Christmas Madelenes

Bonjour!

This Spring I'm going to Paris with my school, so of course mostly all of my Christmas presents surrounded Parisian life.

I got a madeleine pan, and then I made madeleines.

Definitely wasn't the best recipe but these were just my first try.

I'm also learning Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on piano, so wish me luck.

Lattés

Over the past few months, I have discovered my latté making abilites. With the help of my Aroma espresso machine with built in milk steamer, I am able to phony up a full-blown, foam-topped, de-licious latté. I decided to take photos (about half way through to the bottom of the cup) but here it is: my daily cup of joe.

1/2 cup milk (approx)

1/3 cup espresso (approx)

2 mugs/cups

Use one cup to hold the espresso while you steam your milk, and put the milk in the other. Make sure that the milk steamer is hot and ready to steam...the pressure is what makes this drink delicious. Start by steaming your milk just a little, but the foam that will form is not the foam that you want. Let the bubbles float to the top and pop.

My steamer at this point has lost a bit of pressure and has to rebuild the force, so let it do so if this is the case for you, too.

Once the steamer is ready, place the nozzle down to the bottom and gently move the mug up and down. There should be a charybdis-like gurgling in the milk. THIS IS GOOD. Soon, you will notice that the top layer of the milk is becoming very thick-almost like whipped cream. THIS IS GOOD.

When the milk reaches the top of the mug, you're done.

I tend to like more foam, so I take a spoon to that top layer of goodness and plop it on top of my espresso (for a dry cap), but if you prefer the milky deliciousness of a full-on latté, just go ahead and dump that sucker into the espresso, it'll maintain the foam that you want.

Signed-
Coffee.

Just kidding,
Sintra.

cranberry scones and an introduction

My name is Sintra and I bake.

I apparently also only create kindergarten standard sentences.

I'm 15 and I live in Los Angeles, California.

I don't particularly like it here.

I'm new at this blogging thing.

Anyways, I woke up this morning and realized that I haven't baked in a week.

So I made some scones.

Here they are, and although they look quite nice (in my opinion at least), they didn't taste as good.

Here were my scones, fresh out of the oven looking beautiful and ready to eat...

...and then I picked one up and realized it was completeley undercooked...

...so I rearranged them on the tray and stuck them back in the oven for a few more minutes...

...and out they came out browned and delicious.

  Cranberry Scones (adapted from spoonforkbacon.com)

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup Truvia
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup half and half (plus some to glaze before baking)

1. Preheat oven to 365 degrees
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Cut the cold cubes of butter into the flour mixture until the butter is completely incorporated and the mixture has obtained a fine, mealy texture.
4. Add the cranberries and gently mix together.
5. Fold in the half and half and mix together until just combines and the mixture has formed into dough.
6. Form the dough into an 8 inch disc, about 1 inch thick.
7. Cut the disc into 8 wedges and place the scones onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
8. Brush the tops of each scone with a small amount of cream and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the scones puff up and the tops just start to brown (or in my case somewhere more like 25-30)

9. Serve warm with a side of jam, honey, and butter.