Maple Walnut Scones

This past Saturday the friendly folks from Mountain Maple Products were selling their maple syrup at the market and I got a bit carried away leaving with a 4L bottle! Needless to say maple syrup will be a popular theme in our home for the next few weeks. The first maple inspired treat was an easy play on our Scone Mix.

BCF Scone Mix
¾ cup cold, cubed butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 egg
>1 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts

Maple Glaze:
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp milk
1 cup icing sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine cold butter into the mix until it resembles coarse oatmeal (the butter chunks make the end scone nice and flaky). In a measuring cup beat the egg, maple syrup and just enough milk to bring the mixture to 1 cup. Add it to the batter and mix just until combined. Fold in the walnuts. Split the dough into 2 flattened balls and cut each into 8 wedges. Bake on a couple of parchment lined baking sheets for 15 minutes.

While scones cook mix the three glaze ingredients and drizzle over the scones once they have cooled. It’s also perfectly acceptable to dip your scone into the leftover glaze.

Whole Wheat Pitas

We love pitas. We use them as buns with lamb burgers (tonight’s dinner), make them into wraps or just bake them crisp for dipping. I’m not sure how it works, but these even have the beloved pita pocket! Once you have a homemade pita you won’t want to go back.

1 BCF Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
3 tbsp oil, divided
1 ¼ cup warm water
flour for dusting

Mix the BCF Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, 2 tbsp of oil and water together. Knead the mixture together for 5 minutes. Roll it into a ball, cover in the remaining tablespoon of oil and put it back into the bowl with a tea towel on top. Let it rise for a couple of hours or until doubled in size.

Once the dough is risen preheat the oven to 400°F, punch down the dough and split it into 6 equal balls. Lightly flour your surface and roll out each ball to about a 10 inch diameter. Let them sit for 5-10 minutes before baking. Place up to 2 pitas on a baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes. Once they come out of the oven, cover with tea towel until cooled. 

Butter Pecan Cake

Butter pecan is one of our all-time favourite cakes. It’s buttery, rich and perfect with a cup of tea.  

Cake

¼ cup butter
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
2 ½ cups BCF Partially Sifted Flour

In a frying pan, melt the 1/4 cup butter on medium-low heat. Add the pecans and toast just until fragrant (about 3 minutes). Set aside to cool. Beat the 1 cup of butter until fluffy. Add in the sugar and beat again. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add in the vanilla, baking powder and milk and beat once again. Finally, add the flour and mix just until combined. Fold in the pecans. Pour the batter into two 9 inch cake pans that have been greased and floured. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Brown Sugar Buttercream

1 cup butter
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add in the brown sugar and vanilla and beat again. Slowly add in the icing sugar and beat until you have a spreadable consistency. Frost the cake once is has cooled

No-Knead Rye Bread

This recipe is an adaptation of the whole grain rye bread from the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The authors use a no-knead method with a fairly wet dough. I highly recommend reading this book if you’re interested in trying out different artisan breads. 

4 cups lukewarm water
2 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 cups BCF Dark Rye Flour
2 ½ cups BCF Partially Sifted Flour
2 ½ cups BCF Whole Wheat Flour

In a large bowl mix together the water, yeast, salt and sugar. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes or until the yeast becomes bubbly. Add in the flours and mix well. The dough will be quite wet. Allow the dough to rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Split the dough in half and form each piece into a ball on a lightly floured surface. Allow the dough to sit for 20 minutes. Bake the bread for about 35 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Today is Jeff’s champagne birthday so I made him a chocolate cupcake (made with our cupcake mix of course) stuffed with cookie dough and a cookie dough icing. It’s just a slightly more grown up way to eat cookie dough. 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix (1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup oil, 1 egg, 1/2 cup boiling water)
½ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup Partially Sifted Flour
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Beat butter, sugars, milk and vanilla together until fluffy. Add in the flour and mix well. Finally, add the chocolate chips. Roll the dough into about 18 balls and FREEZE them. You want them to thaw in the cupcakes, not cook.

Prepare the BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix as directed except spread the batter into 18 cups rather than 12. Add a frozen cookie dough ball into each cup and bake for 15 minutes at 350°F.

Cookie Dough Frosting

¾ cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup Partially Sifted Flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk or cream
2 cups icing sugar
mini chocolate chips to decorate

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add in the brown sugar, flour, vanilla and milk and beat well. Slowly add in the icing sugar until you get the consistency you want. After icing your cooled cupcakes, sprinkle with some mini chocolate chips.