Lemon-Almond Scones

Oh my, y'all. It's March. I've moved into a new apartment. I'm still rearranging furniture. I made these scones like 3 weeks ago. It's felt like madness for about a month, but it's all starting to return to...let's call it normal.

I think we can all agree that it's time for bright flavors and sunny mornings. Even though it's still just getting into the 50s here, the days are longer and the sun makes everything seem happier.

Even training for the Bridge Run is a happier experience. I love running around the Shandon neighborhood, and I'm pretty sure I never ever thought love and running would be in the same sentence. Unless it was "I love eating a chocolate chip cookie after running". But not right after because all I can handle are bananas and water after running. It's a thing, I just go with it.

I don't use almonds nearly enough in baking. Probably because I don't like almond extract, so I just avoid the nut altogether. Lame. But like running, an aversion can turn to adoration. These scones have almonds and lemon, which makes them wonderful. 

You'll need: Flour, vanilla extract, butter, almond milk (or regular), baking powder, slivered almonds, sugar, lemon zest, and salt.

I learned this tip from Joy the Baker. Rub the zest into the sugar to release the lemony oils. It'll make everything start to smell like heaven.

Combine the sugared zest, almonds, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a fork to distribute everything.

Cut the butter into small cubes and use a pastry blender or pair of knives to blend it into the flour until you have pea-sized pieces.

These are a little large, but I was using my fingers and didn't want to warm the butter too much.

Stir together the almond milk and vanilla extract.

Pour it over the flour mixture and stir with that fork you used earlier. It should come together in a rather shaggy dough. Turn that out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and you're in business.

Knead the dough a couple of times and pat into a round that's about an inch in thickness. You know you're doing right by the world when you can see pieces of butter in the dough.

Cut into six triangles. You can try to make them evenly-sized, but if you're anything like me you'll have a couple of oddly-sized pastries. That's life, and they're no less delicious. Bake until lightly golden brown.

I don't always glaze scones, but when I do I like to top them with toasted nuts. 

You'll need: vanilla extract, lemon juice, powdered sugar, and more slivered almonds.

Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven a few minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Stir together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Fact: This process is much smoother if you sift the powdered sugar first and use a whisk. Real life: I used a fork and wore a little bit of it in my hair. Don't forget the vanilla!

Pour pretty glaze over equally pretty (cooled) scones. I made far too much glaze and used it all. I had lots of puddles that I swiped up with my finger. It's a win-win.

Top with the toasted almonds and let the glaze set. Or not. It's up to you and your willpower.

My willpower took a vacation when it saw flaky layers and tasted tart, sugary glaze.

Lemon-Almond Scones (makes 6 medium scones)

Scones:

1 tbs granulated sugar

1 tbs lemon zest

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c slivered almonds

6 tbs unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1/2 c almond milk

1/2 tbs vanilla extract

Glaze:

2-3 tbs slivered almonds

1/2 c powdered sugar

2 tbs fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• For the scones, begin by rubbing the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingers. Add it to the flour along with baking powder, salt, and almonds. Stir with a fork to distribute evenly. Add butter to the flour mixture and cut in with a pastry blender until you have pieces the size of peas.
• Stir together almond milk and vanilla extract and pour over dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until it just holds together. Turn out onto the prepared baking sheet and knead dough a couple of times to bring it together. Pat dough into a round about an inch thick.
• Chill dough 10 minutes in the refrigerator. While dough chills, heat oven to 400º. Cut the chilled dough into 6 triangles and bake 13-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
• When scones are cool, prepare glaze. Spread almonds on a baking sheet and toast in a 350º oven until fragrant and golden brown, 5-7 minutes. 
• Whisk together powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour over cooled scones and top with toasted almonds. Let set and enjoy with coffee or tea.

Pumpkin Scones

Have you ever imagined having a conversation with someone but then it doesn't turn out at all how you pictured it? Yeah that actually didn't happen to me the other day. See, I bought a Reese's cup shaped like a pumpkin because you know the seasonal Reese's are the best and are never weird and powdery because they can't sit on the shelf that long. Will and I have talked about this before (probably because we're both weird), so I thought he'd appreciate that there's a seasonal Reese's cup out. I also knew that when I mentioned that it was pumpkin-shaped he'd think it actually had pumpkin in it. And let's just say pumpkin does not top his list of favorite foods.

Fried Chicken Biscuits

So guess what I'm doing in October. The Color Me Rad 5k! Remember when I made a resolution to do a 5k this year? Well I'm keeping it. No, it's not a crazy mud run, though my sister and I want to do one of those too sometime. It pretty much sounds like the most delightful situation you could put yourself in when running. At every kilometer you get this color dust thrown on you so that at the end you look like a walking rainbow. Doesn't that sound fun?! I'm running as an individual even though I'll be running with my sister, but I had to come up with a team name. Will and I brainstormed and finally came up with Rainbow: First Blood. Like Rambo: First Blood but...Rainbow because it's a color run. Get it?!

So obviously in the coming months I'll need to carbo-load. With fried chicken biscuits. What could go wrong?

These biscuits come together in three-ish parts. Step one: Make a simple buttermilk biscuit. You'll need: all-purpose flour, butter, buttermilk, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

As always, give the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt a good whisk.

Add your cold butter and cut it in with a pastry blender. Or a couple of knives. I've never actually used the knife method because I really like my pastry blender.

You want the butter to be about the size of small pebbles.

 Stir in your buttermilk.

And you should get a shaggy dough that'll come together when you pat it out.

 I prefer to pat my dough to about a 1/2" thickness as opposed to rolling it with a rolling pin. It's probably not as precise, but biscuits aren't exactly a highfalutin undertaking.

