#COOKING WITH CLORIS--EASY SCONE RECIPE FROM ROMANCE AUTHOR JUDYTHE MORGAN

Award-winning author Judythe Morgan has seen a lot of the world as first an Air Force daughter, then an Army wife and a one time-Department of Army Civilian employee.

She’s been an antiques dealer, teacher, former mayor's wife, and sometimes-church pianist, who recently added Sacred Harp singing to her resume. Learn more about Judythe and her books at her website and the weekly blog she writes with her urban farmer daughter. 

 Tea and Scones

Annie Foster frequently enjoys a cup of Irish afternoon tea and one of her soon-to-be mother-in-law’s blueberry scones in my Irish love story, Claiming Annie’s Heart. She is in Ireland, so it’s not surprising.

Plus, scones are one of my favorite treats. Whether with breakfast on Lake Louise, the Europa breakfast buffet in Belfast, Northern Ireland, or sitting at my kitchen table in Texas with my cup of Irish breakfast tea (or afternoon tea, depending on the time of day), I savor a not-too-sweet, not-too-dry scone.

Researching Claiming Annie’s Heart in Ireland, I sampled many a scone. Some I had to load with clotted cream because they stuck like peanut butter to the roof of mouth. Others were so perfect they melted in my mouth.

Once back home, I began a quest to find a good scone recipe. I tried dozens searching for the perfect blend of sweet and moist and biscuit consistency before I came up with the recipe below. It started with a recipe on the Bisquik baking mix box.

You’ll notice many options on the ingredients. That’s because, when I make the scones, I use whatever I have on hand. I also discovered if you grate the cold butter, it blends easier, a tip I now apply anytime a recipe calls for cutting in butter.

Another option I like is to use a biscuit cutter instead of shaping into traditional scone triangles. Most Irish serve theirs as biscuits.

Don’t think the recipe is too complicated to try. It’s not.

If you’ve ever made biscuits with Bisquik or from scratch, these scones will be easy-peasy. I promise it goes together quickly, freezes well, and the scones are delicious.

Once you’ve tasted one, you’ll understand why Annie grabs the pastry whenever she can. I know whenever I take a batch some place, they disappear fast.

Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups Bisquik or other brand of baking mix

10 teaspoons sugar, divided 7 – 3

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/3 cup cold butter

1 cup dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries, cherries, raisins, dates, figs, or currants)

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup half-and-half, buttermilk, sour cream, or yogurt

1 large egg, room temperature

1 tablespoon whole milk, almond milk, or soy milk

Glaze (optional):

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon orange juice

Orange Butter:

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 to 3 tablespoons orange marmalade

Preheat the oven to 400°

In a large bowl, combine the biscuit mix, 7 teaspoons sugar, and orange zest. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the dried fruit, orange juice, cream/buttermilk, and egg. Add to flour mixture and stir until soft dough forms.

On a floured surface, gently knead 6-8 times, then pat into a 3/4-inch thick 8-inch square. Cut into 4 squares, then cut each square into 2 triangles. If you prefer, form a circle and use a biscuit cutter.

Separate triangles or rounds and place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with milk; sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees F until lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let cool a bit before glazing.

Combine glaze ingredients, if desired; drizzle over scones. Combine orange butter ingredients; serve with warm scones.

Claiming Annie’s Heart

Annie Foster stays in Ireland after boarding school to nanny a widower’s infant daughter. Five years later, the widower proposes.

Her first love Chad Jones, whom she believes abandoned her, arrives weeks before the wedding on an undercover assignment probing her fiancé’s connection with IRA terrorists. Chad’s determined to change Annie’s mind and her heart because he’s never stopped loving her.

Which man will win Annie’s heart?

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR BRIDGES DELPONTE

Biscoitos

Bridges DelPonte has published three non-fiction books and numerous articles in the legal, travel and business fields as well as two novels and short stories in the science fiction, fantasy and mystery genres. When she is not writing, she teaches law courses, creates educational game apps, and lives happily in sunny Central Florida. Learn more about Bridges and her writing at her website. 

