Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Does anybody else always have to buy such a lot of buttermilk and only ever use such a small amount of it in each recipe!?  That's what happened last week when I made the Coca-Cola BBQ Cupcakes which only required 1/2 cup (125ml) buttermilk for the whole batch of cupcakes!  So, let's just say I had most of the carton of buttermilk leftover.  Bring on the following week's baking and of course, practically it just had to be something with buttermilk in! 

 

I had made these chocolate chip buttermilk scones once before (originally found and adapted from Skinny Taste), and thought they would be a great little dessert, snack, or even a great breakfast for the coming week!

 

 

And they're almost all gone so yes, they went down a treat!

 

I doubled the recipe so it made lots (and I made them big!) and used up as much of the buttermilk as possible!... But feel free to halve the recipe in case you don't need so many. 

 

Enjoy :-)

 

 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups cold buttermilk

1/2 cup sugar

4 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

4 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

 

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1.5 tbsp sugar

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375°F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

 

2.  Combine buttermilk, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk.

 

3.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. 
 

 

4.  Add the small cubes of cold butter and work with a pastry blender, or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
 

5.  Gently fold in the chocolate chips.  Then add milk mixture and fold until moist.
 

 

6.  Place the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly with floured hands.
 

 

7.  Pat out the dough to desired thickness and cut out with a round cookie cutter (I used a large round cutter, and also a small one to get various sizes of scones!).  You could also form the dough into a circle and cut the dough into wedges all the way through as the original recipe on Skinny Taste does!

 

 

8.  Brush egg white over the dough and sprinkle evenly with sugar.
 

 

9.  Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes - depending on the size of your scones.

 

10.  Serve warm, and maybe even slice them open and spread a little butter over, mmmmmm!



After these were baked up they kind of reminded me of giant footballs!  They were rather big and the chocolate chips looked like the old school kind of black and white footballs so I added a couple of candle decorations I had in the cupboard and renamed them (in my head!) 'Soccer Scones'!

 

A little bittersweet now as England are out of the World Cup (and Canada never even made it!) but oh well.. at the time of baking there was still hope!... Bring on Wimbledon I guess!!

 

 

This may be the final blog post I'll get up on here for a while... There's all kind of busy times ahead, lots of adventures and things going on - I'll update you all soon, and hopefully write a few extra blog posts to make up for a few weeks off but for now - enjoy July and I'll be back soon :-)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Mmm I'm excited to be blogging about these cookies today.  I had forgotten how much I loved them, until I re-baked them last weekend and ate a few of them along the way! 

 

 

Do you remember last year, when our church youth group ran the first Fun(d) Fair in order to raise FUNDS while having FUN for World Vision!?  Check out all the games and exciting things we did, and what I baked for the bake sale in 2013 here.

 

This year, we wanted even more baked goods to sell, as they were a big hit last year and we ran out before the event was over.  So, with everyone baking the Friday before the event, I had to get my thinking cap on as well.  I wanted something small, and easy to buy one or two of, but also needing a recipe that made a LOT of whatever the bake was.

 

I couldn't think for a while what to make... I considered a rectangular cake cut into small squares, but I didn't want it to dry out.  I didn't have time to make all the components of the Cherry Bakewell traybake that I also love so much.  And I've made SO many cupcakes recently I didn't want to go down that path either.

 

Then I remembered these cookies I made from the Taste of Home 'Best Loved Cookies and Candy' 2010 magazine!  I made them for my piano students in 2010, in a Christmas treat bag full of various cookies and candy, and they were definitely my favourite out of the lot.
 





 

A deliciously soft and chewy inside, with a crinkle top, slightly crusty outside layer with a full on chocolate flavour.  Perfect with a glass of cold milk!

 

 

Ingredients (to make 3 1/2 dozen cookies):

 

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup icing sugar

 

Method:

 

1.  In a microwave, melt 1 cup cholate chips.  Stir until smooth, and set aside.

 

2.  In a small bowl, beat the butter and sugar until crumble - about 2 minutes.

 

3.  Add the egg whites and vanilla, and beat well.

 

4.  Stir in the melted chocolate.

 

5.  Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, and gradually add to the butter mixture, alternately with water.

 

6.  Stir in the remaining chocolate chips. 

 

7.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until easy to handle.

 

8.  Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

 

9.  Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in icing sugar.

 

10.  Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray

 

11.  Bake for 10-12 minutes in pre-heated oven.

 

12.  Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, and then move to the cooling rack to cool completely. 

 

And then, all that is left to do is enjoy these delicious cookies!... And if, like me, you're donating them to a good cause - try not to eat too many of them first!!

 

 

And in good news, despite the weather (the afternoon of the Fun(d) Fair was miserable and wet!) we still managed to raise $898, and then, along with some generous donations the next morning we actually BEAT our 2013 amount, raising over $1200 for World Vision :-D

They're in the Freezer!

And it's true...they are in the freezer!  We are now the proud owners of freezer cookies to be shared at a moment's notice :-)  Come on over!  Lemon Icebox Cookies - kind of shortbready - so yummy!  Cherry cookies with pieces of glace cherries in and such a cool colour!  And finally some of the good old classic chocolate chip cookie dough - maybe we'll keep this one just as dough!!  

Unfortunately I don't have the links of the recipes we used, just the recipes saved as a document - let me know if you want to try them!  They are yummy.

In a freezer mood that day we also made some compound butters!  Using a combination of our stand mixer and food processor we managed to create my personal favourite - basil butter as well as roasted garlic butter, chive butter, roasted red pepper butter and one sweet one - maple butter perfect for waffles or pancakes.

Just a little chunk sliced off, placed on top of a freshly grilled steak and you're ready to go!