Tag: dessert

Raspberry Scones with Almond Glaze

Michael Metzler Jr.3 Comments

Raspberry Scones are not only a perfect treat for summer, but all year round. The raspberries should not be fresh, but rather frozen. Finish them off with a bit of complimentary Almond Glaze.

raspberry-scones-main

 

Ingredients: (makes 8 scones)

2 ½ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup buttermilk

¼ teaspoon almond extract

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen

¾ cup frozen raspberries

 

For Glaze:

¾ cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon butter, melted

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (If using convection, preheat At 350).

In a large bowl, quickly whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, salt, baking soda, and sugar.

In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, and almond extract.

With a food processor on the ‘shred’ setting (like for shredding carrots and other vegetables), shred the frozen butter.

Cut these shreds into the flour mixture in the large bowl.

Fold the sour cream mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. If it is too dry, then add 1 -2 tablespoons of milk until moist. Be careful to mix just until combined. Do not over work the dough.

Then dump in the raspberries, and fold those in carefully. Don’t worry if the raspberries break up too much, they’ll still be fine.

Turn the resulting dough onto a piece of parchment/wax paper. Carefully shape dough into an 8-inch circle, ¾ inch thick. Be careful not to overwork the dough.

Cut out 8 pieces like you would a pie.

Place these 8 pieces onto a baking sheet, brush the tops over with some milk, and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or longer, until the scones are golden.

Meanwhile, be making the almond glaze, by beating all the glaze ingredients together (powdered sugar, milk, melted butter, and almond extract).

If the consistency is too thick, add a tiny bit more milk. If it is too runny, add more powdered sugar.

Drizzle over baked scones.

Serve warm.

 

See my original post on raspberry scones on instructables.

raspberry-scones-dough-ingredientsalmond-glaze-ingredients

shredded-frozen-butter
Shred Frozen butter…
roll-out-rasberry-scones
…shape into a ball

Apple Blueberry Layer Pie

Michael Metzler Jr.2 Comments

This Apple Blueberry Layer pie I made for a PI Day contest a while ago, so I engraved the Pi symbol engraved on the top of the crust. The Blueberries are layered on-top of the apples so as to show through the symbol Pi because of its great contrast to the Pie crust.

apple-blueberry-pie-main

But apart from PI day, this is an very delicious twist on your everyday Apple Pie.

See recipe below:

apple-blueberry-pie-ingredients

Ingredients: (makes one largish regular pie)

2 frozen pie crusts (or homemade)

2 cups of frozen blueberries

3 Granny Smith Apples

3 McIntosh Apples

2 teaspoons cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup flour

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sugar for garnish

1 egg white

NOTE:

It would be best to have a deep-dish pie pan for this recipe.

 

DIRECTIONS:

Place a room-temperature unbaked pie crust onto a pie pan, as shown. Leave the second pie crust on the counter to reach room temperature while you prepare the pie.

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Peel, core, and slice the apples, or use a very handy machine to do it for you. Toss the ‘peeledcoredsliced’ apples and lemon juice in a large bowl. Cut large pieces with a knife until all pieces are evenly sized.

Throw the flour-spice-sugar mixture over the apples, and toss to coat the apples completely.

Throw the apple mixture into the pie crust-filled pan.

Prepare the two cups of frozen blueberries by placing them in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Pat dry with paper towels. Even if you have fresh blueberries, you could also do this to wash them.

Evenly layer these blueberries over the top of the apples.

Now you may preheat the oven to 425 degrees. (Fahrenheit)

Place the other room temperature pie crust over the top neatly, and, using a fork, press across the circumference of the pie pan, pressing the top pie crust into the bottom crust.

Optional: Using a stencil, or your own brain, carefully cut the Pi symbol (rather largely) out of the top pi crust. You can use the cut-out crust as extra decoration on the top of the pie crust if you want to.

Beat an egg white until a bit fluffy. Spread this lightly over the top of the finished pie crust. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar.

Place pie in preheated oven (425) and bake for around 40 minutes, or until crust is golden, and fruit mixture is boiling.

Remove from oven, take a nice picture, and serve. Or, as I prefer, cool in fridge completely before serving.

NOTE:

Having the pie crust defrosted completely to room temperature is important. If it is not at room temperature, it is going to be alot harder to place in the pie pan, because it will crack all over the place.

Usually with recipes, you’ll see instructions at the very beginning to preheat your oven. But with a long recipe, like this, I find it is about half an hour or so to prep, so your oven will just be wasting energy. Because of this, you’ll only need to preheat your oven in this recipe 10 – 15 minutes before you’re ready to bake. It preheats at 425 degrees. See directions.

apple-pie-cut

 

SOME OTHER PICTURES:

apple-cuttingapples-mixedapples-in-pie-crustblueberries-on-apples

 

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These cookies are healthy for being cookies, and make a great snack anytime of the day. They are quick and easy to make.

oatmeal-choc-chip-cookies-main

oatmeal choc chip cookies ingredients.jpg
INGREDIENTS

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup butter, softened

1/4 cup Coconut Oil, softened

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 t. molasses

2 t. Vanilla

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

3 1/2 cups quick oats

1 cup chocolate chips

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a stand mixer, beat first 5 ingredients until creamy and smooth.

Then add egg, and mix until well combined.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir until well combined.

Add the oats. Stir until combined.

Add and stir in chocolate chips.

Place shaped cookies on ungreased baking sheets, approximately 1 inch of space in between cookie balls.

Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire rack before serving.

 

spooning-out-oatmeal-choc-cookies
Spoon out cookies…
oatmeal-choc-cookies-laid-out
…onto an ungreased baking sheet

 

 

The Best M&M Chocolate Brownies

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These brownies have a great texture. Not too cakey and not too doughy, with chocolate chips folded in the batter, finally topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with M&M’s, these brownies are a perfect blend. They are also splendid for large parties or gatherings, and great for the family.

chocolate-brownies-mainjpg

 

INGREDIENTS:

brownies-ingredients

(for a 9×13 baking pan):

1 cup butter, melted

⅓ cup oil<\p>

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup baking cocoa

½ cup melted chocolate

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

NOTE: it is also great if you substitute a bit of sugar for brown sugar…

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare a 9×13 inch glass baking dish by placing a long piece of aluminum foil into the pan as a sling for pulling the brownies out later, and grease with cooking spray.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan, on low, melt butter and chocolate, stirring as it melts to prevent burning. Remove from heat after melting.

Stir in oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking cocoa, and salt) in a medium bowl.

Pour into wet ingredient mixture in saucepan (off the heat) and stir until smooth and no flour streaks remain.

Optional, but more delicious: Fold about 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips into the batter.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs, or none at all.

Cool for at least another 25 minutes.

Remove using foil sling, and place on flat working surface.

Ice with a ganache recipe of your own. I used this recipe: Chocolate Ganache Recipe.

Before the icing is hardened, sprinkle M&Ms on top.

To store: place in shallow plastic containers. Do not stack brownies on top of each other.

To see all step by step pictures, go to this recipe on instructables.

 

…brief overview:

…melt in saucepan…

wet-ingredients-1-brownies

Add the rest of the wet ingredients…

wet-ingredients-2-brownies

Stir the dry ingredients together…

dry-ingredients-brownies

Combine the dry with the wet ingredients:

dry-wet-ingredients-brownies

…and bake in preheated oven:

baked-brownies

See full recipe above for all details.

 

If you liked this recipe, perhaps you’ll like some of my others. Check them out on the main page, or see all my recipes at my profile on instructables.