Cranberry Orange Scones

Cranberry Orange Scones

This is a bit of a different type of breakfast for 2 for Valentine's day if you are looking for ideas.  They tasted great.  

½ cup flour + 2 Tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon butter, to be grated into flour mixture

2 Tablespoons milk or half and half

1 ½ teaspoon orange zest

1 Tablespoons whisked egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons dried cranberries, chopped

Glaze:

1/3 to ½ cup powdered sugar

1 ½ to 2 teaspoons orange juice

Mix dry ingredients.  Grate butter into dry ingredients and mix.  Add wet ingredients.  Add cranberries.  Mix with hands briefly to distribute chopped cranberries throughout the dough.  Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  Put dough onto parchment paper and shape into a 4-5 by 6-8 inch square.  Cut into 3 triangles.  Separate a bit, very carefully.  Bake at 375 until lightly brown, about 13-18 minutes, depending on the heat of your oven.  Let cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes.  Mix the glaze ingredients together so the glaze is not too thick, but not too thin as well.  Add orange juice a little at a time until desired consistency to drizzle over the scones.  If the scones are too hot, the glaze will melt and make a mess, so make sure they are cool to the touch so the icing will be firm enough.  These scones freeze well.

Cooking for 2: Torpitas and Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  In honor of my youngest daughter Amy, who loves bread, I am sharing this recipe that I made up.  

Torpita

I started out trying to find a recipe for Indian roti, and the recipes I found had different flours, different ways of making them, etc.  Some looked like tortillas and some looked like pita bread.  I finally decided to ditch the internet and make up my own recipe.  These turned out so well, and were like a pita and tortilla mixed together so I decided to call them torpitas.  If nothing else, the name sounds cool. 

1 cup unbleached white flour

¼ cup semolina flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup hot water

Oil for brushing

Mix flour, semolina flour, salt and baking powder together.  Add hot water.  Mix carefully and when it is cool enough to the touch then knead it until it is smooth.  Be careful not to try to knead it when it is too hot and burn your hands.  Roll dough out onto a lightly dusted surface to about an 8-10 inch round.  Brush with oil.  Roll up like you would cinnamon rolls or crepes.  Cut the snake into 4 pieces.  Lightly dust surface with flour and roll out each piece into a 5-6 inch round, thicker than you would a tortilla but not as thick as a pita.  Cook one at a time on medium heat in a hot ungreased iron skillet or nonstick frying pan like you would cook tortillas.  Brush the top of each lightly with a little bit of oil and turn over after about a minute.  Repeat this until lightly brown on both sides.  I turned each torpita over about 4 times total, brushing lightly with oil each time.  Enjoy with hummus, as a sandwich like flatbread, or like a taco.  

Don't buy a package of semolina flour.  Buy only what you need at a bulk food store.  I rarely use this flour, and it was nice to try for a change, but also nice not to have any left over when I was done.  

Happy Valentine's Day Amy!

Iced Oatmeal Cookies

When I was growing up, our friend’s mom would buy Mother’s cookies and I loved the iced oatmeal cookies.  I decided to try to make them myself so I could have them whenever I wanted them: warm, soft and fresh without any preservatives.  These have been a big hit with everyone who has tried them. There are three preschoolers that I wish I could make these for on Valentine's day.  Happy Valentine's Day to Mason, Amira and Scott!

½ cup flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons white sugar

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon whisked egg (crack egg, whisk together, measure 1 Tablespoon)

4 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup quick oats

Icing

½ cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

Mix butter, white sugar and brown sugar together.  Add vanilla and whisked egg and mix.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add to wet ingredients.  Add quick oats.  Roll into balls and place on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet or place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes until lightly brown around the edges.  Place onto cooling rack and cool for a few minutes.  While they are cooling, mix the powdered sugar and milk together to make the icing.  You may need less milk, so add it a little at a time until you reach the consistency where you can drizzle the icing over the cookies.  You don’t want the icing too thick or too thin.  Don’t put icing on warm cookies or it will melt the icing.  Make sure your cookies are sufficiently cool, about 8 minutes after coming out of the oven should be fine.  If you prefer to just frost the cookies, make the icing a little thicker to do so.  I personally like the frosting drizzled so there is just a taste, but it is not overpowering.  I made about 9-10 cookies with this recipe.