I awoke to 30F this am! Yikes, scary! At first I was afraid to look, preferring not to see the end of my beloved morning glories, should they have been finished. But, here is a shot I took, barely at dawn – wow, snuck through that one! Not sure how that happened, but I’ll take it!
Yesterday was just a banner Autumn day, wasn’t it? I spent the day traipsing downtown and up, seeing Alice Waters, first at the Farmer’s Market signing books and then later at the New York Times building at a session they call Times Talks. I am always so happy to have the chance to see and listen to Alice!
What I love about her is her steadfast idealism around feeding people good food. This level of idealism could be off-putting and dismissed as too hard to execute. But, she does it! From changing the food service program at Yale when Fanny was there, to changing school lunches, to implementing her vision in Edible Schoolyard, and chatting up the President, she just goes for it! And she IS effective. Score another for the idealistic visionaries! Without them, would we move forward? She is always inspiring!
My fav story of the day: They always reserve time for questions at these events and as I sat there I formed my question to ask – Knowing Alice had grown up in Chatham, NJ, about 10 minutes from where I live now, I wondered if any of her inspiration had come from way back then – or was it all totally from her culinary metamorphosis in France, beginning at 19. Before the session was over, she answered the question for me – her parents had had a Victory Garden in their yard when she was growing up – and, at one point she anointed herself as Queen of the Garden! How prophetic! She mentioned something about a strawberry crown, but I didn’t quite get it clearly. (A mental image formed in my head of a little girl, sitting in the garden with a crown of strawberries. In this mental image, she would be embracing and celebrating all that had grown up around her and the efforts it had taken to make her family’s garden grow – this is what I imagined a young Alice would do)
so disappointed that I had to sit in the back row – having walked uptown, I actually got there 5 minutes late! The house was packed!
While at the Farmer’s Market in New York, I decided to have a hot cider and a cider donut – you know, it was the perfect day! I took one bite out of the donut and into the pail it went. It was a disappointment.
I guess that stuck in my mind, and once up and at ’em, I decided to try to do better. Yesterday’s always-optimistic-idealistic message from Alice has carried over to today.
PUMPKIN-CIDER SCONES WITH TOASTED PECANS –
3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for “adjusting”
1/4 cup sugar
1 tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
8 tblsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup apple cider
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar for the pecans plus 1/2 cup for sprinkling
1 cup toasted pecans,
chopped egg wash
Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Toast the pecans in a dry pan for 8 minutes or just until slightly fragrant. Remove from oven, cool and chop. Add into the food processor with 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar. Pulse until the pecans are slightly worked into the cinnamon sugar but not pasty. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor, whir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pepper. Add the butter and pulse, 8-9 times, or until the butter resembles the size of small peas. Dump the dry ingredients into a low, wide bowl. Make a well in the center.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, cider, yogurt and buttermilk. Pour about 1/3 of this mixture into the center of the dry ingredients. Working with a dough scraper, begin to work the dry ingredients into the wet. Add more of the wet until the dough begins to hold together. Flour your hands and knead slightly until you have a cohesive mass.
Move the dough to a lightly floured board and roll out into a rectangle, about 10″ x 7″. Sprinkle the dough with 1/3-1/2 cup cinnamon sugar. Working with a dough scraper, roll the dough into a log. Cut into 9 scones, and place on prepared pan. Brush with egg wash. Sprinkle the pecan/cinnamon sugar mixture over all.
Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned, puffed and fragrant. Enjoy!
I think that pumpkin has definitely surpassed apples as the number 1 go-to ingredient in cooking and baking this season. I have sent multitudes of recipes to my brother-in-law who loves pumpkin. The great thing about it is how easily it translates to vegan recipes from soup to entrées to desserts. Try some!