Twelve Days of Baking - Day 12

Well, I made it through 12 days of baking. It was hard work and my kitchen looks like a war zone, but I fun. My last recipe is for Bacon Date Scones. These are perfect for a Christmas morning brunch or a  Christmas Eve breakfast, like I had this morning. It is the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

 

This recipe comes from Epicurious.com. 

 

Bacon Date Scones

10 oz bacon

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped dates

1/ 2 cup butter, chilled

2/3 cup buttermilk

turbinado sugar

 

Cook bacon until cooked through but not crisp. Reserve drippings. Whisk together dry ingredients. Coarsely chop bacon. Add bacon and dates to flour mixture. Toss to coat. Grate butter into flour. Stir in butter with a fork. Add buttermilk. Stir and knead until dough forms. Pat into an 8" round. Cut into 8 wedges. Cover and chill 2 hours. Brush with reserved bacon drippings. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Notes: I cooked my bacon until it was crisp because that's the way I like it, and I didn't chill the dough for 2 hours, but I did stick it in the freezer for about 20 minutes before baking. 

Twelve Days of Baking - Day 11

I literally laughed out loud when I opened the oven and saw the final results of today's recipe. I almost didn't post it, because, well you can see for yourself.

But, I'm really tired and have a million things to do before tomorrow, and making an extra recipe isn't one of them.

I saw this on a website somewhere - it's a head of Santa, made out of bread dough. I've done a little with bread sculpture in the past, but clearly I forgot some important steps.

Here is Santa before he went in the oven.

 

Kind of cute. 

 

I had a feeling, though, that making his nose so big would come back to haunt me. It did.

 

This is what I saw when I opened the oven door.

  

 



 

Poor Santa! See what I mean about the nose? And the brim of his hat? What is that? It turned into some sort of angry unibrow.

 

Luckily, Santa is just like the rest of us and has one angle that is better than the others.

 

 

 

Still not great, but you can at least tell who he is, right?

 

If you want to make your own Santa head, the instructions I followed are here.

 

 

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent - 2012

For todays advent song you have to take a little journey over to another website. The song is by a singer/songwriter named Steve Bell and is called  Keening for the Dawn.
You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the title of the song to hear it. The lyrics are there, too.
http://stevebell.com/2012/10/story-of-keening-for-the-dawn/

Twelve Days of Baking - Day 10

Once again, today's recipe doesn't involve baking, but it's still a good one.

A popular holiday treat in my family is the buckeye. I've only actually made them once that I can remember, but everyone else always makes them and brings them to family gatherings around Christmas.

If you don't know, a buckeye is a peanut butter mixture shaped into a ball then dipped in chocolate. They are quite delicious. (Here's an interesting fact - we don't have them in Colorado, but  the buckeye is actually a tree that produces a nut that looks like the chocolate dipped peanut butter ball. I guess that's where they get their name. Google it for a picture if you're interested.)

While buckeyes are very delicious, they are also very tedious to make, so when I came across a recipe for buckeye bark, I knew I wanted to try it.

It's very simple and quick to make.

Buckeye Bark

2 1/2 pounds of chocolate
1 pound creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Melt half of the chocolate. Spread in a greased or parchment lined 9x13 pan. Freeze until set. Whip together remaining ingredients. Spread over the chocolate. Return pan to freezer. Melt remaining chocolate. Spread over peanut butter layer. Freeze until set. Break into pieces. Makes a lot.

 

Notes: I had a little less than 2 pounds of chocolate, so that is what I used and it is plenty. Also, I didn't melt the butter, just softened it, and it worked just fine.