Friday, September 29, 2006

It's all coming together...

And now! A knitting blog with actual knitting content! What a concept. I finally figured out my two gift scarves. Here's the first one.


It's a free pattern called Lacy V Scarf and is a simple, 14-row repeat that I think looks nice in the Berroco Softwist. I'm using size 8 needles, but not adjusting the pattern, as I wanted a narrower scarf anyway. The drape is nice. The Softwist is...okay. It's splitty, but it is nice and soft. The edges are curling, but I'm hoping a stern blocking will fix this. Anyone have great tips for blocking acrylic blends?

Reading: The eighth Stephanie Plum.

Writing: Starting over with chapter 7. Urgh.

Cooking: I had three rather iffy bananas crying out to be used, and I decided to go with scones and biscotti instead of my usuals, banana bread or monkey bars. The biscotti recipe is from Cooking Light and is pretty good. It's lightly sweet, and very low-cal/low-fat for a cookie. But I'm not convinced banana belongs in biscotti. Maybe drizzled with chocolate, or the cinnamon glaze for the scones. Or maybe with candied ginger and macadamia nuts for a more "tropical" flavor. I might try the recipe again with drained applesauce instead of banana. I also made banana scones. I adapted a recipe from one of the food blogs I read, quadrupling the quantities, subbing cinnamon for ginger, and adding pecans. I also had to sub out some of the all purpose flour with my new favorite ingredient, white whole wheat flour, but you could use all all-purpose flour. I also whipped up a cinnamon glaze. My husband pronounced these "cafe quality" and I agree. They are yummy!

Banana-Pecan Scones with Cinnamon Glaze
adapted from Bakingsheet
Makes 16

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 TBL dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, diced (about 1 1/3 cups)
2/3 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 400. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Dice butter and work it into flour mixture with two knives or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Add milk and vanilla and stir until a soft dough forms. Add additional milk if needed. Stir in banana and pecans. Divide dough into fourths. Form each part into a disk about one inch thick. Cut into fourths and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake at 400 for 17-20 minutes, or until golden. Remove immediately to wire racks.

Cinnamon Glaze:
If you're thinking, "Wow, 2 tsp cinnamon is kind of a lot!" well, it is. But the intensely cinnamon glaze is perfect with the lightly sweetened scones.

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 TBL milk

Combine sugar and cinnamon. Add 1 TBL of milk and stir well. Add additional milk as needed for a good drizzling consistency. Drizzle over scones.

5 comments:

Marie said...

The scarf looks wonderful! So rich and plummy and very elegant. :)

Michelle in Colorado Springs said...

The yarn that you are using on the scarf, what weight is it?, sport or worst?

Anonymous said...

That's a lovely scarf, and I'm sure that blocking will do wonders for it in terms of flatness and opening up the pattern.

Rain said...

The scarf is lovely, the colour is so pretty and rich.

I tend to go by the care instuctions on the band, if it says you can press it I do that but always use a cloth and start on a very low heat.

Stefaneener said...

That's a very nice scarf. Nice balance between openness and, well, scarf.