Use a two-inch biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. I got about seven out of this batch.

Bake about 15 minutes in a 400º oven.

In the meantime, put together your honey glaze. It's just a little honey, thyme, and bourbon. You can leave out the bourbon if you abstain.

Heat the honey and bourbon over medium heat until the honey has loosened up and blends with the bourbon.

Add a few sprigs of thyme and steep off the heat for 5-10 minutes. Discard the thyme leaves.

See that biscuit? It's about to get the treatment.

Brush the tops of the warm biscuits with the honey glaze. I would pay for someone to do this to my face.

And now, the hard part. Which really isn't all the hard as frying goes. You'll need: Flour, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, salt, and chicken thighs.

These are boneless, skinless thighs that I cut into smaller pieces to make them biscuit-appropriate. You could use breasts if you prefer white meat, but I like a thigh. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the chicken.

Season your flour with more salt and pepper, plus paprika and cayenne. Add a few pieces of chicken and coat them with flour. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies.

Carefully place about four pieces of chicken in about an inch of peanut oil that's been heated to about 365º. An easy test is to drop a little flour in the oil first. If it sizzles the oil is ready. If it doesn't, let it heat some more. If it pops at you, it's too hot. Cover the pan and let it brown on one side, about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken, cover, and let it fry until golden on the other side. I will note that I probably could've used a little less oil in this pan.

Drain your pieces of chicken on a wire rack that has paper towels under it to catch the grease.

 I think these biscuits are best with a little more of that honey glaze drizzled over the chicken and open biscuit.

A tender, buttery biscuit never had a better match than a crispy bite of fried chicken. Except for maybe country ham. Or sausage. Whatevs, I'm in training.

Fried Chicken Biscuits (makes 6-8 biscuits)

Biscuits:
2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
8 tbs unsalted butter, very cold
2/3 c buttermilk

Honey Glaze:
1/4 c honey
1 tbs bourbon
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme

Fried Chicken:
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt, plus more for chicken
1/4 tsp black pepper, plus more for chicken
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into biscuit-sized pieces
Peanut oil, for frying

• Preheat oven to 400º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. For biscuits, whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and cut it in with a pastry blender. When the butter is the size of small pebbles, stir in the buttermilk until a shaggy dough just forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and pat or roll into a round about 1/2" thick. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake biscuits 13-15 minutes.
• While biscuits are baking, combine honey and bourbon in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the honey has dissolved into the bourbon, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and add thyme sprigs. Steep 5-10 minutes and discard thyme. Brush biscuit tops with the honey glaze while they're still warm.
• For the chicken, whisk together flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne. Sprinkle additional salt and pepper over the chicken pieces. Begin heating about an inch of oil in a medium cast iron skillet. Coat chicken with the flour mixture, making sure to get all the nooks and crannies. Add about four pieces of chicken to the hot oil and cover. Cook 4-5 minutes or until golden brown on one side, then flip the chicken. Cover and cook an additional 4-5 minutes or until golden brown on the other side. Remove chicken and drain on a wire rack or paper towels. Repeat until all the chicken has been fried.
• Slice biscuits in half and top with chicken and more honey glaze. Eat with gusto.

Cinnamon Toast Popcorn

This list makes me glad my mom never listened to me when I wanted to get a Glamour Shot made. I was a very...theatrical child, so it made perfect sense that I would want to play dress-up and get my picture taken. My mother is a wise woman.

Glazed Orange Pull-apart Bread

Mercy me, I'm finally over whatever pestilence was lingering around my person, and the sun is out again.  Is there a better time to introduce a recipe inspired by something I loathed as a child?

Blood Orange & Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Do you know what the bottom of a box of cornflakes tastes like?  Salt.  Therefore, when you get to the bottom of a box of cornflakes, you should make muffins.  Similarly, when you don't have enough milk for a bowl of cereal but you do have an excess of buttermilk (Why?), you should make muffins.  You might miss Zumba (oops!).  The dog might act crazy (Admit it, he's always been kind of an oddball).  But muffins made with zingy winter citrus fruits will make your weekend.

The base of the muffin is the same but with two different glazes, Meyer lemon and blood orange.  I'm in love with the pretty pink color the juice from the blood orange makes.  Of course, you could do all in lemon or orange, and you can totes use regular oranges or lemons if you feel so inclined.  I just happen to love blood oranges.  Now that I've found them I don't want to let them go.  I think these would be absolutely lovely for a Valentine's breakfast for your sweetie (Who I presume you also don't want to let go)!

Don't Mind Me. It's the Benadryl Talking.

I've been in a Benadryl haze for two days now.  It knocks me out, makes me have crazy dreams, and makes me feel like a crazy person.  Cray-cray.  This always happens with the change in seasons.  My allergies go nutso and I have a few days of sore throats and congestion.  It doesn't surprise me, but it does throw me for a loop.

The only thing making me feel like a real person right now is this pumpkin bread:

Pumpkin Bread, Y'all!

Fact:  I was bitten in the face by a bug.  In my sleep.  I'd like to thank the good sweet Lord that it wasn't poisonous and that it's in a relatively inconspicuous spot on my jawbone.  Small favors.

In lighter, brighter news, I made my first pumpkin bread of the season!  This is easily one of the best I've made, especially because of the glaze I came up with.  It's stupendously moist, even after sitting out a few days.  In fact, we were going to share it at the tailgate Saturday, but my sister decided that she wanted to eat it more than she wanted to share it.  And well, I'm not gonna argue with the pregnant lady about food.