Peach & Walnut Scones From The Careless Cook

 

 

If you’ve come to know The Careless Cook, you surely recognize he has few rules, but there is One Big One:  A recipe is just a suggestion, or if you prefer, a starting point.  From my point of view, cooking or baking is not a “be sure to follow the rules” situation, but coming to know your own tastes and the tastes of the folks you’re cooking for.  Don’t like their tastes? Cook for someone else!

 

You can bend the rules with great success, and good examples are vegetarians and vegans.  I am neither, but I have stroked recipes this way and that to make everyone feel welcome and still maintain great flavors coming out of the pot and the oven.

 

But, even when I bend over backwards, I run into situations that make me throw down my apron and walk away.  One fellow I know eats little to no vegetables that aren't over cooked until they are soft and tasteless. No salad either.  Sorry fella, go fricassee some squirrels. 

 

Another lady I was about to invite for lunch, without even a smile, laid down her rules:  If you cook for me, everything MUST be gluten free and fat free!  Well, if you think you’re talking to a short order cook, honey, you can kiss my roast beef and suck my French baguette.

 

But, let’s dispense with bitterness, join The Careless Cook and make his version of tasty scones.

 

As you probably know, scones are simple baked goods, with few ingredients and absolutely delicious.  But, of course the Careless Cook is never satisfied with the norm.  So, you may well ask, what are the ingredients and how did The Careless Cook diverge?  The usual ingredients are: flour, salt, butter, baking powder, sugar, and heavy cream.

 

Now let’s get into The Careless Cook's recipe!

 

Peach & Walnut Scones

Oven set to 450ºF or 230ºC

 

Ingredients

 

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup cornmeal (Don’t have or don’t like cornmeal, just skip it and add another ½ cup all purpose flour.)

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup of sugar

2 generous teaspoons baking powder

5 teaspoons butter at room temperature

¾ cup oat milk (or heavy cream, if you prefer) Note: I use full fat Oatly brand and it must be shaken very well before pouring.

1 15oz can of sliced peaches, drained and chopped

1 cup of walnuts, rough chopped

 

Note:  I made this into 20 square scones (a little thiner) because I was feeding the multitudes.  Traditionally, scone dough is formed into a circle about an inch thick, then cut into wedges.

 

Putting It Together

 

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the softened butter and use your hands to work the butter in.

 

Add the walnuts and peaches and mix well.  Add the oat milk or heavy cream and mix well again. 

 

Note:  If the dough is too soft add a bit more flour; if too heavy, add a little more liquid.  But either way, be careful not to end up with liquid dough or a brick.

 

Heavily dust your counter or board and plop the dough on it.  Knead gently into a soft dough and form into a square if you’re feeding a whole flock, or into a round for the traditional way.  No matter which you choose, put the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes if you make fairly thin scones (dough 1/2 inch thick) and up to 15 minutes for thicker (dough 1 inch thick). 

 

Note: Most ovens register a slightly different temperature.  My advice is to check the scones after ten minutes and go from there. 

 

When they’re out of the oven, it’s time for champagne if you work the day shift, or coffee if you’ve just come off the night shift.

 

To make this vegetarian or vegan, substitute faux butter for the regular kind and don’t use heavy cream. But, if your invited guest refuses to eat on the basis of gluten and fat free, offer rice crackers and lukewarm water.

 

Cinnamon Cake by The Careless Cook

 

Notice the very light glaze using my recipe

 

There have been requests from a group of ladies for this recipe…. and especially from their husbands.  I do my best to please both sexes, all ages and especially the excitably hungry.

 

You immediately noticed I used the word ‘sexes’ instead of genders.  See, The Careless Cook doesn’t jump up and attach himself to every new fad, such as using a linguistic term, which has nothing to do with male or female, to identify human males and females.  In French, dogs and cats are masculine gender.  Neckties are feminine gender. So dogs and cats are only males? Men wearing neckties have women hanging around their necks? See, gender has nothing to do with people.  In German there is also a neuter gender. Apply that to humans?  An important part of me doesn't like to think about it. 

