52 Weeks of Baking: Week 10 - Lemon Lavender Scones with Candied Lemon Peel

Missed a few weeks. Not for lack of baking, mind you. Just a lack of time. The older kid's day care provider went on mat leave 2 weeks ago. Trying to keep a 2.5 year old busy while tending to the needs of a 4 month old is a lot.

This flavour combo is something I've been meaning to get on with for a long time. In the midst of the National Cupcake Day baking (2 of which I still need to get done!) I just didn't get to it. However, here it is, and boy is it good.

Candied Lemon Peel

I didn't know how to candy lemon peel., since I've never done it before, I just knew I wanted it.

The recipe I used required more time than I thought because you have to boil the lemon peels 3 times in plain water and then a fourth time in the sugar water.

Then you end up with a jar of lemony simple syrup, too. I'm thinking of using it for cocktails, maybe to soak a lemon loaf in, to drink straight from the jar, who knows. I'm sure there are many applications.

Oh. The 'recipe.' It's really just a method; switch up lemons for oranges or whatever citrus floats your boat and you'd have something equally tasty.

Lemon Lavender Scones

Adapted only slightly from my go-to scone recipe, which is the Glazed Orange Scones from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's delightful VWAV. 

1 1/4 c milk (almond as always here)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
 zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
3 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
 1 tsp lavender, finely chopped
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/8 tsp lavender oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Mix the milk and vinegar; add the lemon peel and set aside. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lavender. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and add the oils. Stir together; dough shouldn't be sticky.

Flour a surface and split the dough into two balls. Put one on the floured surface and pat out into a 6" disk. Cut it into 6 triangles (I used a pizza cutter) and repeat with the other half of the dough. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. They won't really get browned, so don't worry too much about colour. Take them out and let them cool on the sheet for a few minutes before putting them on a rack. Save your parchment paper and put it under the rack to catch icing drips!

Lemon Glaze

I didn't add any lavender to the glaze or the decorating, but you probably can if you want.

1 tbsp melted Earth Balance
2/3 c icing sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
a spoon or two of the simple syrup if you want

Mix it all together. I like mine a little thick so it doesn't make a giant mess everywhere, plus if the scones are a bit warm when you glaze them it falls off if it's too thin to begin with. Annoying. Spread a tablespoon or so of glaze on each scone and top with a few pieces of the lemon peel.

If that doesn't look / taste like Spring, nothing does.

Lunch

Leftover beets, Curried Carrot Bisque from VWAV. Colourful.

Humbled

There comes a point in your cooking career - and yes, if you make dinner more often than not, even if you don't get paid for it, it's a career - where you start to think you're actually pretty good. You may consider this the point when your food is perfectly cook every time. It may be when you develop a recipe of your own. It may be when you start to cook by taste and improve on your grandma's recipe for your favorite stew. Wherever that point may be, it exists. You start to think highly of yourself. You start to shun particular types of restaurant food because you can make it better.

And then, if you're me, you colossally fuck up a majorly easy dinner and remember that you're not Gordon Ramsay. You're Brianne and human and still prone to errors sometimes. Bloody hell.

Last night I *tried* to make fried breakfast sausages with sauteed spinach, VWAV baking powder biscuits, and mushroom gravy. I made the sausages. And burnt them like only the flames of hell can burn a sausage. The spinach? Had a weird piece of plastic in it. The biscuits? Flat and over cooked.

The mushroom gravy turned out great. Thank god, because otherwise I would have quit cooking for the rest of the month. It could almost disguise the charred flavour of the sausages. Almost.

Need a great gravy recipe? Here you are.

Mushroom Gravy

3 tbsp olives oil
8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 shallots, cut in half and sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tbsp flour
2 c veg broth

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and shallots and saute until mushrooms are soft. Add the garlic and cook 30 more seconds.

Add the flour. Stir to coat the vegetables completely. Stirring often, cook the flour and oil until it is slightly golden, 5 minutes or so.

Stream in the first half cup of broth while stirring constantly. Add the rest of the broth, bring heat up to high and bring to a boil. Let boil for 7 or 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until desired thickness is achieved. Add salt and pepper to taste. Gravy will thicken more as it cools, as well.

Other things you can do:
sub 1/2 c (or more, you wino) of broth for white wine
add a tablespoon of dijon mustard to the broth
add dried herbs when you add the broth: dried tarragon would work well