Mushroom Feta Scones

I decided to try and make something savory for a change....I had some cheese and some mushrooms, so I thought to make scones. I don't really know if these are considered scones necessarily, but in any case I will describe my actions forthwith.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour
Three eggs
Butter (Smart Balance Buttery Spread)
Milk (Soymilk)
Baking soda
Salt
Black pepper
Rosemary and Garlic (mixture/grinder)
Baby Portabella mushrooms (sliced)

Goat's Milk "Salad Cheese" (basically feta)

Here's what I did:

I added one cup of flour.

Added about 1/3 tsp salt. Mine was sea salt from a grinder.

Added 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Added in total about 1/8 cup of the rosemary garlic mixture. I did not grind it, and it simply consisted of dried rosemary and dried flakes of garlic.

Added 6 twists from the pepper grinder.

Added egg YOLKS. No whites. I made scones once where you only used the yolks so that's why I'm doing it here. But mostly I am pretty sure that egg whites dry things out.

(Three egg yolks.)

Added a half a stick of the buttery spread, chopped up.

I combined everything. It started to become kind of like crumbly play-doh.

I thought, well that's too dry. I added 1/4 cup of the soymilk.

Well okay that made it too wet. I added an additional 1/4 cup of flour.

I combined everything with my hands and it became a kind of dough. I took a cube of the cheese, about 1 1/2 inches, and put it in. This shows the size of the cube.

But I cut up the cheese and then mixed it all in.

Here are my mushrooms. I ended up taking about one decent sized mushroom's worth of slices, chopped them up into even smaller pieces, and combined them with the mixture. These are baby portabellas.

I greased a pan and rolled the dough into little balls. I put little x's on them, hot cross bun style, and sprinkled a little more cheese on the tops of them.

I put them in the oven at 325 degrees. After about 25 minutes...

The Verdict:

Hmm. I guess these are scones. They do taste good to me but I feel like they are lacking something. I think what I need to do with something like this is go big or go home. Next time add more butter even though it's not good for you. Add more cheese. Add more mushrooms. I am hesitant but this is just what needs to happen for next time. Needs less milk/more butter. A little less salt.

Other ideas include:
- What about cheddar?
- What about buttermilk?
- Is it possible to make buttery tasting, savory scones without becoming Paula Deen?

Next time I'll either go all out and make the most ridiculous buttery cheesy scones ever and not worry about health, or I'll attempt to experiment with slightly healthier ingredients, but with a more precise goal. So I'll post this recipe and ingredient amount I've used but I'd like to eventually change it.

Don't get me wrong, though. These were delicious.

What my recipe was this time:

1 1/4c Wheat flour
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8c Dried rosemary and garlic (mixed in even amounts)
Pepper to taste (6 twists from pepper grinder)
3 Egg yolks
1/2 stick of butter (or buttery spread)
1/4c soymilk
1 1/2 inch cube's worth of feta cheese, chopped or crumbled
One medium-large baby portabella mushroom, chopped
 
Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes.

Vegan Chocolate Banana Spice...BROWNIES?

As I was wondering what to bake today I thought...what about banana bread? I got home and thought oh well what about chocolate banana bread? And what if I added spices? Well we'll see what happens here.

I first thought of calling this "Chocolate Banana Spice Cake" but as you will see it turned out differently than I first thought!

The ingredients I chose:

 

Wheat flour

Sugar

Vegetable Oil

Vanilla extract

Cocoa powder

Baking powder

Baking soda

Banana

Cinnamon

Ginger

Clove

Nutmeg

 Oh hey, looks like this is going to be vegan, surprise.

Here's what I did:

Preheated oven to 325 degrees.

Sliced up one banana.

Added 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Mashed that up with a fork, then added some vanilla.

Ended up adding about 2/3 cup of sugar, mixed that.

Added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. Actually maybe a little bit more.

Then I added the spices. It's really up to you what kind and what amount of spices you add. I added cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. A few dashes of each, though I added at least 3 times as much cinnamon as any of the other ones.

Added about 2/3 cup of wheat flour.

Mixed everything and ALMOST FORGOT THE BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA.

 I added about 1/4 tsp baking powder, and about 1/8 tsp baking soda.

I put it all in an oiled baking pan and put it in the oven. It seemed done after about 20 minutes.

When I took it out, I added some powdered sugar on top.

The Verdict:

Well, it looks like I've made brownies. Yup. That's really what this is. Chocolatey, moist, gooey brownies, with a bit of a banana flavor. I can taste the spices a little bit, not too much, but I like that I added them. I like the ginger and may want to add more next time.

Oh man you guys this is really good.

For next time, I would try to eliminate the oil. Maybe use applesauce or something. Would it be as good? I hope so!

For the title of this blog entry I've gone with "Vegan Chocolate Banana Spice Brownies" but they are mainly "Vegan Brownies" with side notes of the other descriptors. I think if I wanted to go for something that is truly "chocolate banana spice" and not just brownies, I'd add slices of bananas, some dashes of cinnamon, and maybe some whipped cream, as a top layer! OH MY GOD...

Or what if I used canned pumpkin instead of banana...

Anyway, the final amounts:

One banana
1/4c vegetable oil
Some vanilla
2/3c sugar
1/4c-ish cocoa powder
A few dashes of ginger, clove, and nutmeg
10 or so dashes of cinnamon
2/3c wheat flour
1/4tsp baking powder
1/8tsp baking soda

Bake these at 325 for about 20 minutes. Makes one small pan of brownies. You may want to double the recipe.