 

But, there is a good side to my diversion, cake is cake, and this cake is delicious! No matter who’s eating, even if they’re sexy or gendery!

 

Easy Cinnamon Cake by The Careless Cook

 

As my few and happy readers know, The Careless Cook does not exactly cling to the rules of the recipe.  In the case of this cake, feel free to use a store bought box of cake mix and a can of icing…but, this recipe is so easy, there’s no need to worry, either way.

 

Ingredients

 

For the cake

 

3 cups flour

1 cup granulated white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I make my own by soaking chips of vanilla beans and soaking them in bourbon for several months)

1 ½ cups oat milk, or cow’s milk (I prefer the creamy taste of oat milk, but you must shake it very well before using.)

1 stick salted butter melted

 

For the Cinnamon Filling

 

1 ½ sticks butter, melted

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 (or more) tablespoon(s) ground cinnamon

 

For the glaze/icing

 

2 cups powdered sugar  (Add more sugar if it’s too thin, more milk if it’s too thick.)

5 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Puttin’ It Together 

 

First the cake!  

 

Heat the oven to 350ºF or 180ºC and coat a 9x13 inch baking dish with sprayed olive oil.

 

Get your electric mixer ready.  I use a hand held mixer.

 

In a large bowl, put the flour, eggs, white sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract and milk.  Mix well. Not yet with the butter….

 

Keep beating and add the melted butter.  Mix until just until combined, too much mixing toughens the batter.

 

Pour the batter into the 9x13 baking dish and smooth it out.

 

Now the Cinnamon Batter

 

Add all the cinnamon batter ingredients to a small to medium sized bowl and mix well.

 

Add the cinnamon batter by dropping spoonful by spoonful on the top of the cake batter.  Use a butter knife or other flat knife to swirl the cinnamon batter through the cake batter.  Voila!

 

Bake for 35-45 minutes.  Test from time to time by inserting a knife to see if the cake is baked.  The knife should come out clean.

 

Took just 35-40 minutes in my oven.

 

For the Glaze/Icing

 

If using my recipe, mix all the ingredients. 

 

Then you have a choice!

 

You can pour the glaze directly over the cake that’s just come out of the oven, or you can wait. The difference is, pouring it straight on the warm/hot cake, the glaze will sink right in.  If you wait until the cake cools, more of the glaze will stay on the surface.

 

If you use the store bought icing, I suggest you wait until the cake cools so the thick white icing will stay on the surface.

 

BUT, as The Careless Cook always says, you’re the chef! Do what the heck you want!  Either way, it’s going to be delicious and people whom you’ve never met will fight for a piece of this cake!  Genders and sexes will be all over it!

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Eggplant Lasagna

 

People sometimes get the mistaken idea the South’s mouth is only filled with barbeque and fried chicken.  Both are popular I have to admit and goodness knows, with a mom from the Carolinas I sure had my share, although in my childhood, barbeque was a special night at a local, smoke filled barbecue restaurant. In those days few people owned home smokers or even grills.

 

Fried chicken was another matter, but there was a difference. Lots of people had chickens in their backyards and the first thing you did before making fried chicken was wring the chicken’s neck and pluck off the feathers.  Got to admit, we did not do that at our house, but many in the neighbors did, sho-nuff!

 

But, let’s get back to the order of things that filled the South’s mouth.  Number one was not meat, but vegetables.  May have been a carryover by the folks, including my parents, who lived through the Great Depression. Everybody had a garden.  My grandfather plowed his backyard and my memory nothing beat tomatoes fresh off the vine and corn on the cob that you popped off the stalk and shucked right there in the yard.  Yes, I did eat it as soon as I shucked it. Sitting right there in the garden and hoping my grand daddy didn't see me.

