Daily Breakfast

I go into cycles with breakfast. For the majority of the summer, it was a banana before I hopped on my bike and a yogurt smoothie thing. Before that, it was oatmeal of some sort or Coco Wheats shipped in from South Dakota to brave the cold winter. The cycles tend to coincide with the changes of the season. When I start to get sick of my "usual" breakfast, I notice my coffee shop expense go up. I get lazy and don't know what I want and nothing looks good so I end up buying a scone or muffin, and a latte of course.

In an attempt to save some money and try something new, I decided I would try making something on the weekend that I could take with me to work daily. Enter Smitten Kitchen and her Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones. The best part of this recipe is that she give you the directions for mixing them up ahead of time and baking them when you are ready for them and I am going try this brilliant idea with other scone recipes as we continue heading for the cold of winter. I can warm the oven while I take a shower, pop one in the oven, and still have a bit of time for it to cool before I run for the subway. Who doesn't love a fresh baked breakfast? That's what I thought. I am going to try this with other.

Whole Wheat Raspberry Scones
Makes 9 scones

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup  all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup  granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In the bottom of a large, wide-ish bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, sugar and salt together. 
3. Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. 
4. Roughly chop the raspberries on  a cutting board and stir them into the butter-flour mixture.  Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula.
5. Using your hands, gently knead dough into an even mass, right in the bottom of the bowl.  With as few movements as possible, transfer the dough to a well-floured counter, flour the top of the dough and pat it into a 7-inch square about 1-inch tall. 
6. With a large knife, divide the dough into 9 even squares.  Transfer the scones to prepared baking sheet with a spatula.  Arrange them on your parchment-lined sheet and freeze them.  
7. Once they are frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag or container. 
8. When you are ready to bake them, bring them back to a parchment-lined sheet. Bake 16 to18 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges.  Cool in pan for a minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool them about halfway before eating.

Enjoy!  

Merry Christmas with Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

For my birthday this year I was in Montana and decided to bake something more than my  favorite rainbow chip cake from a box as a thank you to my friends who were letting me crash on their couches and dragging me around for a week.  The only recipes I brought along were those already on my laptop and since I had time I decided to try this New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake that I saved in 2008.  In the end, the grocery store I was at did not have Blackberry Pie filling so I used Raspberry instead.  I was also missing the chocolate extract. I could have gone to another store, but was being lazy, it was my birthday after all. The cake still turned out amazingly good. It was super rich. You only needed a very small slice. 

Birthday Cake

My mom saw pictures of the cake and wanted to make it for someones birthday at work but never did.  When we were talking about things that I wanted to make over my vacation, she said she wanted to make this cake.  For this round we couldn't find the chocolate extract again or the chocolate bars with orange so we substituted unsweetened baking chocolate.   Everyone enjoyed the cake, although for some the unsweetened chocolate chunks were too bitter.  I personally did not think they were very noticeable.  In the first cake I made with the orange chocolate, you could really taste the orange and I think it made the taste of the spices stronger.  This version was still really tasty and rich. I cut it into 16 pieces and I think it could have been cut into more.  

Christmas Cake

 Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

• Unsweetened cocoa
• 1  (18.25-oz.) package devil's food cake mix (we tested with Betty Crocker)
• 1  (3.4-oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix
• 3  large eggs
• 1 1/4  cups  milk
• 1  cup  canola oil
• 1  tablespoon  vanilla extract
• 1/2  teaspoon  almond extract
• 2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground ginger
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cloves
•  8 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
• 1  (21-oz.) can blackberry pie filling
• 2  (16-oz.) cans chocolate fudge frosting
• Garnish: fresh blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, and dust with cocoa. Set aside.
2. Beat cake mix and next 10 ingredients (to the cloves) at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake at 350° for 30 to 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. (Due to time constraints, I ended up only letting cool for about 15 minutes on the rack before putting in the fridge for an hour or so.)
4. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread one-third of blackberry filling over cake. Repeat procedure twice. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread chocolate fudge frosting on top and sides of cake. Drizzle remaining filling over top of cake, letting it drip down sides of cake. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before serving, garnish, if desired.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!