The next month of my life is going to be filled with more travel, food, friends, and family than I can possibly imagine. While it will be impossible to blog while I'm abroad, I'll do my best to keep things in order. After having finally moved out of my house in Philadelphia, I zoomed off on a train for Stop #1 to visit my other best friend, Madeline, in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Madeline has an amazing history with baking and food photography. She was one of the Photography Editors for Penn Appetit which is the first university food magazine in the entire country. Last summer we lived together in New York where she held the coolest internship with a food photographer, and I'm so excited that we're both returning there full-time in July! Despite my pleas to make macarons (it's too humid apparently - pshh), we chose the next best thing and baked BOTH Raspberry Buttermilk Scones AND Gingerbread-White Chocolate Blondies. Food heaven right here. I was also so excited to finally add a post to my "Food" section since I only have is How to Cook a Traditional English Roast from my time abroad. We used recipes from queen bee, Martha Stewart, and I've included them at the bottom of this post!
The scones were amazingly fluffy, and the egg glaze on top perfected it. They weren't too sweet and the fresh raspberries added a perfect kick.
The Gingerbread-White Chocolate Blondies, on the other hand, were decadent to the max. The brown sugar, butter, molasses, white chocolate chips, oh lordd they're delicious.
Next up? Annapolis for Natalie & Huey's wedding! Couldn't be more excited!
Martha Stewart's Blueberry-Buttermilk Scones (substituted with raspberries)
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cake flour, (not self-rising)
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup (1/2 pint) blueberries
- 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg lightly beaten for egg wash
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flours, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture has the texture of coarse meal. Stir in blueberries.
- Whisk together buttermilk, 1 egg, and the vanilla. Drizzle over flour mixture, and stir lightly with a fork until dough comes together but a small amount of flour remains in bowl.
- Turn out dough onto a work surface, and gently knead dough once or twice just to incorporate flour. Pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round. Cut into 12 wedges. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 22 minutes. Transfer scones to wire racks to cool.
Martha Stewart's Gingerbread-White Chocolate Blondies
Yield: Makes about 48 dozen 2-inch squares
Ingredients
- Vegetable-oil cooking spray
- 2 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
- 10 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 17-by-12-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Line bottom with parchment cut to fit, and coat parchment. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Beat butter and brown and granulated sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and yolk, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Stir in white chocolate.
- Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake until edges are golden, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 2-inch squares or desired shape.
Some beautiful stained glass at the cathedral:
The best part of the City Tour was definitely being able to do a Cable Car excursion! Hilariously, some of the girls thought this was a "historic display" of what they used to transport people in...nope, we were riding it! We took a 10-15 minute ride all the way up Mount Isabel de Torres to see a full view of Puerto Plata.
Me and Madeline at the top of the mountain!
Such a cool view - and it was on an overcast day too! Can't even imagine what it would look like on a clear day!
Giant Jesus statute! There's a gift shop inside (but of course):
