The Perfect Scone

I love Ina Garten's scone recipe...the only thing is that if you are trying to watch your calorie intake these are not the scone for you (they are full of heavy whipping cream, several eggs, large amounts of butter). So I searched the web for a scone recipe that wasn't quite so heavy but still tasty and here's what I found:

This is what you'll need...you probably already have it in your cabinets.

egg, butter, flour, sugar, salt, milk, baking powder

The Perfect Scone

Ingredients:

1/3 cup real butter

1 3/4 cup flour

3 T sugar

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 egg, beaten

4-6 T milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender until it resembles fine crumbles. Combine egg and 4T milk. Slowly pour milk mixture into dry mixture while mixing with a fork to combine. If you need the additional 2T milk to bring the dough together, add it. I almost always need the full 6T of milk.

Gently pat dough into a circle, about 1/2 inch thick. Brush top with milk or beaten egg and sprinkle liberally with sugar.

Cut into six wedges and separate on a cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. The tops shouldn't be brown, but the bottoms will be golden-brown and the tops set. Keep an eye on them and don't over-bake! The easiest way to ruin a scone is to over cook it! Scones have different texture than a cake or muffin, so if they get over cooked they will be dry and crumbly.

While still warm, split and spread with butter and jam, lemon curd, honey butter, or just about anything. Enjoy!!

Mini-Breakfast Quiches

You've always heard how important it is to eat a good breakfast in the morning, but for a lot of people that's difficult for a number of reasons. A major one being that you just don't have the time, period. When I was pregnant with Atticus, my mother would ask me almost everyday what I had for breakfast... She was quick to remind me that I needed to eat something that was protein-rich likes eggs (funny considering how much she hates eggs). So I came up with a little egg/cheese/veggie mixture that I baked in muffin tins. It was lean, protein rich, and included some vegetables which I otherwise wouldn't be eating in the morning hours. It worked so great. I just keep them in a container in my fridge, or even froze them, and grabbed one as I headed out the door. These are also great if you have school age kids - they can eat it on the way to the bus stop or in the car on the car on the way to school. I even found myself snacking on them around 3:00 in the afternoon when I would be searching the refrigerator for something to snack on... They are sooo flexible - you can switch up any of the ingredients to make them your own. I really love them with red peppers, green onions, and pepper jack cheese. Play around with everything from the cheese to the add-ins to the egg-ratio, and find a combo you like. You can eat them hot or cold!

Mini Breakfast Quiches

5 eggs

3/4 C shredded low-fat sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese

1/4 C cottage cheese

5 oz frozen spinach (that's half a standard frozen box)

1/3 C roasted red peppers, diced (jarred)

1 oz finely diced ham, canadian bacon, or crumbled bacon (about 1/4-1/3 C)

1/4 C finely diced green onions

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Thaw spinach (you can nuke it in the microwave) and squeeze out all the liquid. Putting it in a clean kitchen towel and ringing the heck out of it works well. After it's drained of all the liquid, give it a rough chop. In a bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well. Place foil cupcake liners in the muffin tins and spray with cooking spray. Don't forget this step! And yes, they really do need to be the foil ones. As you're dividing the egg mixture into the muffin cups make sure to keep stirring it so all of the ingredients are well-dispersed. My pan takes about 1/4 C in each hole and it fills them up perfectly. You want them to fill right up to the top.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. The tops should be just barely set on top. Over-baked eggs get tough and spongy so don't do that! They'll puff up while baking and then sink down when cooled. You can store them in an airtight container in the fridge, or freeze them. When reheating in the microwave, make sure to take off the foil liner! And if you're reheating from frozen, I try to take them out the night before so they can thaw in the fridge. Then when you microwave them, set them on a folded paper towel to drain excess moisture.