t beat a warm doughnut straight out of the fryer! It’s sooooo yummy! The dough isn’t too tricky, but you do need to deep fry them, because lets be honest, a baked doughnut should just be called a bun and we don’t want none, if you’re just a bun! Ok I would still eat a bun, but fried is the WAY TO GO! I don’t have a deep fryer, you just need a sturdy pot and ideally a thermometer.
Freshly baked doughnuts are the love of my life!
Doughnuts
Yield: 6-8 regular sized hole-y doughnuts
Dough:
2/3 cup milk, warm
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)
3/4 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Instant yeast
2 cups Flour
In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients - flour, salt, sugar, yeast. Toss together to combine.
Pour in your liquid ingredients - milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla.
Knead the dough in your mixer until it creates a ball around your dough hook, and isn’t sticking to the sides of your bowl, about 10 minutes.
Place your dough ball into a grease bowl, cover and let rise at room temperature for about 1 hour, or until doubled.
Once double, press down your dough and take it out of the bowl. Wrap in saran wrap and place in the fridge until chilled, at least 30 minutes. You can even leave these overnight if you want to fry them off for breakfast in the morning!
Next, roll out your dough to about 1/2” thick and cut out your doughnuts, ideally use a 3-4” round cutter with a 1” cutter for the middle, but use what you got! Wine glasses work great!
Place your doughnuts onto a lined and lightly floured baking tray, then cover with a clean tea towel and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes-1 hour, or until almost doubled.
Get your glaze and/or cinnamon sugar ready at this point, so they are ready to go once your doughnuts are fried!
While your doughnuts are rising, heat up a deep fryer or a large pot with at least 1” of canola oil or shortening at the bottom, you want an oil with a high smoke point. We want our oil at 350F-365F. Ideally use a thermometer to keep an eye on your oil, otherwise you can toss scraps of dough in to see how the sizzle and gauge the temperature that way.
Once your dough is ready place a 2-3 doughnuts in at a time and fry for 1-2 minutes flipping halfway. Mine took about 1.5 minutes for the larger doughnuts.
Once your doughnut is golden, remove it from the oil and place onto a wire rack that is sitting on top of a baking tray to catch anything that drips.
If you want cinnamon sugar doughnuts, roll them in the cinnamon sugar while they are hot out of the fryer. If you would like to glaze them, finish frying all your doughnuts and then toss them into your glaze and place back on to the wire rack to dry for a minute before serving.
Now eat them while warm, it is the GREATEST!
Cinnamon Sugar:
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Toss together!
Vanilla Glaze:
1 cup Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Stir ingredients together until smooth, if you want it thicker, add more icing sugar to get the consistency you like.
Giant Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Cream Egg!
Easter is almost here and that means Cream Eggs! So lets make a GIANT cream egg!!! You can definitely make this mousse in a glass or serving dish, but I am making it in a giant egg so I can crack it open! Yay! dessert and a show!
pre-smashing!
Lemon Curd
Yield: about 2 cups
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Butter, cubed
In a pot bring your lemon juice to a boil on the stove.
which together your eggs and sugar in a bowl, set to the side.
Slowly pour the hot lemon juice into the eggs while constantly whisking until about 75% of your lemon juice has been whisked in.
Pour the egg mixture back into the pot and over a low-med heat on the stove, constantly stirring until the mixture begins to thicken.
Take off heat and then stir in the butter until melted.
Pour your lemon curd into a bowl and let chill in the fridge.
Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
Yield: about 4-5 cups
1 cup Lemon Curd
8 oz. Cream Cheese (1 cup), softened
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Whipped Cream
2/3 cup Icing Sugar
Whip your cream to medium peaks, set aside in the fridge.
in a mixer whip up your cream cheese and salt until soft.
Add your lemon curd to the cream cheese and using a whisk in the mixer, whip up until fluffy.
Add your icing sugar to the cream cheese mix, and whip until fluffy.
Using a spatula, fold your whipped cream into the cream cheese mix in 2-3 additions, folding as gently as possible to not deflate your mousse.
