bread « A Woman Sconed

Scone of the Month: Ending the year on a sourdough note

By rahoward, on December 28th, 2020

I , like many others who have been baking our way through the pandemic, have turned to my sourdough starter more than ever. Dear Petrie (yes, with an “e”), my beloved fellow of the fridge, offspring of “Spike” (my friend Elaine’s starter), has served me well for several years and especially these past . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Ending the year on a sourdough note

Scone of the Month: Speaking of sweet potatoes

By rahoward, on November 21st, 2020

Sometimes I am a rebel. When the rally cry is pumpkin spice, I start to think about sweet potatoes.

Or should I call them garnet yams, which is what the red-skinned, orange-fleshed creatures most of us call sweet potatoes really are (the jewel sweet potato is another version of the orange-interiored…for a great . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Speaking of sweet potatoes

Scone of the Month: ‘Souling’ a simple cake

By rahoward, on October 30th, 2020

Somewhere between light and dark, summer and autumn, the living and the dead, lies a season long honored and celebrated. As the veil between this world and the next thins, the days shorten into a period of long hours of darkness.

Somewhere between a cookie and scone, lies something called a “soul cake,” . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: ‘Souling’ a simple cake

Scone of the Month: Sweetening with fresh corn

By rahoward, on August 22nd, 2020

Come August, I almost always get a bout of “cornostalgia.” Never heard of it? I hadn’t either, since I just came up with the term that has me dreaming of rusty tassels, rustling long green leaves, shimmering gleams of blonde cornsilk covering kernels in shades of cream to gold.

I wanna make things . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Sweetening with fresh corn

Scone of the Month: Toasting coconut, raspberries, white chocolate

By rahoward, on July 19th, 2020

Three tastes had been on my mind when I made scones in July — coconut, raspberries and white chocolate. These had, in fact, been on my radar since wintertime, when contemplating scone flavors. This trio of tart berry, soft sweet chocolate and nutty shreds of coconut seemed idyllic together in a scone.

Scone of the Month: Sheltering with whole wheat, ‘nutty’ oats

By rahoward, on March 30th, 2020

Earlier this month, I celebrated Ireland through a molasses biscuit/cookie recipe I found in “The Little Irish Baking Book” (St. Martin’s Press; 1995), a charming work by the late Ruth Isabel Ross.

Sometimes you fall under the spell of someone at the right time. Though I’d had Ross’s cookbook for a few years . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Sheltering with whole wheat, ‘nutty’ oats

Scone of the Month: Feeling just peachy

By rahoward, on July 28th, 2019

One of my favorite desserts is cobbler, specifically peach…the cobbler of my childhood, made by my mother, with what I feel is the true “cobble” of cobbler — a constellation of thick biscuity dough scattered over a pan of hot, stewed fresh peaches, oozing with warm juices and dotted with butter. Eating it . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Feeling just peachy

Baked Sunday Mornings: Waking with banana, espresso and chocolate

By rahoward, on July 14th, 2019

A few good muffins…it really doesn’t hurt to have a handful of go-to recipes for these underrated (and too infrequently made) breakfast and coffee-time treats. Why don’t I make more muffins? After all, they are easy (even kids can stir them up) and come together quickly. In a matter of moments you can . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Waking with banana, espresso and chocolate

Baked Sunday Mornings: Expanding the magic of blueberry muffins

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2019

Certain baked goods win in the comfort category, those old, tried-and-true traditional recipes that make you feel better just to think about them. Homey treats like apple pie, biscuits and chocolate chip cookies have that soothing quality. So, too, in this category are blueberry muffins.

Blueberry muffins have always been there for us, . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Expanding the magic of blueberry muffins

Scone of the Month: Picking a floral-scented scone

By rahoward, on May 26th, 2019

Sometimes, you can’t see the recipe for the blooms. I’m twisting an old phrase here, but it applies to my obvious lack of perception when trying to decide on a scone recipe for this month.

I was set on something with raspberries or white chocolate or coconut. Or white chocolate-raspberry-coconut, when lo and . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Picking a floral-scented scone

“People ask me: "Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?" . . . The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.”
--M.F.K. Fisher

"It was in a yellow limestone church in Stockdale, Kansas, a crossroads town, that I sat dreaming during summer Sunday sermons, not of heaven or hell, but of the good dinner to come."
--Clementine Paddleford