How to make good scones: Whole wheat scones from King Arthur Flour

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Whole wheat scones with the mix-ins I happened to have on hand: dried figs, pistachios, chocolate chips

Thanks to King Arthur Flour, I can now make scones I'm actually willing to eat.

Until last week I never understood why people like scones. Scones are tough. Crumbly. So dry they're hard to get down, even when they're slathered with butter or jam.

Aren't they?

Turns out I'd never had a good scone.

Well, now I have. Thanks to the wonderful baking instructors at the King Arthur Flour Baking Education Center in Norwich, Vermont, I even know how to make good scones. And I'm going to do my best to teach you.

There are a few secrets to making light, moist scones:

1. Use the right amount of flour. If you weigh your ingredients for baking, you're okay here. But those of us who measure flour by volume usually end up adding too much flour (guilty!). A cup of flour should weigh 4.25 ounces. If you don't have a scale, use the fluff-sprinkle-level method demonstrated in the video below.



2. Keep the butter cold. I like rubbing in the butter with my fingers, but I have hot hands (all the time). You want the butter to stay cold when you cut it into the dry ingredients so it creates little pockets of steam as it bakes, keeping the scones light. Use a pastry blender, two knives, or quick bursts in a food processor. If you like flaky scones, stop when the biggest pieces of butter are the size of large peas. If you prefer cake-like scones, keep cutting in the butter until the dry ingredients look like wet sand.

3. Don't work the dough too much. Add your liquid, mix briefly, turn the dough out onto your work surface when it's shaggy and rough, then pat it quickly into a round with your hands. It will not look smooth. That's fine.

With these tips, I've now produced three batches of light, flaky, whole wheat scones, all made with King Arthur's white whole wheat flour. A whole-grain flour made from hard white spring wheat, it's lighter in color and more finely milled than traditional whole wheat flour, and it's my favorite flour for whole-grain baking.

The add-ins are up to you. At King Arthur I added dried apricots, crystallized ginger and chocolate chips. The batch pictured above has dried Calimyrna figs (rehydrated with a little Meyer lemon juice and zest), pistachios, and dark chocolate chips, because that's what I had in the pantry. You can use fresh fruit, but you'll want to cut down on the buttermilk a little to account for the extra moisture.

With these tips and the recipe below, you'll be able to make great scones too. What do you like in your scones? Leave a comment and share your favorite scone add-ins!

Note: I attended the 2013 King Arthur Flour Blog & Bake™ at the King Arthur Flour Baking Education Center as a very grateful guest of King Arthur Flour.

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Whole wheat scones from King Arthur Flour

by Erika Kerekes April-29-2013

Measure your flour carefully and use a light touch to turn out perfectly flaky scones every time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (8 ounces) King Arthur unbleached white whole wheat flour
• 2 Tablespoons (7/8 ounce) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (cut to 1/8 teaspoon if using salted butter)
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, chilled, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped dried fruits, nuts, chips (use any combination you like)
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) buttermilk
• 1 egg, separated
• approximately 2 teaspoons coarse sugar (raw or white)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (if using) in a large bowl.Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives, then stir in the dried fruit and/or other additions.Whisk together the buttermilk and egg yolk and stir into the dry mixture until a soft dough forms. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly for just a few turns. Pat the dough into a flat disk about 7 inches across and cut it into wedges.Transfer the disk to a parchment-lined baking sheet. For crispier scones, separate the wedges; for softer, higher-rising scones, leave them in the circle.Brush the tops of the scones with beaten egg white and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake the scones for 18-25 minutes, until they're light golden brown. Do not overbake.Cool the scones on the baking sheet on a rack. Eat within one day for best results (scones go stale fast).

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 45 mins Yield: 8 large scones

Postcard from Oregon: Truffle cooking class with chef Rocky Maselli

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Chef Rocky Maselli's polpettone (Italian meatloaf) with black Oregon truffles. The chef mixed ground veal, ground pork, diced mortadella and diced black Oregon truffles, then wrapped the mixture around soft-boiled eggs. The whole thing was wrapped in parchment paper, baked, then sliced so each piece had egg in the center. Shaved white Oregon truffles finished off each serving.

The cooking class was part of the Oregon Truffle Festival in Eugene.

Postcard from Santa Monica: Supplies at The Gourmandise School

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Freezer - mostly butter, puff pastry and nuts

Refrigerator - look at all those eggs!

I thought you'd enjoy this peek inside the refrigerator and freezer at The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories in Santa Monica, California. Co-owner Clemence Gossett says the school goes through four cases of eggs (that's 60 dozen) and 60 to 90 pounds of butter each week. And no wonder - the most popular classes involve homemade croissants, brioche and French macarons. When the croissant class is at capacity, the 10 students use a total of 72 pounds of butter.

How to make tamales: An afternoon with Chef Kevin Luzande at Playa Rivera

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Chef Kevin Luzande holding a sweet corn tamal, ready for the steamer

Serendipity. A happy coincidence. A random tweet I might just as easily have missed. An unscheduled day on the calendar.

That's how Emery, my 12-year-old son, and I ended up spending the afternoon at Playa Rivera with chef Kevin Luzande learning how to make their famous tamales. Free demo, said the tweet. Of course I do! said the boy. A phone call, a reservation, and off we went.