The Sweet Aroma of Memories

Aromas or scents hold undeniable powers to trigger deep emotions and to stir up long-held memories. We can all recall times when a momentary whiff of a scent instantly transported us back to specific places and times in our lives. The sweet fragrance of a fresh gardenia in spring. The earthy smell of a campfire. The salty tang of an ocean breeze. The sense of smell often trumps our other senses in its ability to tap into our long-term memories and emotional responses because it is so closely connected to those pathways in our brains. Hence, in our writing, scents or smells play a vital role in setting a scene or establishing a mood.

For me, the aroma of baking bread often spins me back to childhood visits to my grandparents in East Cambridge, a closely-knit Portuguese neighborhood across the river from Boston. My paternal grandmother Angelina and her sister Maria would sometimes roll out snakes of dough onto a vinyl red-and-white checkered tablecloth in their kitchen. They would twist each doughy coil into smooth round circles, like small ring tosses, and press them together at the ends. As they baked, an egg wash gave a glossy sheen to these crunchy biscoitos or cookies.

At other times, they would show us how to form fat dough balls for airy malasadas. These dough balls were lightly fried in oil for a crunchy outer shell and a soft, fluffy center, then tossed in powdered sugar. To this day, I cannot resist funnel cakes when I catch a hint of their aroma at a fair or carnival because they remind me so much of malasadas.

My favorite Portuguese baked good is massa or sweet bread with its delicious skin-like crust and yellow soft bread center. Toasted or untoasted, I love it with a dollop of butter or peanut butter. Most home cooks leave it up to the professionals with their red-hot commercial ovens to bake massa. Any trip to East Cambridge ended with a visit to the bakery to stock up on massa. We used to send massa to my sister when she moved to Chicago and could not find it there. Later massa made its way to me when I moved to Florida. When I opened a package, the aroma of sweet bread brought back a rush of family memories.

When putting together my new Marguerite “Monty” Montez mystery series, I knew that a family-run Portuguese bakery would be an important feature of her story. The family bakery becomes the setting for personal and generational conflicts between Monty and her widowed mother who operates the business. Mrs. Montez is unhappy that Monty chose the law over the bakery in a clash between “old country” and modern values. Despite her secret pride in her daughter’s accomplishments, she wants Monty to give up crime-fighting and settle down with Manny, the bakery’s delivery man from the neighborhood.

The bakery also provides a nice opportunity for readers to learn about some delicious Portuguese goodies from a heroine with a “curvaceous body, shaped by a lifetime of bakery treats.” Monty wisely brings along a box of fresh baked goods to pry open lots of doors around the courthouse and police station, and even persuades some witnesses to tell their story while munching on baked goods. So the aromas of Portuguese baked goods are intertwined throughout Monty’s story in Deadly Sacrifices.  

Be sure to try out the biscoitos recipe below that my sister Christine translated into English from a hand-written family recipe. These buttery cookies are great when dunked into your favorite cup of coffee or tea while curling up to read my new mystery, Deadly Sacrifices.

Biscoitos

(Pronounced - BIZ – KOYTS)

Portuguese Cookies/Biscuits

2-1/2 cups flour

7 or 8 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup corn oil

1 stick butter

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar (set aside a tablespoon of sugar), and baking powder and mix well.

Add three eggs and mix until thoroughly combined (set aside a few tablespoons of the egg mixture).

Add the butter slowly and blend until the mixture forms into a smooth dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets.

Working with 2 tablespoon portions of dough at a time, roll the dough with your hands against the counter to form snake-like lengths about 5 inches long and ¾ inch thick.

Bring the edges together and press to seal so that you have a small donut (or ring toss) shape.

Place the dough circles on to the prepared cookie sheets spaced about 1 inch apart.

Mix remaining egg with remaining tablespoon of sugar to form a glaze. Brush the top of each cookie with some of the glaze.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until the cookies are light golden brown on top.

Cool completely then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Serve with tea or coffee.

Deadly Sacrifices, A Marguerite Montez Mystery

You always remember your first time. Monty's first happened in St. Stephen’s church, directly beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary, right after morning mass. A local soccer mom is bludgeoned to death in her suburban parish chapel outside of Boston. In her first homicide case, prosecutor Marguerite “Monty” Montez endangers her life digging up evidence that shows the police nabbed the wrong man. Monty’s investigation uncovers disturbing memories and fresh leads in an unsolved murder of a childhood friend in her close-knit Portuguese community. Her dauntless search for the true killer is a wild thrill ride into a dangerous world of lethal secrets.

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