Whole Wheat Bacon-Fig Scones

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Baconfest.

The Journey:

Okay, so I haven’t actually made this, which is a first for First Friday Food. So I can’t speak for how difficult it is to make, but I can speak for how awesome it is to eat!

The Verdict:

In a day of a lot of really good recipes, this one stood out to me as the best. The bacon really added something; it was neither extraneous nor overpowering. It is sweet, but not too sweet, and it goes perfect for breakfast. There wasn’t anybody who didn’t like this (even Evie!), in fact, I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t take seconds (or thirds, or in some cases fourths).

The Recipe:

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

Scones

  • 1 cup Whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup dried figs (rehydrated)
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup (10 slices) cooked bacon (apple wood smoked)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

Glaze

  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

Scones:

  1. Cook bacon until crispy. Chop into small pieces.
  2. Prepare figs by chopping them into small pieces (roughly the same size as your bacon pieces). Place the pieces into the bottom of a medium bowl . Cover the fig pieces in boiling water and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Strain fig pieces.
  3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.
  6. Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
  7. Toss in the figs and bacon and mix.
  8. Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula. Using your hands, gently knead dough into and even mass at the bottom of the bowl.
  9. Transfer the dough to a slightly floured counter. Lightly flour the top of the dough and pat it into a circle (about 7 in. in diameter) about 1 inch thick. With a large knife, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet with a spatula.
  10. Bake the scones for 15 mins, until lightly golden at the edges. Cool in a pan for a minute then transfer to a wire rack. Allow them to cool about 5 minutes before glazing.

Maple glaze:

  1. Combine the maple syrup and brown sugar. Lightly brushed over the baked scones.

Scones are best the day they are baked. However, if you wish to get a lead on  them, you can make them, arrange them on the parchment-lined sheet and freeze them. If you are prepping just one day in advance, cover the tray with plastic wrap and bake them the day you need them. If you are prepping them more than one day in advance, once the scones are frozen, transfer the scones to a freezer bag or container. Bring them back to a parchment lined sheet when you are ready to bake them. Do not defrost, just throw the frozen scones in the oven and add 2-3 mins to the baking time.

Baconfest 2012, Taste Test

/ Shane / 1 Comment

We had 4 new competitors throw their hats into the ring this year:

  1. Willow Lake Farms (Custom Quality Meats)
  2. Pecatonica Valley (Madison Farmer’s Market)
  3. Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked (any old grocery store)
  4. Jim’s Double Smoked (Jim’s Market, Madison)

The focus was really on local (well, local to Madison anyway!) bacons, or at least ones you can’t just walk into the supermarket and buy. Indie bacons, if you will. Of particular note was the Willow Lake Farms’ bacon, because this is Amanda’s family’s personal bacon. For realz. They not only own the butcher shop (Custom Quality Meats), they actually raise the animals that eventually become their product. It doesn’t get any more “local” than that!

The sharp eyed among you will note that the exception, of course, being the Oscar Mayer pre-cooked “control” bacon. This was supposed to be a surprise, which necessitated that this year’s test be a blind taste test, but I saw the box in the cooler the night before. So only my brother actually knew which one was the Oscar Mayer. I knew that it was in there, but I actually forgot about it until I had recorded all of my observations. Suddenly I broke out in a cold sweat. What if I actually ranked it as the best? Oh, the disgrace!

Without further ado, here are the rankings:

Nathan:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
Willow Lake Farms  7 Very lean, mild flavor
Pecatonica Valley  8 Salty, stronger flavor, just enough fat
Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked  4 Super thin – not a meaty taste, salty
Jim’s Double Smoked  7 1/2 Thickest cut of the day, well seasoned, good amount of fat

Amanda:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
Willow Lake Farms  8 Very mild flavor, perfect breakfast bacon – not smokey & not too sweet
Pecatonica Valley  6 pretty sweet, a little salty
Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked  5 looks thin, not much flavor, slightly smokey at the end
Jim’s Double Smoked  5 very meaty flavor – almost too much like ham, not smokey enough

Sara:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
Willow Lake Farms  7 plain, not too flavorful, versatile, not too salty 🙂
Pecatonica Valley  7 1/2 similar to blue circle with a slightly smoky taste
Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked  5 a little stale and chewy, but still bacon
Jim’s Double Smoked  6 thick, a little chewy, saltier than others, thick strip of fat is kind of unappetizing

Shane:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
Willow Lake Farms  6 salty, little fatty, thicker, almost tough
Pecatonica Valley  7 perfect texture, salty, almost oilier somehow, but not fatty, similar taste to blue, but better texture
Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked  5 almost brittle, not as salty, average
Jim’s Double Smoked  5 chewy, more piggy

