Maple Walnut Scones

This past Saturday the friendly folks from Mountain Maple Products were selling their maple syrup at the market and I got a bit carried away leaving with a 4L bottle! Needless to say maple syrup will be a popular theme in our home for the next few weeks. The first maple inspired treat was an easy play on our Scone Mix.

BCF Scone Mix
¾ cup cold, cubed butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 egg
>1 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts

Maple Glaze:
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp milk
1 cup icing sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine cold butter into the mix until it resembles coarse oatmeal (the butter chunks make the end scone nice and flaky). In a measuring cup beat the egg, maple syrup and just enough milk to bring the mixture to 1 cup. Add it to the batter and mix just until combined. Fold in the walnuts. Split the dough into 2 flattened balls and cut each into 8 wedges. Bake on a couple of parchment lined baking sheets for 15 minutes.

While scones cook mix the three glaze ingredients and drizzle over the scones once they have cooled. It’s also perfectly acceptable to dip your scone into the leftover glaze.

Whole Wheat Pitas

We love pitas. We use them as buns with lamb burgers (tonight’s dinner), make them into wraps or just bake them crisp for dipping. I’m not sure how it works, but these even have the beloved pita pocket! Once you have a homemade pita you won’t want to go back.

1 BCF Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
3 tbsp oil, divided
1 ¼ cup warm water
flour for dusting

Mix the BCF Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, 2 tbsp of oil and water together. Knead the mixture together for 5 minutes. Roll it into a ball, cover in the remaining tablespoon of oil and put it back into the bowl with a tea towel on top. Let it rise for a couple of hours or until doubled in size.

Once the dough is risen preheat the oven to 400°F, punch down the dough and split it into 6 equal balls. Lightly flour your surface and roll out each ball to about a 10 inch diameter. Let them sit for 5-10 minutes before baking. Place up to 2 pitas on a baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes. Once they come out of the oven, cover with tea towel until cooled. 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Today is Jeff’s champagne birthday so I made him a chocolate cupcake (made with our cupcake mix of course) stuffed with cookie dough and a cookie dough icing. It’s just a slightly more grown up way to eat cookie dough. 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix (1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup oil, 1 egg, 1/2 cup boiling water)
½ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup Partially Sifted Flour
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Beat butter, sugars, milk and vanilla together until fluffy. Add in the flour and mix well. Finally, add the chocolate chips. Roll the dough into about 18 balls and FREEZE them. You want them to thaw in the cupcakes, not cook.

Prepare the BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix as directed except spread the batter into 18 cups rather than 12. Add a frozen cookie dough ball into each cup and bake for 15 minutes at 350°F.

Cookie Dough Frosting

¾ cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup Partially Sifted Flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk or cream
2 cups icing sugar
mini chocolate chips to decorate

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add in the brown sugar, flour, vanilla and milk and beat well. Slowly add in the icing sugar until you get the consistency you want. After icing your cooled cupcakes, sprinkle with some mini chocolate chips. 

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

March is birthday month in our home; three out of four of us are March babies. To celebrate, we made Salted Caramel Cupcakes. They make such a great birthday treat.

Cupcakes
Brule Creek Farms Chocolate Cupcake Mix, prepared as instructed you will need:
½ cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup oil
½ cup boiling water

Icing
1 cup salted butter
1/3 cup caramel sauce
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar
extra caramel sauce
coarse sea salt

Prepare the BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix as instructed. Allow to cool. I scooped out a bit of each cupcake with a melon baller and filled with some more caramel sauce before icing. 

To make the icing, whip the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add in the caramel sauce, vanilla and a sprinkling of salt and whip again. Slowly add in the icing sugar. Once ready, ice your cupcakes as you like; I used a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip. Decorate your cupcakes with a drizzle of caramel sauce and light sprinkling of coarse sea salt. So yummy!

Try Our Barley Pancake Mix

Barley Pancakes have a slightly nuttier taste to them. Enjoy them classically made with some local Birch Syrup or topped with freshly made strawberry sauce. 

Strawberry Banana Pancakes

Replace half of the milk with strawberry yoghurt. Add in a ripe mashed banana to the batter. Serve with sliced strawberries. 

Maple Pecan Pancakes

Add ¼ cup pure maple syrup (or more to taste) and ½ cup toasted pecans to the batter. No need to serve with syrup – maybe just a dusting of icing sugar!