fried love

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I'm going to attempt to make sopapillas tonight (using a recipe from Emeril). While in New Mexico a few years ago, I fell in love with these fluffy pillows of fried dough. We ordered them at every restaurant from Albuquerque to the Colorado border.

I might as well include some photos from Flickr because if they're good, they'll be eaten before the camera comes out. If they're bad, well...is fried dough ever really bad?

from chowdownphoenix's photostream

from angelknight's photostream

mhaithaca's photostream

baking with OCD | cinnamon scones

I'm not a baker. Baking is not conducive to my impulsive-compulsive self so I much prefer to cook. I understand the science of cooking and enjoy the ability to alter the flavors of a meal right up until it's plated. But over the past few days I've been a baking fool.

There's a grocery store near our house that sells these incredibly amazing cinnamon scones. I'm not usually a lover of scones but these little triangles of cinnamon-y pleasure have done me in. They're moist, dense, and full of sweetness (almost like a soft cookie). I doubt my British grandmother would approve, but they are my idea of baked perfection.

Unfortunately I can no longer afford to feed my addiction. At $4 for a package of four (and two packages to feed our family for breakfast) I am determined to make them myself.

Since Monday I've been trying out recipe after recipe (which were both delicious) but still haven't quite hit it right. I've added ingredients and modified measurements but each attempt yields scones that are either too cake-like or dry. Today's recipe (a hodge-podge of ingredients) was definitely the best so far (and the only one my four-year-old baking companion/taste-tester approved of) but it wasn't quite right.

So far my recipe (mostly...I'm not good at writing things down) looks like this:

2 cups of flour
1T of baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 1/4 c of liquid-y dairy items (sour cream, milk, cream...don't mock me)
2t cinnamon
5T chilled butter
No eggs (they made them even more cake-like but I'm willing to reconsider)
I'll need to add cinnamon chips to the final product but haven't added them just yet.
And I bake at 425 for 12 minutes.

If you happen to have any recommendations to make these scones less like well...scones, please post (my cupboard and my family will thank you).