I received a wonderful new baking book, The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom, from our friends Ryan and Carolina. This scone recipe comes from my new book. Of course, as usual, I had to tweak it a smidgen to my liking. The original recipe called for chopped dried figs, but I didn’t have any, so I used a combination of dried cherries and golden raisins. I also added a handful of toasted slivered almonds and topped them with a few extra slivers. I’m looking forward to trying many more recipes from this book. Thanks Ryan & Carolina!!!

As with most scones, they are a bit dry, but quite lovely served warm with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey. Or you could do like the English and slather them with clotted cream, which sounds horribly unappetizing, but is very tasty. The best part about this recipe, is since you use your food processor, it takes all of about 10 minutes to prepare them, then another 15 or so to bake. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning!
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This muffin makes me want to start selling muffin tops. Elaine and Kramer had a seriously fabulous idea. I’ve made a very simple sour cream muffin with semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed in. What makes it special is the generous sprinkle of Turbinado Sugar on top. It gives it a crunchy, sweet, almost candy-like top. Don’t get me wrong, the actual muffin is also quite tasty too, but I could make muffin tops, corner the market, and take over the world! Its just that good.
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One of my coworkers had a banana tree that made more bananas than she could imagine using so she brought in a giant bunch for everyone at work. They were adorable little bananas, but very green. I patiently babysat my bunch every day, turning them, talking to them… just encouraging them to ripen. Then I blinked and they were brown… poo! What’s a girl to do? Well, banana bread, of course! So here’s my favorite recipe for banana bread, slightly adapted from the recipe in Joy of Cooking. This recipe is different than most banana breads as it has butter instead of vegetable oil. Its fantastic… not quite as moist as your usual banana bread, but the flavor is very very nice.

For all you photo geeks out there, these images were taken with a Lensbaby. That is what gives it the really cool selective focus effect.

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