Overall Results:

Brand Average Rating
Willow Lake Farms 7
Pecatonica Valley 7.125
Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked 4.75
Jim’s Double Smoked 5.875

Overall, I felt like all the bacon was relatively similar, and therefore hard to rank. Two interesting things from the results:

  1. Oscar Mayer lost by a decent margin. Thank god, all is right with the world! I really forgot to pay attention to that during the test, and I really was worried I would accidentally like it. However, without knowing which bacon was which, everybody ranked it the lowest.
  2. Amanda’s family’s bacon did not win. However, it did miss out by only .125 measly points! That is one small margin of victory. Amanda didn’t seem upset about this, but I think she was relieved that she at least ranked it the highest. She attributed it to the fact that she always had this bacon growing up, so when she tasted it she immediately thought, “That’s what bacon is supposed to taste like!”
I should also point out that we had a second kind of bacon from Willow Lake Farms for breakfast (a round “sandwich bacon”) that was most excellent, but not part of the taste test.
Just like last year, we let Evie fill out a ballet, even though we didn’t count it in the rankings. Evie opted for a graphical depiction of her emotions, rather than a 1 – 10 ranking. And just like last year, Evie was again dead on: her favorite was the grand champion (Pecatonica Valley), and her least favorite was the grand loser (Oscar Meyer Pre-cooked). You’ll notice that all of the bacons received a smiley face except that one, which received a frowny face with tears:

I can assure you, I’ve never been prouder as a dad. She obviously has a finely tuned pallet. Maybe she has a future as some kind of sommelier for bacon?

Baconfest 2012

/ Shane / 7 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of the year again. I present the 2nd Annual Halbach Baconfest:

This year’s Baconfest was conceptually very similar to last year’s. Bacon themed menu all day, bacon taste test, and, of course, there were shirts.

Nathan and Amanda hosted this year, so even though it was at our house, they did all the food preparation. I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome it is to have someone else do all the food preparation. Also, they did as much as they could ahead of time, which really saved us from having to cook non-stop all day, like we did last year. Good thing too, since we had a ballet recital to attend in the morning, and the afternoon was just too beautiful weather-wise to spend it indoors.

 

I thought the food overall was much better than last year (and not only because I didn’t have to make it). Last year everything was perfectly good, but a lot of stuff was sort of unremarkable. This year, there were a few things that weren’t particularly bacon-y, but they were still unique or interesting. Additionally, there were several things that really stood out this year, which was much improved over last year.

Halbach BaconFest 2012 Menu

Breakfast

Bacon-Fig Scones

and

Sandwich-Bacon with Scrambled Eggs

Lunch

Bacon-Stuffed Crust Pizza, Two Ways
Barbecue-chicken bacon and Bacon with sautéed Onion

Bacon Taste Testing

Four distinct bacons for the discriminating bacon consumer

Dinner

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

and

Bacon-Stuffed Dough, Three Ways
Bacon-potato gnocchi pan seared in a bacon-butter sage sauce
Bacon wontons seared and steamed served with ginger-garlic dipping sauce
Bacon-pea pesto stuffed shells baked with bacon marinara sauce

Dessert

Sweet Bacon Cheesecake with Candied Bacon Topping

I want to specifically comment on the bacon cheesecake. My gut reaction was, “Say whaaa?” The combination of bacon and cheesecake did not sound appealing at all. And yet, it was so good! But strange. I don’t think I could really explain it to you without trying it. You absolutely can taste the bacon; it’s not one of those things where there’s some token bacon just to make it a “bacon” recipe. But the bacon combines with the sweetness to make something that’s delicious and totally unique. Without question the best bacon dessert recipe I have ever had (granted, that’s a low bar, because almost every bacon dessert I have ever had has been disgusting).

The Kevin Bacon movie this year was going to be Apollo 13, but by the end of the day we opted for board games instead. Sorry, Mr. Bacon, you were there in spirit. (Side note, are there any bacon related board games? Because if not, I think we have a money maker on our hands.)

I’m already looking forward to next year; I’ve already begun work on the logo.

Best. Tradition. Ever.

Quote Monday needs to teach these children some manners

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “Who wants to play I’m the princess and you’re all my servants?”

Ollie, in regards to passing gas: “No say ‘excuse me’, say, ‘TOOOOOOOOT’!”

Evie, to me: “I wish I was mama so I could marry you.” – You have to appreciate these when they come by, otherwise they get lost in all the not-so-nice comments!

Sara: “I’m not sure if turkeys are smart anymore…I think it was bred out of them in favor of large breasts.”
Me: “There’s so many comments I could make right now…”