Sweet Honey Scones

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

I first made these a few years ago, and I recently changed the recipe a little.

So here are the updated Sweet Honey Scones!

These scones are crumbly yet moist and permeated with a distinct honey flavor. And boy do I love me some honey.

But why “sweet”?

Not only are these made with honey, but they also have a small amount of sugar in them, which you don’t always find in scones. Plus, I added in some vanilla, which adds a beautiful aroma and pairs well with the honey.

Just a few basic ingredients.

Make sure the butter and cream are cold.

Once you cut in the cold butter pieces, you’ll mix together the honey, vanilla, and cream and stir that in.

Stir just until everything is moistened. You don’t want to over mix the dough or the scones will be heavy.

To bring the dough fully together, gently knead it.

I knead it right in the bowl, since all you’re really doing at this point is making sure it comes together.

On a lightly floured surface, press the dough into a square or a circle.

Shape it with your hands by patting it out into the shape you want. A circle will make rather large wedges, and the square pictured above can be further cut down to make small triangles by cutting each of those squares diagonally.

Oh, and I find a pizza cutter is the easiest way to shape your scones. :)

Spread out your pieces on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, leaving some space to spread.

Brush the scones with cream and sprinkle generously with raw sugar.

Then bake until set and browned. The bottoms will get dark much faster than the rest, so keep a close eye towards the end of the baking time.

And, as you can see, some of mine were touching because they were close together on the cookie sheet. But as long as you gave them some room to spread, they’ll be fine. Even if they touch a little.

Don’t those look delicious?!

Here’s the recipe, and the printable version below:

Sweet Honey Scones

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (one stick) cold unsalted butter, sliced
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons raw or turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until it resembles large crumbs.

In a small bowl, mix the honey, vanilla, and the 1/2 cup whipping cream. Add that to the dry mixture and stir until just moistened. Then knead it gently with your hands to pull it all together. Do not overmix.

Sprinkle a little flour over your work surface, and shape the dough with your hands into a circle or square about 8 inches across and one inch high. Cut the circle into 8 large wedges or cut the square into 16 smaller squares (at this point you could also cut each square diagonally to create 32 triangles), and place the pieces an inch apart on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Brush the tops with the reserved heavy cream and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are just browned.

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Click here to download the free printable PDF:

Sweet Honey Scones Recipe

Happy Baking!

12Oct2015

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

These candy corn cookies are amazing. Seriously.

And not just because they’re shaped and colored like candy corn, though that is pretty awesome. But I also developed a new recipe that includes honey.

That’s right: honey.

And why not? Candy corn is made with honey. So even though I’d made cookies that looked like these in the past with sugar cookie dough, I wanted to try something a little different this year.

And the honey really pushed them over the edge. They were soft and sweet and smelled as delicious as they tasted.

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

So, first things first. You gotta make the dough.

Once you have the dough, split it into three balls and add yellow food coloring to one and orange to another while leaving one plain.

Then you stack the dough in layers in a bread pan and refrigerate it for a couple of hours. You can stack them in which ever order you choose, too. I went with white-yellow-orange, but most candy corn is actually colored white-orange-yellow. Not that it really matters, though. Everyone who saw these instantly recognized them for what they were.

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

When the dough is chilled, you’ll turn it out of the bread pan and cut it into thick slices, just like a loaf of bread. Then each slice will be cut into six or seven triangles by alternating the direction of your knife.

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

And don’t worry about it looking perfect. I gave my 3yo and 5yo butter knives and let them have at it, too.

When my 3yo pretty much shredded the dough, I just gently squeezed a few of those pieces together to form something that resembled a triangle.

(Incidentally, if you’re wondering why she’s wearing band-aids in the photo, well, those are for decoration. That’s just how we roll.)

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

Put the cookies on cookie sheets with a little space between them. They don’t spread much.

And you should use parchment paper lined sheets, unless you have something like these pans in the photos, which keep things from sticking.

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

And there you have it: beautiful, smooth, sweet cookies that are perfect for Fall!

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and egg with a mixer until creamy. Add the honey and vanilla and mix until well blended. Gradually add the flour mixture.

Move dough onto counter and cut into three pieces. Leave one piece plain and, using food coloring, dye the second piece yellow and the third piece orange. Knead the color into the dough, using extra flour to coat your hands so the dough doesn’t stick.

