Not SO Bad Rosemary Scones

Until now, I have never had a scone I didn't like. Then again, I have never had one that wasn't about 500 calories, so I didn't have them too often. By swapping out some of the gut busters like heavy cream and butter and cutting them a little smaller, these are a little easier on the waist with only about 150 calories and 5 grams of fat. Even leaves room for a little smidge of honey butter.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raw sugar (or white if you don't have it)
1 TBSP baking powder
zest from 1 orange and 1 lemon
2 TBSP fresh chopped  or 1 1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup evaporated fat-free milk
3 TBSP cooking oil
2 egg whites

Heat oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, orange peel, rosemary, and salt. In another bowl stir together milk, oil, and egg. Add milk mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened.
On a lightly floured surface knead dough 10 times. Lightly roll or pat dough to a 10-inch circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough into 12 wedges with a pizza cutter and transfer wedges to baking sheet. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes; serve warm. Makes 12 scones.

Optional:
1/2 stick butter, softened at room temperature
juice from 1/4 orange (leftover from zesting)
1 tsp honey

In a mini food processor or a mixing bowl with a whisk, whip until ingredients are combined and butter is fluffy. Serve on warm scones.

Potato Bread

The things I have done to get rid of my turkey day leftovers this year .... but this bread was amazing and I will probably be making extra mashed potatoes on purpose now just to make more bread.

1 cup milk

2 TBSP butter

1 TBSP raw sugar
1/2 TBSP salt

1/4 cup warm water

2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
4-6 cups flour

In a small saucepan, melt butter, sugar and salt into milk over low temperature. Let cool to room temperature.

Mix yeast and warm water in mixer bowl and add milk mixture. Stir to combine, and add potatoes and 2 cups flour. Mix with dough hook (or hands) until combined, adding in 1/2 cup remaining flour at a time until dough is smooth and elastic and clings to itself.

Spray bowl with cooking spray or lightly oil and set in a warm place, covered with a towel, until doubled in bulk.

Knead in mixer bowl or with hands on a floured surface, shape into a loaf, and let rise in lightly greased loaf pan until doubled.

Bake 1 hour at 350 until well browned. Serve as is, toasted, or in grilled panini sandwiches.

Flaky Cinnamon Biscuit Rolls

Dough
2 1/4 c white flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
5 TBSP unsalted butter
1 c buttermilk
1/2 TBSP honey

Filling
4 TBSP granulated sugar
1 TBSP cinnamon
4 TBSP softened butter

Glaze
1/8 cup milk
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2-1 cup powdered sugar

Add flour, salt, and baking powder to a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Cut butter into small pieces and add to bowl. Use a fork (and/or your fingers if needed) to mash the butter into the flour until the dough forms pea-sized crumbles. Mix milk and honey in a measuring cup. Add milk to flour mixture and lightly knead, just until moistened. Form a ball and put in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.

Heat oven to 450 degrees and spray a metal pie pan with cooking spray.  On a floured cutting board, lightly roll dough out into a rectangle about 12"x18". Mix cinnamon and granulated sugar together. Spread butter over the rectangle and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Roll dough to form an 18" log. Cut into 8 pieces, a little over 2" each.   
 
Place pieces in pie pan spread apart with the cut side up. Bake 10-12 minutes until the tops are well-browned.
 
Mix milk, syrup and powdered sugar until smooth. Pour over rolls and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Whole Wheat Maple Pecan Bread

In the early Fall, I wanted to make this bread for my mom and send it up north. As usual, time got away from me until it was too late, but the recipe continued to float around in my brain space. This one is for you Mom.

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or 1 packet)
2 TBSP milk (warmed to room temp)
2 TBSP vegetable oil (warmed to room temp)
3 TBSP + 1 TBSP real maple syrup
3 TBSP + 1 TBSP raw turbinado or brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup + 1/2 cup chopped pecans

In a warm mixing bowl, combine yeast and water. Add milk, oil, 3TBSP syrup and salt and stir to combine. Add flour and 1/2 cup pecans and knead with dough hook attachment about 10 minutes until dough is smooth and stretchy. Spray dough and bowl with cooking spray and roll around to coat. Set in a warm oven covered with a towel over it(I put the dough in and set 1 minute at 400 to warm the air). Let rise 45 minutes-1 hour until doubled.

Spray loaf pan with cooking spray. With the dough hook, punch down and knead dough for about 5 more minutes. On a floured cutting board, roll dough out into a rectangle, about 10"x18". Drizzle syrup over rectangle and sprinkle 1 TBSP raw sugar and 1/2 cup pecans. Avoid the outer 1" on all sides, and roll lengthwise so that you end up with a 10" loaf. Set loaf in pan and set back in a warm oven for 30-45 minutes until dough has doubled in size (if its cold in the house, give the oven another 1 minute at 400 degrees).

Turn oven to 350 and bake loaf 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from loaf pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

2 1/4 c white flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
5 TBSP unsalted butter
1 c buttermilk
1/2 TBSP honey

Add flour, salt, and baking powder to a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Cut butter into small pieces and add to bowl. Use a fork (and/or your fingers if needed) to mash the butter into the flour until the dough forms pea-sized crumbles.

Mix milk and honey in a measuring cup. Add milk to flour mixture and lightly knead, just until moistened. Form a ball and put in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. On a floured cutting board, lightly roll dough out into a rectangle about 1/2" thick, and 6"x4". Cut once the long way, and twice the short way to make 6 even squares or use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut into shapes. Place on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray and bake 10-12 minutes until golden.

Who says a girl from the North can't make a good biscuit? These are light, flaky, and full of sweet buttery goodness.

Ciabatta Rolls

I've have been making my family's pizza dough for a while, so one day I decided may as well play around with the recipe and make our rolls from scratch too. I make lots of sandwiches for lunches, so we go through about a batch per week. I like to top them with grilled veggies, leftover roasted meat, and tuna or chicken salads, but they are great for cold cuts too!

This recipe makes a large round bulky sized roll, about the same as the 4-5" commercially prepared rolls I used to buy, just without all the strange junk in the ingredient list. I find it easy to swap out family favorites when they look like what everyone is used to ;)

1 c. warm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast (or 1 packet)
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. bread flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 TBSP flax seeds
1 TBSP steel cut oats
1 TBSP sunflower seeds

Combine warm water and yeast in a warm mixing bowl. Add oil and honey and mix until combined.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined and the dough is sticky and clings together (in the mixer it will all cling to the dough hook and clean the sides of the bowl). Knead for 10 minutes. Spray the ball of dough with cooking spray and turn so its all coated. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and stick in the oven. Heat the oven to 400 degrees for 1 minute ONLY and shut the oven off. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes in your mixer until smooth and shape into a disk. Place on a floured cutting board and cut the disk into 8 like you would a pie or pizza (I make the disk thin enough that I can cut it with a pizza cutter). Take each piece of the dough and knead with your hands, forming a ball. Slightly flatten the ball and use a knife to cut a vertical and horizontal line through the top (+) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the other 7 sections. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, at least 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Rolls will be done with the tops are golden brown (you may want to lift one to make sure the bottom isn't too brown).

Remove bread from oven and allow to rest  a couple minutes before using a spatula to move to a cooling rack. Store rolls in a cool and airtight location. Leave unsliced until you are ready to use.

Each roll has:
232 calories
42g carbs
5g fat
7g protein
4g fiber
129 mg sodium