Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze -- Tyler Florence Fridays

Happy First Day of Spring!

Time for Tyler Florence Fridays -- today we had Tyler's Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze for breakfast, yum!

Blueberry Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 cup fresh blueberries

Tyler's Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

My Easy Lemon Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. (I say 375!)

Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough.



Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. *I shaped mine differently because my dough was extra dry and the berries would not hold up to being pressed and cut with the blueberries...



Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply the glaze.


Technically you should make this simple lemon glaze in a double boiler (i.e. over a pot of simmering water with a heatproof bowl set on top) but it's even simpler to zap it in the microwave. Mix the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar together in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and butter. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Whisk the glaze to smooth out any lumps, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.

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Results & Changes: These were a fun and easy breakfast treat but I did have a touch of trouble with shaping them. After reading lots of positive reviews on the foodnetwork site I did notice a few reviews that said their scone dough was dry and crumbly and wouldn't come together. I had the same problem and I'm not sure why. There was no possible way I could shape these as the recipe suggests, patting down and cutting into the traditional triangle scone shape. I ended up gently pressing them into round scones, which ended up fine in the end, and I guess that's all that matters :) I baked these at 375 (sorry, had to drop that temp down to avoid over browned bottoms which we are not fans of) for the full 20 minutes on an insulated baking sheet (very important!) and they turned out perfectly. Light and fluffy inside, lightly browned on top and golden brown crispy bottoms.


I also changed the lemon glaze, after reading in the reviews that this made a ton of glaze, I decided to halve the sugar and just add two tablespoons of lemon juice and see how it turned out, absolutely perfect! I'm sure Tyler's lemon glaze is great as well but if you don't have a lemon around to zest (or just want a super easy glaze early in the morning, like I did) the easy version is a fine substitute.

Brownie Pudding Cake -- Barefoot Bloggers

Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding is our March bonus recipe for Barefoot Bloggers, thank you to Tia of Southern, Eh? who picked this delicious treat! Now I have to be completely honest and say that Brownie Pudding is a dessert that I probably wouldn't have picked on my own. A few years ago I tried a similar sounding recipe for Chocolate Pudding Cake that was cooked in the slow cooker, and while I'm sure there are great crock-pot Chocolate Pudding Cake recipes out there, the one I tried was awful. I haven't had the desire to do any kind of treat like that since. I'm also not a crazy chocoholic, I would rather make (or order if dining out) a non-chocolate dessert, although I do enjoy chocolate in moderation and every now and then a chocolate splurge. This dessert is the perfect chocolate splurge :)


I am so glad that I gave Ina's Brownie Pudding a chance, it was amazing! A really rich, chocolate, decadent treat. I halved the recipe but kept the cooking time the same, so maybe my Brownie Pudding was overdone just a touch and more like a Pudding Cake, but that was just perfect for us. I do not think I would have enjoyed a total liquid layer on the bottom, and no worries, that didn't happen with this recipe. The top was crackled and crispy like a brownie, and break through that thin shell and you have ooey gooey warm brownie goodness. I prefer my brownies a touch underdone rather than overdone, and that is just the texture this recipe yields. Think warm brownies, fresh from the oven, too hot to hold with your hands to eat or even cut. Yum! I am one of those that prefer brownies from the middle of the pan (I leave the edges for my husband who loves those) and this dessert was like all brownie middles.

Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (I didn't have a vanilla bean and used 1 tsp. vanilla)
1 tablespoon framboise liqueur, optional
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds, framboise, if using, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan.

Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean.

The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding. Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

My only changes were swapping out the vanilla bean for vanilla, and halving the recipe. We all loved the results and if we are even in need of a chocolate fix I will make this again for sure. What an easy, homey, comforting, and delicious dessert, yum!

French Yogurt Cake for Tuesdays with Dorie and St. Patrick's Day Drop Doughnuts

Our treat of the week for Tuesdays with Dorie is French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze, picked for us to try by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction -- thanks Liliana! You can visit her site for the recipe or find it in Dorie's wonderful book, Baking From My Home To Yours.