Line a 9 x 5 inch bread pan with plastic wrap. Press the dough into the pan one color at a time, spreading each layer across the entire pan. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Remove the dough from the bread pan and cut it into ¼-inch to ½-inch thick slices. Cut each slice into six triangles. Place cookies on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for two minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Store covered. Makes about 6 dozen, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

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Click here for the free printable PDF version of the recipe:

Candy Corn Shaped Honey Cookies

Happy Baking!

Roaming Rosie Signature

3Jul2014

Honey and Cinnamon Vanilla Ice Cream

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Honey and Cinnamon Vanilla Ice Cream

Just wanted to share a quick dessert I’m quite fond of.

This is a bowl of vanilla ice cream covered in honey and cinnamon sugar.

It’s about the easiest thing to make, since you just scoop some ice cream in a bowl, drizzle honey on it, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over it, and eat!

I adore the combination of flavors. And the coldness of the ice cream creates these little chunks of cold honey that resemble a taffy or caramel-like candy.

It’s a pretty fun dish, especially when you’re in the mood for something sweet.

If you don’t already have what I consider to be the necessary staple of this spicy goodness in your pantry, check out my recipe for cinnamon sugar.

Roaming Rosie Signature

22Jan2014

Tropical Almond French Toast

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Tropical Almond French Toast Recipe

First, with the polar vortex turning everyone’s blood to ice, and now with this “bombogenesis” upon us, I decided to metaphysically warm up with a tropical breakfast.

I took my Homemade Bread and turned it into Tropical Almond French Toast, based off of the Coconut-Almond French Toast with Tropical Fruit recipe from a January 2014 issue of Woman’s World, but with a few changes.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Here are some of the ingredients I used, although I forgot to put the coconut in the photo. Anyway, the french toast gets its amazing almond flavor from the almond milk and almond extract.

The coconut is added before you cook it, and the diced fruit afterwards, as a topping. I used bananas and mango mixed with some brown sugar and lime juice, but you could add in just about any fruit here that you like, or whatever’s in season. I found this to be a good combination, especially because the banana and mango were flavorful but still mild enough to allow the almond and coconut flavors to really shine through.

French Toast

Just like my usual french toast, I took day-old bread and dunked it into a mixture of milk and eggs and flavoring. The bread needs to be crusty and dry to absorb the liquid. If it’s fresh bread, the liquid will only cover the surface instead of absorbing. You’ll know for certain it was too fresh if you have a bunch of milk mix left over after soaking all of the bread. The best way to get the right consistency of bread is to leave it out, with the slices spread out, at least overnight.

coconut on french toast

After letting the bread soak in the milk mixture for a minute, turning it to ensure even coating, gently pull the bread out of the milk. The bread will be heavy with the milk, so be careful to support it.

Just before placing the bread on a greased griddle, sprinkle it with some sweetened coconut. Then, lay it coconut-side down on the griddle and sprinkle coconut on the side that’s facing up. The coconut is an important step because I love the sweet, crispy crust that it forms toast.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Let the french toast brown, then flip and brown on the other side. Make sure the bread cooks long enough that it cooks all the way through. At least 3 or 4 minutes, or longer if your bread is thick like mine – you don’t want gooey egg on the inside when you’re eating it.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Once the french toast is done, put it on a plate and top with the fruit mixture. I suggest a wee bit more fruit than what’s pictured here. I didn’t want to overload it for the photos, but I added more while eating it.

Also, a slight sprinkle of powdered sugar over the top adds a nice balance of sweetness, as does a drizzle of honey, which also adds a little extra moisture but functions as a substitute for syrup. You could use maple syrup if you prefer, but I like how the honey blends with the fruit.

Tropical Almond French Toast

If you cut the slices of your bread thick, then one slice should be enough per person. The leftovers freeze well, but also keep in the refrigerator for awhile.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Tropical Almond French Toast

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond milk
6 large eggs
4 Tbsp packed brown sugar, separated
1/2 tsp almond extract
8 to 10 thick slices day-old bread
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 mango, diced
2 bananas, diced
1 Tbsp lime juice
confectionary sugar
honey

Whisk together almond milk, eggs, 2 Tbs. brown sugar, and almond extract in a large, shallow bowl.