Pour into moulds or glasses!
Giant Egg Method
Yield: 1 giant egg!
You will need a giant easter egg that opens up to use as a mould
1 package of Candy Melts (I used white, but you can use any colour
Lemon Curd (just the leftovers from your mousse is perfect)
Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
Sprinkles and candies to decorate your egg
Line your easter egg with saran wrap on the inside of the egg, pressed as smoothly as possible against the sides and letting the excess go over the edge so you have something to grab onto when you want to pop out the egg shell from the mould.
Melt your candy melts in the microwave doing just 10 second intervals so you don’t burn the candy, you can also do this on a double boiler.
Once you candy melts are completely melted, using a small spatula or a spoon, brush the candy melts onto the saran wrap, it’s easiest to do a few layers, so brush your layer on, pop it in the fridge or freezer, once it’s hardened add another layer until your “shell” is thick enough that you can pop it out of the mould and it will stand on it’s own. I did 2 thick layers.
Fill your egg shells with the lemon cheesecake mousse, smoothing out the top so it is not higher than the edges.
In the centre of the mousse, scoop out an egg sized hole on both sides of the egg, as a yolk would be on a real egg.
Fill the hole with lemon curd.
Freeze your eggs until firm, I let them freeze overnight.
Once frozen, pop your eggs out of the moulds and remove the saran wrap.
Using a sharp knife, trim the edges until they are flat and the two halves will fit together.
Heat up your remaining candy melts and place them into a piping bag if you have one.
Pipe the candy melts around the edges and glue the two halves together, then smooth any candy melts that squished out with your finger.
Now using your candy melts as glue, decorate your egg using sprinkles and candies.
Your beautiful egg is not ready to go! Let it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours so the mousse thaws and isn’t frozen!
Happy Easter!
Ciabatta - it takes a day...but it's worth it! I swear!
Ciabatta is my favourite bread! I have paid a ridiculous amount of money for a single loaf of ciabatta (and I would happily do it again!), but guess what, you can make it at home for pennies! Literally! My food costing comes in around $0.30 whaaaaaatttt! Amazing! It is a labour of love though because it takes about 24 hours to make, but what else are we doing, it’s quarantine! If I am going to have 24 hours to dedicate to a bread it’s now! Yay! This delicious bread starts the day before with a pre-ferment called a biga. A biga is basically a lump of firm dough, I think in theory it was a lump of the dough from your bread baking the day before, but obviously if I made dough it would all be eaten that day. That lump of dough then sits for ideally about 18 hours at room temperature so it can gain lots of flavour and grow some natural yeasts, giving it that sourdough tang without needing to worry about a sourdough starter, because that takes like a week and I can’t be bothered!
Ciabatta Bread before going into my belly!
Ciabatta
Yield: 1 loaf (approximately 10”x4” rectangle)
Biga:
2/3 cup Flour
1/4 cup Warm Water
pinch of Instant Yeast
Final Dough:
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Instant Yeast
2/3 cup Warm Water
1 teaspoon Salt
Biga that has sat for 12-18 hours at room temperature
In your mixer with a dough hook combine your Biga ingredients - 2/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup warm water and pinch of yeast. Mix for 3 minutes on a low speed.
You should have a little dough ball, this is your Biga! Place your biga in a greased bowl with a lid/saran wrap and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours. It should become bubbly and rise.
Once your Biga is ready to go, place it into your mixer along with all of the other ingredients for the final dough. Mix with a dough hook for 4 minutes. This dough is going to look very sticky and goopy, that is perfect!
Place the dough into a greased bowl or pan that has a lid and let sit and proof at room temperature for about 1 hour or until doubled.
Once your dough it ready you will fold your dough ball in half 4 times, I like to use a rectangle pan instead of a bowl when I make ciabatta because it has 4 sides, and i can turn the pan for each fold so I make sure to do this 4 times. Grab the edge of the dough and fold it in half, then turn the pan or bowl 90 degrees and repeat, do this until you get back to where you started and your 4 folds will be complete! Now put the lid on and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
Now that your dough has sat, you will repeat the 4 folds like we did earlier. Then place a lid on and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Our dough is now ready to shape. Grab a large baking tray and dust it fairly heavily with flour.