This was an easy and delicious lemon flavored treat! I wanted to try out a new silicone baking mold shaped like a butterfly for pull-apart cupcakes, I envisioned brushing the wing designs with coordinating shades of jams and marmalades, for a pretty jewel toned butterfly.


Didn't happen. Why? Because the minute this came out of the oven the kids were so excited and chanting "muffins" (or "fuffins" -- as my youngest calls them) and I knew they would barely give these a chance to cool. And glaze? Forget it. These got gobbled up quite quickly for afternoon snack.


We all loved the lemon taste and how moist this treat was. I can see how it is popular in France, I'm sure we'll be making it often. I can't wait to actually try it with a fruity jam or marmalade glaze.

With my leftover batter I made one little loaf, since that is the traditional shape of this cake, and I have to admit, I love lemon loaf. When I was pregnant with my youngest I craved lemon loaf from Starbucks and would have to go through the drive-through and get a slice more often than I'd care to admit :)

If French Lemon Yogurt Cake wasn't enough of an indulgence for you or you would like a little treat with green sugar to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, take a peek at these...

my husband was in a 'doughnut mood' and I found this quick and easy recipe for Buttermilk Drop Doughnuts that were super easy to whip up. I left out the nutmeg since hubby is not a fan and instead of rolling in cinnamon sugar, made a simple powdered sugar glaze and sprinkled with green sugar sprinkles.

These reminded me a little of fritters, they were moist and cakey inside, crispy outside, not too sweet, not greasy, and you could taste a hint of tang from the buttermilk. For the easy prep and time involved these were a great 'doughnut mood' treat.

Thank you for stopping by for Tuesdays with Dorie, whether you are Irish or not, I hope you and yours have a delicious St. Patrick's Day :)

Shamrock Pizza for St. Patrick's Day

Just wanted to share a fun little non-Irish but still cute treat for St. Patrick's Day -- Shamrock Pizza! You can find my usual crust and sauce recipe here, or just use your favorite or a pre-made dough, anything works. If you have kids, enlist their help topping this one, they will love it! The kids might be more open to trying pizza with peppers if they get to put on their own toppings. If you are not a fan of green peppers, you could just do the shamrock shape and top your pizza with your favorite toppings.


flatten and shape your dough into a shamrock -- it helps to have a photo of one close-by for reference -- you will want to do your dough shaping on your baking pan because the shape is hard to move, make sure it is sprayed with non-stick spray or well oiled so it won't stick during baking!



add your favorite sauce



some shredded mozzarella



and some fresh green bell peppers, you can chop them up or slice into rings, for some reason I like my peppers better sliced into rings on pizza, don't know why :) I sliced up 4 peppers but you really only need 2 or 3...


bake in a 375 oven (you can up that to 400 if you are using an insulated baking sheet) for 15-20 minutes, just take a peek at 15 minutes and from then you can decide how much longer...


Slide of sheet pan and on to oven rack for 30 seconds - 2 minutes if desired to crisp up the bottom of the pizza (I always do this) -- then slide your pizza back onto the sheet pan, remove from oven, and slide onto cooling rack for 5 minutes or so, until your shamrock pizza is cool enough to cut. The kids and I had so much fun making and eating this pizza, if you give it a try I hope you like it too, maybe a new St. Patrick's Eve tradition! Still hungry? Check out YeastSpotting for some more fun yeasty creations.

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Check back tomorrow for Tuesdays with Dorie and another St. Patrick's Day treat :)

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars -- Tyler Florence Fridays

For this week's edition of Tyler Florence Fridays I made Tyler's Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars . I've had my eye on this recipe for a while, I love lemon, blueberry, the lemon blueberry combo, and cheesecake! Roll all of those flavors into one and you have this delicious treat. While I did have the recipe bookmarked based on title alone, it was just last week when I actually read through the recipe and saw how easy it was -- it all comes together in the food processor, wow!

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

For the base:
Butter, for greasing (I just used cooking spray)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
9 graham crackers
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
2 lemons, zested and juiced
About 1/2 cup sugar, eyeball it
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

For the base: Grease the bottom of a 9 by 9-inch baking pan with butter. Then place parchment paper over the top, pressing down at the corners. In a food processor, process the sugar, cinnamon and graham crackers until you have the texture of bread crumbs.


Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate. (I just realized while posting these photos that I put the melted butter in before pulsing the crackers, cinnamon, and sugar and it worked out just fine.)

Pour into the lined baking pan and gently pat down with the base of a glass.

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until golden. When done set aside to cool.

For the filling:

Add cream cheese, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar to the food processor and mix until well combined.

It should have a smooth consistency.

Pour onto the cooled base and then cover with blueberries.

They will sink slightly but should still be half exposed -- as the cake bakes they will sink a little more and break down.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the center only slightly jiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating for at least 3 hours.

Once set, remove from pan using the parchment lining and slice into 10 rectangular bars. Dust with powdered sugar.


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Results and Changes: As you can see I went kind of overboard with the powdered sugar, I sprinkled a little too much over one spot, then had to do it to the rest of the bars to match :) No worries though, it ended up fading into the bars after a over-night in the refrigerator. Backtracking a bit, even after the cooling and 3 hour refrigeration these were not quite set enough...


The bar above is right after the 3 hour refrigeration, see what I mean, the bar below is after I put them back in the refrigerator and let them set over night, much better consistency.


I had noticed in the reviews on foodnetwork that most people loved these but some had problems with them not setting up, and I suppose if you planned to make them 5 hours before a party expecting them to be done they might be a little soft for some people, so my suggestion would be to make these the night before.

I really loved these, and so did my kids, my husband hates cheesecake (yes, you heard right, hates cheesecake, what a crazy guy I married) so he didn't even want to try these. Oh-well. They are not the sweetest cheesecake bar, which was fine with me but some people might want to up the sugar by 1/4 cup or so. I think these would be a lovely brunch dessert or addition to a party dessert buffet. If you are a lemon or blueberry fan you should give these a try for sure :)

Tofu Piccata with Lemon Fusilli -- Barefoot Bloggers

Our first March recipe for Barefoot Bloggers is Ina's Chicken Piccata, chosen by Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings, thanks Lindsey! This was a fun recipe to try to make meat-free. I figured I'd give it a try and if it didn't work...oh-well, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much this dish was enjoyed. Even though I'm the only vegetarian in the house, I love to try and get my family to enjoy a little tofu every now and then. Here is Ina's recipe with my modifications...

Chicken or Tofu Piccata

2 split (1 whole) boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 14 ounce package extra firm tofu, drained on paper towels and sliced lengthwise into thirds, then each third cut into three stirps, see photos below)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1/2 tablespoon water
3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs (I used fresh bread crumbs from some Italian bread with lots of dried herbs that I made today)
Good olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons), lemon halves reserved
1/2 cup dry white wine
Sliced lemon, for serving
Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving (forgot the parsley, sorry!)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Obviously you do not need to do this with tofu, you could salt and pepper it though, if desired.

Here is my little breading station :)

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and 1/2 tablespoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and bread crumb mixtures.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2 minutes on each side, until browned.

Place them on the sheet pan and allow them to bake for 5 to 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, wipe out the saute pan with a dry paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, wine, the reserved lemon halves, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and swirl to combine. Discard the lemon halves and serve 1 chicken breast on each plate. Spoon on the sauce and serve with a slice of lemon and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

Results and changes: Other than swapping chicken for tofu and forgetting the parsley, I didn't really change anything. I did toss the fusilli in a bit of the lemon sauce before topping with the tofu and additional sauce. I absolutely loved the lemon sauce, I am a huge lemon fan and the lemon flavor was wonderful in this. The sauce was not pucker sour, but a deep tangy lemon flavor that went well with the breaded tofu. I was really surprised to enjoy this as much as I did and I will definitely be preparing tofu this way again, I might try to slice it a touch thinner though. I've done breaded and pan fried tofu before but never the three step breading process, and that worked so well. I hope everyone enjoyed this pick as much as I did, thanks for visiting :)

Check back tomorrow for another lemon treat!