Category: recipe

Kale Parmesan Scones

It’s Fall and that means it’s time to bake savory biscuits and pastries. Scones are in a category all their own.

I first had this scone at Manresa Bread, a local bakery that makes some of the most outstanding sourdough breads and other yummy bakes. Unfortunately it is not always available, so I did some digging and found the recipe. I love to eat these with a bowl of soup or just on their own. The savory sharpness of the parm and the addition of kale and leeks makes me feel like I’m eating something healthy. These are light and fluffy, owing to the cake flour and the cream. Make sure not to over mix the dough. The chunks of butter also keep it from becoming “claggy” (British for thick and sticky).

KALE PARMESAN SCONES (from Manresa Bread)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

112 grams (~½ cup) sliced leek (the white part)

1 bunch Lacinato kale, ribs removed, and coarsely chopped

340 grams (2 ½ cups) cake flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch chunks

1 to 1 ½ cups of cream or milk

Grated parmesan

Instructions

Sauteé the leeks in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until they are soft, taking care not to let the leeks colour.

Remove from heat and put in a bowl to cool

Add the other Tbsp. of olive oil to the skillet and sautée the kale for about 3-4 minutes just until it begins to wilt

Remove from heat and put in a bowl to cool

Combine all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a standing mixer

Add the butter chunks and mix on low speed until the butter resembles pebbles

Add the kale and leeks, then the parmesan. Mix on low speed until just combined.

Add 1 cup of cream and mix on low just until the dough comes together. Add more cream if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a ball.

Then shape into a rectangle about one inch thick.

Cut into 12 triangles.

Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden on the top and bottom.

Recipe #12: Kale Parmesan Scones

Remember when we were allowed to wander freely, casually stopping in at a local coffee shop for a hot drink, a bookstore to browse the new releases or a bakery to grab a yummy treat? Wait! That was just last week, right?

I used to indulge in two treats at Manresa Bread, usually on a Sunday when I was visiting the Campbell Farmers’ Market. I could justify the astronomical price for their wholewheat chocolate walnut cookie or their kale parm scone because I rarely indulge (I normally bake everything myself). Now that I won’t, ney CAN’T attend the farmers’ market, and also because I felt guilty dropping that kind of coin on a cookie or scone, I am baking these at home for ALL to enjoy. And now you can too! The recipe for these scones was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle when they did a feature on Manresa’s head baker, Stephanie Prida.

The recipe calls for cake flour and cream. If you don’t have those ingredients, the recipe works just as well with all purpose flour and milk. It also calls for one bunch of lacinato kale. I don’t know what that is. And neither do you. But if you do, great! If you don’t, just use whatever kale you have access to. If you don’t have any kale, you can also substitute it with another green, like spinach or chard–just make sure you wring out any excess water from your leafy green or the scones will be soggy. Another substitution might be the leeks. If you don’t have any, try shallots or onions. Given the restrictions of our movements out in public these days, you might not be able to or want to run out to the supermarket to grab everything you need for these scones, so just improvise.

Kale Parmesan Scone Recipe from Manresa Bread

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 112 grams (~½ cup) sliced leek (the white part)
  • 1 bunch Lacinato kale, ribs removed, and coarsely chopped
  • 340 grams (2 ½ cups) cake flour
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 1 to 1 ½ cups of cream or milk
  • Grated parmesan (~1/2 a cup)

Instructions

Sautee the leeks in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until they are soft, taking care not to let the leeks colour.

Remove from heat and put in a bowl to cool

Add the other Tbsp. of olive oil to the skillet and sautée the kale for about 3-4 minutes just until it begins to wilt

Remove from heat and put in a bowl to cool

Combine all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a standing mixer

Add the butter chunks and mix on low speed until the butter resembles pebbles

Add the kale and leeks, then the parmesan. Mix on low speed until just combined.

Add 1 cup of cream and mix on low just until the dough comes together. Add more cream if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a ball.

Then shape into a rectangle about one inch thick.

Cut into 12 triangles.

Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden on the top and bottom.

Dorin’s modifications:

I use milk instead of cream

There are no measurements for the parmesan so I put in about 1/2 a cup of loosely packed grated parmesan. It depends on how cheesy you like your scones

I have made these without the leeks when I haven’t had them

I have added raw kale to the dough and it still tasted great

Recipe #10: Shortbread Cookies with Toblerone

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I am baking sweets traditionally associated with this time of the year. Shortbread is an iconic biscuit (as they say in the UK for cookie) commonly associated with Christmastime.

The cookie was “invented” in Scotland all the way back in the 12th century. It was often twice baked until it hardened into a rusk, then dusted with sugar and spices. But the biscuit became more popular during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots during the 16th century, when it was often baked for family celebrations and holidays like Christmas.

The term shortbread comes from the fat or shortening used in the recipe–in this instance butter (and lots of it!) and the short crumb or crumbly consistency on the biscuit.

That’s a pound of butter

Most traditional recipes call for the dough to be pressed into the pan, pricked with fork tines and cut into wedges or rectangular biscuits after baking. I follow a recipe that is more like a drop cookie. And I like to change it up a bit and add some additional richness to the already rich dough.

Shortbread is a 1-2-3 cookie; one part sugar (this can be a combination of granulated sugar and icing sugar), two parts butter and three parts flour. My recipe also calls for cornstarch, which is supposed to soften the proteins in the flour. As such, the texture of my shortbread cookies is so crumbly, the cookie practically melts in your mouth.

I use granulated sugar, icing sugar and cornstarch

Shortbread diehards would probably object to the use of cornstarch in the recipe, but I have had great success with this recipe so I’m not going to mess with it.

I like to add chocolate to my recipe so I take a Toblerone bar, which has delicious milk chocolate and nougat in it, and chop it up into small chunks before adding it into the dough.

Mmm! Toblerone

I use a small 1/2 inch cookie scoop to form balls and bake them for approximately 15 minutes.

Half-inch cookies are just the right size

There should be NO browning on the cookie. If it browns, it’s been in the oven too long.

Shortbreads are subtly sweet and deeply rich. They are a perfect companion to a cup of tea or a hot toddy. And they most certainly make a great addition to your dessert table–or even a great gift at the holidays.

These cookies are very crumbly, and very rich

Shortbread Cookies with Toblerone Chunks

  • 1 pound unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 Cup Icing Sugar
  • 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 Cup Cornstarch
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1 Toblerone chocolate bar, chopped into small chunks

Directions:

Beat the butter, icing sugar, flour and cornstarch until fluffy. add splash of vanilla and combine. Sprinkle chocolate chunks into batter and mix until just combined. Spoon onto a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees–make sure the cookies do not brown! The cookies will still be soft when you remove them from the oven. Place them on a rack to cook.