The wall of booze at the bar at Playa - yes, she climbs up that ladder every few minutes

Spanish hot chocolate, thick and sweet

Playa's justly famous blue corn muffins with almond butter

As we waited for the chef to get the staff through the busy part of brunch service, we sat at the bar drinking thick Spanish hot chocolate with house-made marshmallows and wolfing down Playa's famous blue corn muffins. I tried the piquillo peppers stuffed with chorizo and cheese (delicious little bites); Emery had the jalapeno waffle with pumpkin seeds (delicious but sweeter than expected). We chatted with Zak, the other guy who showed up for the demo, and shared a goat's milk ice cream sundae with a blue corn cookie and hazelnuts. Nueva Latina? Southwestern fusion? I'm not sure what label to put on Playa's menu, but everything we tried had personality and sass.

Emery at the demo table with chef Kevin Luzande

Chef Kevin's recipe for tamale masa

Then the three of us moved to a back table to watch chef Kevin make the tamales. He took us through three recipes: sweet corn tamales, mushroom tamales, and pork tamales. When chef Kevin got to Rivera, John Rivera Sedlar's downtown restaurant, the cooks in the kitchen were making tamales by feel rather than by recipe and measure. Chef Kevin tested, documented, insisted on consistency, and then brought that discipline to the kitchen at Playa.

Flattening a pulled pork tamal before wrapping and steaming

Ingredients ready for the tamal demo

We got lots of details: Grind the soaked, dried corn with the meat grinder attachment of a stand mixer to get the right texture, or buy prepared masa at a Mexican grocery - but specify that you want it for tamales, not tortillas, and without manteca (lard). Mix the masa with baking powder, shortening, salt and water. Wet masa is the secret to light, fluffy tamales - go for the texture of muffin batter.

Spreading masa and pulled pork on a banana leaf for pulled pork tamales

Mixing cooked chopped mushrooms with prepared masa for mushroom tamales

Chef Kevin softens banana leaves with a blowtorch - easier than blanching, he says

More tips: Spray the soaked corn husks with nonstick cooking spray so the tamales don't stick. Make them on a scale so they come out exactly the same size each time. Wrap them in heavy-duty plastic wrap so they retain moisture as they steam. And always keep the mixture wet, wet, wet or your tamales will end up dry, dry, dry.

For the sweet corn tamales and mushroom tamales, the filling and masa are mixed together so the flavor permeates the whole tamal. The pork tamales are made sandwich-style: thin layers of masa with an equally thin layer of shredded, seasoned pork spread between. Steam them 50 minutes, and then the best tip of all: After the tamales are cooked, chill them for at least half an hour to let them set - then, and only then, reheat and serve.

Playa chef Kevin Luzande

Pulled pork tamal

Unwrapping a hot sweet corn tamal

Sweet corn and mushroom tamales

We tasted the mixtures before. We tasted the tamales when they were done. "Tamales are my favorite Mexican food ever," declared Emery, and he scooped up every crumb with his plastic spoon. We asked lots of questions which chef Kevin answered patiently. We took a few tamales home. And in the end, he wouldn't even let us pay for our brunch.

This was the first cooking demo chef Kevin's held at Playa. Will there be more? we asked. He smiled. Tell the general manager you liked it, he said, and there very well may be. So, general manager, whoever you are, let me tell you: We liked it. We liked it a lot. And we can't wait to go back to Playa.

Playa Rivera, 7360 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036; 323.933.5300

Teaching truffles: My Trufflepalooza cooking class

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Making fresh ricotta cheese for my Trufflepalooza cooking class

[Thanks to Bel-Air Mommy for taking these fantastic photos!]

I really hope there's no truth to the saying that "those who can't do, teach." I like to think of myself as a person who can cook - and I'm pretty confident that after the three Trufflepalooza events I've thrown, few would argue. But I also really like to teach. I get excited about creating delicious food for my friends and family, and teaching is the best way to share that excitement.

Last week I taught a "Trufflepalooza" class at The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories in Santa Monica. We picked six recipes from this year's Trufflepalooza menu, all finger foods, all easy to put together. In fact, the dishes were so simple that we did the whole class without written recipes at hand - not my intention, but the printer was acting up and the printouts weren't ready until the end of class.

Everyone pitched in as we cooked and talked

So what did we make? Let's see:

• Truffled puff pastry twists
• Open-faced filet mignon sandwiches with truffle butter
• Truffled Pacific rockfish "brandade" in cucumber cups
• Crostini with fresh ricotta, truffle honey and thyme
• Roasted figs with goat cheese and truffle honey
• Truffle-infused chocolate truffles

The roasted figs weren't on the original menu for the class, but the figs on my secret trees were just perfect, so I stopped and picked a few pounds before heading over to the cooking school that evening. 

As we worked we also snacked on some beautiful truffled chicken liver mousse from Fabrique Delices and "Tartufo" salami with truffles from Creminelli.

We didn't make quite enough fresh ricotta, so we mixed it with store-bought - these things happen, right?

We used fresh black summer truffles (the last of the season) and fresh Burgundy truffles (the first of the season) from Sabatino Tartufi, as well as Sabatino's white truffle oil, truffle butter, truffle salt and truffle honey.  

The nine students in the class seemed to enjoy themselves. Of course, the wines, which the experts at Venokado expertly matched to the menu, must have helped. But I think the class really was fun - relaxed, casual, and very hands-on. I'm not a fussy cook, and this kind of menu lends itself to seat-of-the-pants cooking. We talked about flavors, combinations and proportions, but not too much about measurements.

I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to teach at Gourmandise. I'd love to do another Trufflepalooza class, but I'm open to other ideas too. Any requests?

I couldn't have done the class without Chef Adrian, my oh-so-competent teaching assistant

Finishing up the Pacific rockfish brandade in cucumber cups

Roasted figs with goat cheese and truffle honey

Filling puff pastry with truffles, truffle oil, truffle salt and grated cheese

We prepped, cooked and ate all at the same time!

Burgundy truffles (left) and black summer truffles from Sabatino Tartufi