Pumpkin Chai Scones

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, so I decided I needed to come back with something really good to make up for the lack of posts.

For those of you who don't already know, I'm in the process of opening a delivery based bakery. I'll go into more details about that in another post when I'm closer to "opening" though. All of my days off from my day job have been spent doing legal work or perfecting new recipe ideas.

I decided to treat myself today as I finish up my business plan and cost confirmation layouts. It's a little gloomy outside-my favorite type of weather-so I'm spending all day in my pajamas in bed finishing some stuff up.

Since I'm going with a comfort theme today, I decided to combine two of the first foods that come to mind when I think of comfort: pumpkin and chai spice. Thus, my pumpkin chai scones were born!

(as always, click on the pictures to make them larger)

The recipe is super simple and you probably have most of your ingredients in your cupboard already. As for the chai spice seasoning, I got mine from a specialty spice store in town. If you can't find chai spice seasoning, you can substitute with cinnamon to still add a warm undertone to the scones.

Scones
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chai spice seasoning
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/8 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter-diced

1 large egg
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp half and half
1 tbsp honey
splash of vanilla extract


Glaze
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp+1 tsp pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp chai spice seasoning
splash of half and half

Preheat oven to 425F

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chai spice, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add in cold butter pieces and work in with your hands until the butter is completely incorporated and mixture resembles corn flour.

In a separate bowl combine egg, pumpkin, half and half, honey, and vanilla. Create a well in the middle of the dry mix and use a rubber spatula to get as much of the wet mix as you can into the larger bowl. Use the same spatula to combine the mixes by folding the dry mix into the wet mix while turning the bowl. After the mixes are completely combined, use your hands to knead a few times. You want to use the spatula at first to prevent yourself from getting pumpkin Hulk hands.

Put a decent amount of flour onto a clean, flat surface and place the dough on top. Pat a tiny bit of flour on the top of the dough and then press into an eight inch circle. Cut into eight pieces like a pizza and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 13-16 minutes until thoroughly cooked through. If you want the scones to be more crunchy than soft, just leave them in an extra minute or so.

While the scones cooling, combine all the glaze ingredients in a small pot with a whisk over low heat. Heat for about two minutes, but do not boil. Drizzle the glaze over the scones and enjoy!

I hope you all enjoyed this post and I'll try to make time for some more posts soon. Until next time...

Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise

Fresh Tomato Garlic Sauce

Today is my day off and my mom suggested I make a sauce for myself using the tomatoes she just picked from her garden. I wanted to make a sauce that was chunkier than my normal tomato sauce and would take less time to cook. This is what I came up with.

click to view picture larger


INGREDIENTS
(keep in mind this is one serving, so if you're cooking for more than one person be sure to multiply everything by the number of people you'e cooking for)

*4 small or two large tomatoes
*2 cloves of garlic
*2 tbs olive oil
*2 tbs butter
*1/8 cup+ low sodium chicken broth
*salt & pepper
*basil
*oregano

Start by cutting the tomatoes into pieces about the size of your thumbnail. For this sauce, you only want the outer chunks of the tomato, because you don't want a ton of mushy pieces and seeds that can come with the center of the tomato. You should have about 1/2-2 cups of tomato chunks when you're done. Add them to a bowl, add a little salt and pepper, mix, and let them marinate while you get the rest of the sauce ready.

For the garlic, you can choose to finely mince the cloves or just dice them up a bit. I love chunky garlic, so I chose the latter.

Turn a saucepan on medium heat and melt the butter and olive oil together. Add the garlic, a little salt and pepper, and basil and oregano all to taste. I used about a tsp of basil and oregano to start. I continuously mixed at this point to avoid burning the garlic.

Once you can start to smell the garlic and spices, add the chicken broth and tomatoes and bring the heat up to high. Bring it to a boil, return to medium heat, and cover. After about five minutes, remove the lid and mix. You'll know it's done when the tomatoes have completely burst and the sauce has turned red. Taste to make sure you're happy with the flavors, and if you are-get ready

If your sauce is looking a little too thick, feel free to add some more chicken broth.

Once your sauce is finished, spoon it over some gnocchi, noodles, chicken, etc. and enjoy!
Stay Stellar,
Paige