baking up a storm

Scones are not easy. In fact they are down right difficult. Finery even. In fact, to get the recipe hammered out for these took four attempts. That's right I had to make scones not two or three times but four, to get something edible and as close to perfection as a gluten free scone can be.

To me eyes (or mouth as it were) the key to a scone is the texture. A flaky fall-apart sort of design that is easily peeled into halves to apply a liberal smear of butter (the only way to improve a fresh-out-of-the-oven scone is to add butter, therefor the texture must be right for the application of sad butter to go off without a hitch. No one wants to go to butter their scone only to find that it crumbles and falls apart at the slightest touch. That's not the way things go) that's the goal. Therefore, the multiple attempts were necessary to achieve said perfect consistency. I actually had to take a break after batch number two, as it was just too horrible for me to even convince myself to recover from. It took nearly a month for me to approach the subject of scones again. But approach I did. Snuck up on the darn things and knocked their socks off is what I did. The key is to go for the whole enchilada. No humble drop scones are these, no. They are the flaky-buttery scone one dreams of, formed in thick wedges and brushed with milk to make a lightly browned top in their short sojourn through the oven. And that seemed to be the key. Try and try and try again. Go big or go home and all that. More motivational sayings? I've got a whole armful here I can just keep chucking them your way if you like. Just say the word.

So the scones turned out awesome. Just when I was losing faith in them (perhaps cause I burned the third batch badly and it was just so sad I almost scraped the whole idea) but no-get up at eight on a Sunday morning and take one more shot at that unicorn of a recipe. That's how we roll in my casa. Another win for team max.

Oh yeah, while the oven was on, in our unseasonable and decidedly non autumnal 90 degree weather, I decided to continue baking. Clockwise from the left you have cornbread with bacon and Chile's, apple zest pie and an onion and asparagus quiche. The amount of dishes that were done on this most bake-tastic of days was so alarming it passed alarming and just became downright ridiculous.
And I'm tired just looking at these so here is some lovely beach for your viewing pleasure. Southern hemisphere beach. They have different stars there. Enjoy.