 

Number two on the table was rice.  Oh, my!  My mom’s rice and gravy!  When we moved to Japan, we fit right in!  But sometimes we just ate it with butter or some fresh tomato sauce.

 

But the recipe I’m going to share has nothing to do with southern nostalgia, but it has everything to do with vegetables.  I never ate eggplants as a kid.  Never saw one.  But, I saw plenty of tomatoes and tomatoes are the real stars of my version of Eggplant Lasagna, or at least the Italian version of tomato sauce.  Making this dish still brought back memories of my grandfather’s garden.

 

Do you eat a lot of vegetables as a kid?  I still can’t get enough.  Every variety. I plan meals based on which vegetables I hunger for.  These days meat, mostly fish and chicken, comes in second.

 

And sometimes the meal is just vegetables, seldom fried or boiled.  I do a lot in the oven and this recipe is a quick put-it-together and slide it in and wait a while.  Believe me, it’s more than worth the short wait. 

 

Make this dish and nobody going to complain about the lack of meat.  Matter of fact, they may not do much talkin’.

 

Eggplant Lasagna

 

If you haven’t already, open that first bottle of a light Italian white wine and pour a good sized goblet to prepare yourself for the joy of cooking!

 

By the way, eggplant is called aubergine in Europe…..and I don’t know another country that calls it eggplant, not even Canada.

 

Ok, on with it….and remember, the recipe is only a plan.  You’re the chef! Change the plan to suit your taste buds!

 

Ingredients

2 medium to large eggplants, sliced length wise about ¾ inch thick

Olive Oil (no telling how much you’ll use, but I used a few splashes here and there)

2 eight-ounce packages of sliced mushrooms

3 (or more) cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon or more Italian seasoning (I used The Spice Lab’s Italian Rustico—from Amazon and I did a few good and heavy shakes)

24-25 ounces of your favorite Italian marinara sauce. 

15 ounces ricotta cheese

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 10-ounce package of frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped (Don’t like broccoli? Use spinach.)

1 large egg

2 cups or more ripped up mozzarella cheese

chopped fresh basil (optional)

 

Puttin’ It Together

 

Heat the oven to 400º F or 200º C

 

Spray 2 rimmed baking sheets with olive oil and also spray a 9x13 inch baking dish and set it aside.

 

Lay the eggplant slices on the baking sheets and brush olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast the eggplant slices for 20 minutes or until they are browned on one side, then flip them over and roast for another 20 minutes.  Note: If you have a small oven, put one baking pan on the top rack and the other on a lower rack.  At the twenty minute point, after you flip the eggplant slices over, swap racks.

 

While the eggplants are browning, time to toss the sliced mushroom in a large pan, add some olive oil and cook until brown.  Toss in the sliced garlic for another 2 minutes. Add the marinara sauce, stir well and remove the pan from the heat.

 

In a large bowl, add the ricotta cheese, a ¼ cup parmesan cheese, the egg, and salt and pepper. Stir well, then add the chopped broccoli and stir again.

 

Time for the oven!

 

For two layers:  

 

Put some of the marinara/mushroom sauce on the bottom of the 9x13 baking pan, then arrange half the slices of eggplant over the sauce.

 

Spread all of the ricotta mixture over the eggplant slices.

 

Layer on the remaining eggplant slices and cover with the remaining marinara/mushroom sauce. Top with mozzarella and sprinkle on as much parmesan as you want.

 

Bake for 20-30 minutes.  You want to see the cheese has melted and the lasagna is bubbling.

 

Remove from the oven and sprinkle on the chopped fresh basil, if you wish.

This may sound a little complicated, but it’s not.

 

Short course:  1) Slice and brown the eggplants 2) While the eggplant bakes, cook the mushrooms and marinara sauce 3) Mix the eggs and ricotta, etc 4) Layer everything and slide it in the oven for 20-30 minutes

 

Simply delicious.  Now, open that second bottle of a light Italian white wine and proceed to fill the bellies of the hungry.