Cooking Day

Today We are going to cook 2 tasty all-time favorite breakfast/snacks items for the anglophone community: chocolate muffins & british scones

But before we start, we'll need to form two teams.  Each team will have their own oven to cook these two food items. There will be a competition between the two teams at the end for:

• The most beautiful muffins and scone (decorations)
• Tastiest muffins and scones

You have 2 hours to do these two items so take your time. DON'T hurry. Be careful

Who will be the judge? ME of course

2 thins to do before we start:

1. Wash your hands and dry them

2. Put on an apron

Recipes to follow:

SCONES

Recipe yields 6 scones

 INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• Salt

• 85g of cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

• 5/8 cups cold heavy cream, plus more for brushing

• 1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/3 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. 
3. Cut in butter in small cubes with a knife. With your fingertips, flatten butter pieces into small disks. 
4. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until butter is very firm, about 20 minutes.
5. Combine cream and vanilla in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture with a wooden spoon until almost absorbed and dough just comes together. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface; roll out into an 8-by-10-inch rectangle. With a short side facing you, fold rectangle into thirds, as you would a letter. Rotate dough a quarter turn clockwise. Repeat rolling out, folding, and rotating dough 2 more times. With floured hands, pat out dough to a 1 1/4-inch thickness, and cut out as many rounds as possible with a floured 2 1/4-inch round biscuit cutter. Gather scraps, reroll once, and cut out more rounds (you should have a total of 12).
6. Place scones 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush tops with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

Recipe yields 6 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

50g of unsalted butter

85 g of black chocolate, coarsely chopped, divided

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 cups rmilk

1/2 plain yogurt

1/2 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit with paper muffin cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

2. Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the yogurt, milk, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients and the melted butter and chocolate over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Do not overmix the batter. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

...don't forget the frosting

VANILLA FROSTING

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2 - 2 1/2 cups (240-300g) powder sugar

1/8 cup (30ml) heavy cream

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

salt, to taste

Directions

1. With a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy - about 2 minutes. 

2. Add powder sugar, cream, and vanilla extract with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. 

3. IF the frosting is too THIN: add up to 1/4 cup more of powder sugar

4. IF the frosting is too THICK: add 1/2 tablespoon of heavy cream

Before we start decorating, we need to create a Pastry Bag or Piper Bag out of a regular plastic bag.  I'll show you how.