Place your dough gently onto the tray and gently stretch the dough into an approximate 10”x4” rectangle shape. Try not to squish the dough, we don’t want to collapse too much of the volume.
Now heavily dust the top of the ciabatta bread with flour, then drape a clean tea towel on top and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting, heat your oven up to 450*F and place a clean metal tray on the bottom rack of your oven, this needs to be hot when we bake our bread.
Once your dough is ready to go, place it into the hot oven, on the rack above the one with the hot tray, then grab 1-1 1/2 cups of water and carefully pour it onto the metal pan that is on the bottom rack and its going to SIZZLE and create STEAM! Quickly close the oven to capture all the steam and bake your ciabatta for about 20 minutes. DON’T OPEN THE OVEN! If you take a peak into the oven it’s going to release the steam we just created and we want to keep that steam in there to allow our dough to grow and expand in the oven before it crusts up.
Your ciabatta will be done when it is golden brown and when you tap it with your finger it should sound hollow.
Place your cooked loaf onto a wire rack to cool (this helps steam from forming under your loaf and giving you a soggy bottom!)
Now eat your AMAZING ciabatta bread! I’m eating mine now! mmmm
Lady Fingers...Prelude to a Tiramisu!
What are lady fingers? Obviously they are these wonky digits on the end of my hands….but ALSO a delicious sponge cake-y cookie used in things like TIRAMISU! These cookies can be little tricky, the hardest part is folding everything together gently, so no taking your aggression out on these babies! Make them in a Zen state of mind!
Last fingers…but the cookie kind!
Ladyfinger Cookies
Yield: about 24-30 3” long cookies
Preheat your oven to 400*F
3 Egg Yolks
3 Egg Whites
1/3 cup Sugar
Flour, sifted
pinch of Salt
Icing sugar for sprinkling on top ~3 Tablespoons
In the bowl of your mixer whip your 3 egg yolks with approximately 60% of the 1/3 cup of sugar (save the rest of the sugar to whip up with your egg whites). Whip until super light and fluffy 5-10 minutes. Then place into a large bowl.
In a super clean bowl with a super clean whisk, whip up your egg whites and pinch of salt. When they start to turn white and foamy, sprinkle in the remaining sugar, then whip until medium stiff peaks form.
In 3 parts, fold the egg whites into the egg yolks, start with one third, gently fold that in until it’s almost incorporated, then add the next third and repeat the folding, and then the final third, until all the egg whites have been incorporated.
Now sprinkle all your flour on top of the eggs and continue to gently fold until the flour has been incorporated. Don’t worry if you have any little flour lumps, that is ok! Try not to over mix your batter or else it will get super runny and make piping a bit torturous!
With a piping bag pipe log shaped cookies onto parchment lined baking trays. Each log should be about 3” long and 1” wide.
Sprinkle the cookies heavily with icing sugar, a sifter works great for this.
Pop into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
These can now be eaten or made into delicious tiramisu! Which is what I shall be making tomorrow!
Date Bars, some call them "Matrimonial Slice" but you know commitment issues...we're just DATING!
Sometimes I am a 100 year old women, why? BECAUSE I LOVE DATE BARS! They are buttery, soft, crunchy, cinnamon-y, and sweet! Plus, they are made of dried fruit and oats, so as far as I’m concerned they are a breakfast food. If you aren’t into the dates, you can also replace the date filling with the apple pie filling we made for our turnovers a few days ago, just double the apple filling recipe so you use 2 apples!
Date Bars for when your not allowed to go on dates to bars.
Date Bars
Yield: one 8”x8” pan or something of a similar size
Preheat your oven to 350*F
Date Filling:
2 1/2 cups roughly chopping Dried Dates (about one pound)
1 cup Water
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Grand Marnier (optional)
Streusel:
3/4 cup Butter, soft
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/4 cup Flour
1 1/4 cup Oats
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
In a small pot over medium heat cook your dates, water, lemon juice, baking soda, salt and butter until it thickens and forms a puree type mixture. Remove from heat. (If your don’t want any larger date chunks you can puree this mixture in a food processor, but I like the texture so I just leave it as is!)
