Sweet Cinnamon Scones

from tastykitchen.com

Prep Time 20 Minutes Cook Time 25 Minutes

Servings 8

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• ⅓ cups Sugar
• 5 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 sticks (1 Cup) Unsalted Butter
• ¾ cups Heavy Cream
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Cinnamon Chips
• Topping
• ½ cups Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1-½ teaspoon Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and baking powder. Cut butter into pieces, then cut into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cinnamon chips.
3. Mix together cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour into flour/butter mixture, stirring gently with a fork to combine.
4. Turn onto work surface (mixture will be very crumbly and falling apart.) Gently press together on the sides as you flatten (or roll, with a rolling pin) the top. Form either into a large circle or a large rectangle. Mix together topping ingredients, stirring with a fork. Sprinkle over the top of the dough, lightly pressing.
5. Cut into wedges (from a circle) or triangles (from a rectangle.) Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Serve with coffee.

Baklava

from tastykitchen.com

Prep Time 20 Minutes Cook Time 45 Minutes

Servings 16

Difficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

• 1 package Phyllo Dough
• 4 cups Chopped Walnuts Or Pecans
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1-½ stick Butter, Melted
• 2 cups Honey
• ½ cups Water
• ½ cups Sugar
• 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Preparation Instructions

1. Remove phyllo dough package from freezer and place in the fridge for 24 hours to thaw. Remove from fridge 1 hour before using.
2. When working with the phyllo dough, only remove the sheets you immediately need, keeping the other sheets covered in plastic wrap, then a damp cloth.
3. Toss together the chopped walnuts and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly butter a rectangular baking pan. Make sure the sheets of phyllo will generally fit the pan (if they’re a little bigger, that’s okay.) If they’re much bigger, just trim them with a sharp knife.
5. Butter the top sheet of phyllo with melted butter, then grab it and the unbuttered sheet below it. Set the two sheets in the pan, buttered sheet face down. Press lightly into the pan. Repeat this twice more, so that you have six sheets of phyllo in the pan, three of the sheets buttered.
6. Sprinkle on enough walnuts to make a single layer. Butter two sheets of phyllo and place them on top of the walnuts. Add more walnuts, then two more buttered phyllo sheets. Repeat this a couple more times, or until you’re out of walnuts. Top with 4 more buttered phyllo sheets, ending with a buttered top. Cut a diagonal diamond pattern in the baklava using a very sharp knife.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the baklava is very golden brown.
8. While the baklava is baking, combine 1 stick of the butter, honey, water, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.
9. When you remove the baklava from the oven, drizzle half the saucepan evenly all over the top. Allow it to sit and absorb for a minute, then drizzle on a little more until you think it’s thoroughly moistened. You’ll likely have some of the honey mixture leftover, which you can drink with a straw. Just kidding.
10. Allow the baklava to cool, uncovered, for several hours. Once cool and sticky and divine, carefully remove them from the pan and serve with coffee (or give as gifts!)