Cooking up the good life

We had kind of settled into a wave of warm (around 70) weather here and I was quickly leaving winter behind when she reared her kind of ugly head last week.  We had a full day of rain-a rarity around these parts, which also meant lots of snow in the mountains! I have been craving something delicious and whole grain for breakfast and while standing again in a bakery searching for such a fantasy, a thought occurred to me “oh yeah, I’m a professional baker” I have everything I need to make my own. It became a day to fill the kitchen with warmth by baking up a storm of my own!

Scone triangles ready for the oven

I started with scones.  The glorious slightly sweet biscuits open to many interpretations.  I find that my favorites include dried fruits (abundant here) and nuts (also abundant here).  So, on hand I had dried apricots, and walnuts as well as home made peach preserves and thick raw honey which served as the sweeteners.  I have been mixing very coarsely ground whole wheat flour with more finely ground flour for a hearty, textured product. I mix that with a small amount of unbleached flour, and oats. I followed the same recipe I have used for 15 years since it was born at the Good Life Cafe:

4 ½ cups pastry flour (approximately 3 cups whole wheat, 3/4 cup white and 3/4 cup oats)

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons salt

2/3 cup fruit sweetened jam, maple syrup, honey or a combination

½ cup oil or softened butter

1 cup coarsely chopped apricots (or other dried fruit)

1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

¼ cup lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

½ cup fruit juice

½ cup buttermilk or yogurt

In separate bowls, mix together the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients. Then add the wet blend to the flour mixture and combine well. Dough should be soft but not sticky.  Place on floured surface, or a sheet of waxed paper, and roll or press it out to form a circle about ½ inch thick. Cut into 8 triangles like a pizza. Place triangles on an oiled baking pan (you can either oil the pan or cover with a sheet of parchment paper) and bake at 375 degrees for 12 to15 minutes.

This recipe makes 8 fairly substantial scones-you could make smaller triangles for more

After such a wholesome breakfast, it was time for, yep, dulce de leche!  I am exploring as many possible ways to use this substance as possible.  While I am pretty happy just dipping pieces of dark chocolate into it, I felt I needed to expand my repoitoire.  I went with a fairly basic chocolate cookie recipe, and tweaked it by placing a dollop of dulce de leche inside the middle.

While these look pretty decadent, they are honey sweetened, and 3/4 whole wheat flour so they still have that wonderful whole grain texture and crunch.  I also roughly chopped pieces of dark chocolate for an extra surprise.

topping them off

ready to bake!

These cookies were quite delicious, though the dulce de leche was not as prominent as I would like.   I now understand why the dulce de leche is generally added after the cookies are baked, as in the classic alfajore.  That said, my cookie critics seemed perfectly satisfied with these, along with a nice cold glass of milk!

Double  Chocolate Cookies with dulce de leche

1/2 cup butter or oil

3/4 cup honey or maple syrup

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 cups flour (2 1/4 c. whole wheat and 3/4c. unbleached)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate

1/2 cup dulce de leche (a soft caramel product, or nut butter with a bit of honey or maple syrup would work as a good substitute)

Combine oil/butter, sweeteners and cocoa powder until well blended and without lumps.  Combine flours, soda and salt and add slowly to wet mixture.  The dough should be soft, but firm enough to manipulate with hands.  Mix in chocolate pieces.

On an oiled cookie sheet, form 3/4 of the dough into small drops about 1 inch across (these cookies will spread, so leave enough space).  On top of each round, place a dollop of filling and cover with another small amount of cookie dough.  You can use your fingers to spread the dough over the filling.

Bake 375 for about 10 minutes.