Bacon and Blue Cheese Buttermilk Scones

This recipe was also posted on Christa's personal blog: chocolateandbacon.blogspot.com.

Oh bacon, my love.

Bacon is a staple of my diet.

When I'm cranky, Jesse makes me bacon/

These past few weeks we've been eating a lot of BLT's thanks to Jesse's father's tomato plants and Jesse's excellent homemade mayonnaise. Yum!

Bacon grease is my go-to fat/oil of choice. I love using it to make stove-top popcorn (so easy!).

So, it's not surprising that bacon would make its way into my scone adventures.

I usually make Orange and Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Scones. I've been working on this recipe all year, getting comfortable in the kitchen.

Today, though, I was ready to make my own scones.

When we visited Cannon Beach last month, that excellent little coffee shop also served Bacon and Blue Cheese Scones. How could I resist? It was, as one would expect, fabulous.

Today, I made my own.



Bacon and Blue Cheese Buttermilk Scones

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoon (1.5 sticks) cold butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 lb blue cheese (or to taste), chopped/crumbled
• 3 strips cooked bacon (or to taste), chopped into 1/4" pieces
• 1 tablespoon cold bacon fat (optional)

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk or sift to distribute evenly.
2. Cut in butter until large lumps (pea to grape size) are evenly distributed. Do not overdo this step!
3. Whisk egg yolks into buttermilk and add to dry ingredient. Combine until there are no more puddles.
4. Add bacon, cheese, and fat. Combine until dough starts to come together (I use a hard plastic spatula for this).
5. Turn dough out onto cool surface. Knead just until dough is uniformly moist and add-ins are evenly distributed.
6. Press or roll flat until about 1/2" thick.
7. Cut into squares approximately 1.5" by 1.5" (you may choose to make larger scones).
8. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

Have you tried this recipe? What did you think?

Raspberry Muffins

I know I've said over and over again that the kitchen is not the place for me. But, I have a confession:

I think I love baking. 

It started with Joy the Baker's orange dark chocolate scones and it just kind of got away from me. 

My dad recommended I pick up the book Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. It breaks down baking and cooking into ratios of things like eggs, fat, and flour. I took the muffin recipe from here and made it my own. 

Below is the recipe for raspberry muffins. 

8 oz flour

4 oz sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

8 oz milk

2 large eggs

4 oz melted butter 

~1.5 cups frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 350° and grease muffin tin with butter. 

Set raspberries in a strainer over a bowl to defrost and drain a little. 

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. 

Combine wet ingredients and whisk until eggs are evenly distributed. 

Add dry ingredients and raspberries to wet and mix until just combined - there should still be lumps. 

Evenly divide into muffin tin and bake for ~30 minutes. Muffins are done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. 

What are your favorite muffin flavors?