Tuesday, February 22, 2011

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones



This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Toasted Almond Scones. On Sunday morning I gave Josh a choice of three things for breakfast: cereal, waffles, or these scones. I was surprised that he didn’t select the option you can (appropriately) cover in maple syrup, though pleased, since I wanted to try these. I would have made them Monday if he had chosen waffles, but the sooner the better. These were terrific scones. I admit, I thought it seemed a little fussy to grind some of the almonds and then chop some – perhaps I’m just lazy. It was totally worth it, though, since the chopped almonds gave the flaky scones some nice texture and added a lot of flavor. These scones were yummy plain and also with a dab of apricot preserves.



This recipe rated a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 3.25 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.3. Many thanks to Mike of Living Out West for a delightful selection. You can find the recipe here on Mike’s site and visit the TWD site for more scones.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops (Squares)

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Chocolate Oatmeal Drops. I read reports that the cookies spread a lot, which I always find a little disappointing (my oven kind of crisps things up). In order to prevent this, I turned them into bar cookies. The other reports were that they tasted brownie-esque, so I figured it made sense. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: when you bake (nearly) every single recipe from a book, there are bound to be some that aren’t huge hits, and this was one of them. We may have gotten a little more excited about them if we hadn’t had extra special treats around for Valentine’s Day. These humble cookies were a bit overshadowed by the brioche sticky buns I made from the Flour Bakery cookbook and some insanely good cupcakes Josh brought home last night.



Since I do love both oats and chocolate, they were definitely worth a try, and I’m sure the leftovers will be appreciated by co-workers. We rated these cookies a 6.5 for Deliciousness (I think if I presented them to Josh as “breakfast bars,” he would have given them a higher rating) and I gave them a 2 for Effort, for an EDR of 3.25. Many thanks to Caroline and Claire of Bake with Us for hosting this week. You can find the recipe here on their site, and after a couple weeks off, I am looking forward to seeing how my fellow bakers fared.