Friday Morning Scones

I love my Fridays off... it has been awesome to have a three day weekend even if most of my Fridays were spent working on my Master's project. Next year it's back to full time. Sigh...

This morning while Corey went for a run (I ran 60 minutes last night for the first time - yahoo!) I decided to make scones for breakfast for when he returned. I modified a recipe from Vegan Brunch which is the same book that I got the muffin/loaf recipe from. These recipes are always great.

Friday Morning Scones

1 1/4 cup "milk" (I used the new almond/coconut milk but any milk will do)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 cups flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and white)
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine (the block, not the tub kind)
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or use a piece of parchment paper. I use my Silpat.

Measure the "milk" in a large measuring cup and add the vinegar. Set aside to curdle while you make the rest of the mixture.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Cut the margarine into small chunks and crumble it with your fingers into the dry ingredients. The mixture will be like little crumbles when it's all mixed together. What you are aiming for is to not have large clumps of margarine in amongst your flour.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Pour in the curdled milk, vanilla and canola oil. Using your fingers again, gently mix it all together. You want to be gentle and use just your fingers, not your whole hand that will overwork the batter. The batter will come together but there will be some dry patches, maybe some dry mixture left at the bottom of the bowl but most of it will hold together. Use your hands to divide the batter into 12 pieces and mould them gently into scone shapes.

Place on the cookie sheet and bake about 20 minutes. They will start to brown on the top and a knife stuck into the centre will come out clean. Eat warm!

The scones are fairly large so next time I will make a half-batch for Corey and I. We still have 8 scones left. The advantage of these is that they are not sweet so they can be eaten with soup or stew. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup sugar with extra to put on top but that makes it too sweet for us. You could add cheese into the batter or blueberries or herbs depending on the rest of your meal or your mood!

Wednesday Morning Pancakes

The advantages of being on Spring Break is that I can cook more and I can blog more recipes as I try them. Corey had this morning off so I decided to make some pancakes. It is a rare morning when we have time or energy for pancakes and I find that recipes are usually too big. I know I can reduce the amount but then that adds another mental step and that makes the task even more onerous! All for silly pancakes.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz to the rescue.Her book Vegan Brunch has great recipes in realistic quantities. This one made 8 small pancakes which was perfect for us. I modified the recipe a little so this is my modification. If you want her real recipe, buy her book!

Wednesday Morning Pancakes

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tbsp maple syrup

cooking spray

Heat a skillet (or two) over medium heat while you make the batter. You want these to be hot and dry.

Sift the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Use a metal spoon to mix the two together until just mixed. A few lumps are okay. Don't over-mix or the pancakes will be tough.

Turn the heat down just a little under the skillets. Lightly spray the skillets with cooking spray. You only need to do this once. Drop a large dollop of batter on the skillet and move the skillet around to get a somewhat circular shape if that matters to you. I used about 1/3 cup of batter per pancake. Leave the pancake to cook about 3 minutes. There will be small bubbles popping on top and the top will seem almost dry. Flip and cook the other side for about 1 minute.

Serve with maple syrup, agave syrup, blueberries, or whatever takes your fancy!