Add the Grand Marnier if using, then set to the side.
In a large bowl combine all the Streusel ingredients and rub them together with your hands until they are combined.
In a greased and lined 8”x8” pan pour about 2/3 of your streusel mixture and press into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.
Pour all of your date filling on top of the base crust and smooth it out evenly making sure to cover the entire base.
Now take the last 1/3 of streusel and crumble it on top of the date layer.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 25-35 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown on the edges.
Let cool, then slice and eat! Or add to your tray of dainties if you are having a fancy team party like I wish I was having right now!
Lemon Cranberry Scones!
Did you see Julie Van Rosendaal and I did a live instagram! What!!! She’s only my idol, no big deal! Just kidding SUPER BIG DEAL! How exciting!!! Anyways Julie made biscuits and I made these lemon cranberry scones!
Lemony and delicious!
Lemon Cranberry Scones
Yield: 6 scones
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Butter, cold, cubed
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (or the zest of 1 lemon)
1/4 cup Dried Cranberries
Glaze:
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Enough Icing Sugar to thicken to a drizzling consistency ~1/4-1/2 cup
In a large bowl stir together your dry ingredients - salt, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder.
Using your fingers pinch and rub in the butter until the mixture looks sandy but still has some pea sized chunks of butter.
Now pour in your liquid ingredients - buttermilk, egg, lemon extract, and you can also add in the cranberries at this time too. Stir just until combined.
On a floured surface shape your dough into a rough circle about 1” thick, then using a knife cut the circle like a pie, into 6 pieces.
Place onto a lined baking tray and brush the tops with a little buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
While baking, mix together your glaze, lemon juice and icing sugar, just add enough icing sugar until you get a thin paste.
Once your scones come out of the oven, drizzle the glaze on them while hot.
Now eat! Yay!!
Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread because we all have ugly bananas in our freezer!
I love bananas! Not just as a fruit, but I think they are SO cute! I literally have a banana change purse, banana leaf wallpaper and my phone screen is bananas, they are happy, yellow and adorable! One might say I’m BANANAS for bananas! Anyways, last week was pi day, which meant making mucho banana cream pies but now I am left with lots of bananas that didn’t get used up, so what better use than banana bread! If you don’t have a pile of blackening bananas on your counter like me, you probably have a few in the freezer, where all bananas go to die, so lets use them up!
Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread - a gift from the baking gods!
Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread
Yield: 1 loaf pan 9”x4” or whatever pan you want to use!
Preheat your oven to 350*F
4 Bananas (or 3 if they are big boys!) - ideally blackening ones or ones from the freezer as they are full of flavour!
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil - I used canola but anything light on flavour should be good
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon vinegar)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 cups Flour
Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1/4 cup Oats
in a large bowl smash your bananas until they are liquidy, I use a fork, but you can also use a potato masher if that’s easier for ya!
To the bananas add both the regular and brown sugar, you can also add the cinnamon, salt, and baking soda at this point. Stir to combine.
Now pour in your liquid ingredients, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir to combine.
Now add all your flour and stir together. Don’t overmix the batter here, it’s ok if there are a few lumpy bits.
In a separate bowl place all the ingredients for your streusel topping - butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats.
Using your hands smoosh together the streusel ingredients until the butter has been incorporated into the sugar.
In a greased and lined loaf pan place about 1/3 of the batter and spread to cover the base of the pan, now grab a handful of the streusel topping and spread it over top, then repeat this two more times until you use up all the batter and streusel topping, making sure to have a nice layer of streusel topping to place on top of the loaf.
Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick stabbed into it comes out clean. If your banana bread seems to be browning too quickly, turn the heat down to 325*F. If you don’t use a loaf pan be sure to adjust your baking time, the thinner your batter is, the less time it’s going to take.
Let cool then you are ready to slice and eat! Yay!!!!