Dip bread into mixture for about a minute on each side, allowing bread to absorb the milk. Carefully remove bread from bowl allowing excess liquid to drip back into the bowl (use a fork or spatula to prevent tearing if it’s become too soggy) and sprinkle each side with coconut flakes.

Place bread on a greased, flat skillet or griddle over medium to medium high heat. Cook until browned, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, mix the mango and banana pieces with the remaining 2 Tbs. brown sugar and the lime juice.

To serve, place French Toast on a plate and top with the fruit mixture. Then sprinkle powdered sugar over top and drizzle with honey.

(Note: you can use just about any combination of fruit you like, in addition to or in substitution of the mango and banana. Also, you can substitute maple syrup for the honey, if you prefer.)

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And here is the FREE printable PDF: Tropical Almond French Toast

Roaming Rosie Signature

9Dec2013

Honey Granola with Quinoa

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Honey Granola with Quinoa

I know many people eat granola all by its lonesome, just in a bowl with milk, but I prefer it with yogurt.

The first time I saw someone eat it this way was when I was at a hotel breakfast buffet in Germany. Someone spooned yogurt into a dish and sprinkled granola over the top.

I was intrigued.

And then I was addicted.

The silky smooth, fruity yogurt intensified the sweet and crunchy granola. It seemed an ideal breakfast, indeed.

But I hadn’t made my own from scratch yet. That needed to change.

Honey Granola with Quinoa

I began with a recipe by David Lebovitz that was based off a recipe by Nigella Lawson. Then I made some changes.

I knew I wanted to increase the amount of honey, and I wanted to incorporate quinoa. Plus, I love walnuts, so I swapped out the almonds for them.

You can see these changes in the photo above, which shows the dry ingredients, minus the spices and sugar. Incidentally, I used dark brown sugar, although light brown sugar would work as well. I prefer the stronger flavor. And I used honey-roasted sunflower seeds instead of plain sunflower seeds – again, to increase the honey-ness of the granola.

Honey Granola with Quinoa

The long list of ingredients can appear a little intimidating at first, but the process is incredibly simple.

You mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and the wet ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat the wet ingredients, then pour them over the dry ingredients, and mix well.

Honey Granola with Quinoa

Spread the granola over two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and bake for an hour, stirring occasionally.

That’s it: you’ve got homemade granola!

Honey Granola with Quinoa

And, of course, I suggest serving it over yogurt for breakfast. Strawberry yogurt, specifically. But feel free to play with it. Perhaps you’d prefer it over vanilla ice cream? Leave a comment to let me know how you enjoy it best!

Honey Granola with Quinoa

Here’s the recipe, and scroll down for the printable version:

Honey Granola with Quinoa

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup honey roasted sunflower seeds
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 300ºF (150ºC).

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients: oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds, quinoa, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

In a small saucepan, mix the applesauce, honey, and oil. Stir over low heat until just warmed and combined.

Pour the applesauce mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until well combined and all the dry ingredients are coated.

Pour granola evenly over two cookie sheets. Bake for one hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes.

Cool completely. Store covered for up to one month.

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Get the free printable PDF of the recipe:

Honey Granola with Quinoa

Enjoy!

Roaming Rosie Signature

23Nov2013

Honey Cinnamon Apple Pie a la Mode

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Honey Cinnamon Apple Pie a la Mode

So there was store bought apple pie at my house. I love apple pie. But I wanted to spruce it up a little bit, and ice cream alone just wasn’t going to cut it.

I’d been eating a lot of honey lately, to help soothe my much abused throat which has been enduring endless coughing. I hate being sick. But I love honey. So, what else could I add it to … well, why not pie??

I was NOT disappointed.

And, it was a super simple dessert to put together.

I took a slice of apple pie, cut it in half and put it in a bowl. Microwaved the bowl. Scooped some vanilla ice cream on top. Then came the real awesomeness: a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar.

I just squeezed the honey over the ice cream and pie, and then shook my pre-made cinnamon and sugar mixture over the top of it all. The mix is about 4 parts white sugar and 1 part cinnamon. I don’t measure it. Just mix (or shake) until it’s the color I want. But you can also buy cinnamon sugar at the store, if you prefer.

Either way, sweet, spicy, juicy deliciousness.