Autumn Tease

Autum is my favorite season and one of the things I miss most about living back East.  Leaves changing, that first true chill in the air, a chunky sweater, and the beginning of the baking season that runs through the holidays. In Los Angeles, Fall seems to kick off more times than not by waves of 90 degree plus days.  Not the best way to kick off the season.  We had a reprieve from the heatwave, so I took advantage of the cooler temps and turned on the oven to bake these scones.  Apples scream Autumn and the scones did not disappoint, especially warm out of the oven with butter.

Apple Cinnamon Scones

Adapted from the 'Simple Scones Recipe' from King Arthur Flour
Makes 10-12

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) cold butter
2 cups minced apples (I used Honeycrisps)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/ 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream, for brushing scones, optional

cinnamon sugar, optional

Preheat oven 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.  After mincing apples, put in a small bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice.  Add cinnamon and stir to coat apple bits thoroughly.  

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut in  butter until the mixture is crumbly. Mix in apples. Whisk eggs, extract, and milk together in large measuring cup or small bowl.  Gradually add the liquid mixture to the dry, mixing thoroughly until there's enough liquid to incorporate all the dry ingredients. 

Using your hands or a tablespoon, drop mixture onto cookie sheet.  Dust hands with extra flour to keep mixture from sticking to hands.  I made mine about 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide, about an inch and a half high.  Place about an inch and a half apart on baking sheet.  

Brush tops of scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Serve with butter while still warm.

Did You Feel It?

There was a shift in the seasons recently.  That time of year when all things Summer--beach days, shorts, and backyard barbecues--is quietly packed up and set aside for the next 365 days.  You may have spied it in store aisles--heralded by the dominant color scheme of oranges, yellows, and deep umbers.  Yes...you know what I'm talking about...Pumpkin Spice Season.

Oh...you thought I was going to talk about Autumn?  Or even Back to School?  Nah...they seem to have fallen to the wayside over the past couple of years.  The shift of seasons is measured by the launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.  And much like the push for Christmas seems to be earlier every year, Pumpkin Spice season seemed to arrive earlier too.  Didn't it happen before Labor Day?  In the still sweltering days of August?

Pumpkin Spice lattes, pumpkin spice cream oreos, pumpkin spice flavored coffee, pumpkin spice cream filled Twinkies, even pumpkin spice sparkling juice.  If you have a Trader Joe's in the neighborhood and receive their Fearless Flyer ad, you may have noticed in the latest edition that the first page featured pumpkin tortilla chips, and deeper within the issue there were SIX additional pages of pumpkin-this or pumpkin spice-that flavored foods.

It's pumpkin overload.  Now...don't get me wrong.  I'm not anti-pumpkin.  I will occasionally enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie.  I think pumpkin biscotti are pretty darn fabulous, and pumpkin gnocchi with butter and sage has a place in my recipe collection.  But the pumpkin spice everything--when is too much, too much?

Before we attempt to answer that question, let me sneak in a recipe for pumpkin scones.  Yes, there is spice in it.  To take it up another notch...there's even chocolate.  Enjoy the pumpkin for a few more weeks, because before you know it, Gingerbread and Peppermint seasons will soon be here.


Dark Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Scones
Makes 14-16 3 inch scones

2 1/2 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp butter, chilled, in small cubes
1/3 cup milk or cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup 100% pure pumpkin
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate, preferably 64% cocoa

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together and set aside.  In a small bowl, beat the milk and eggs.  Add the cubed butter to the dry ingredients, mix in with either two forks or a pastry cutter until you have a pebbly texture.  Mix in the eggs and milk.   Add pumpkin and chocolate pieces, mixing until well combined.  Scoop heaping teaspoons full onto cookie sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until bottoms are golden.  Transfer to a cooling rack.  

The glaze on the scones below is a quick melt of roughly a tablespoon of butter and 4-6 small squares of chocolate (an inch by half inch or so).  Melt butter over low heat, add chocolate, turn off heat, and stir until chocolate pieces melt.  Drizzle over scones.  The chocolate glaze will harden slightly.  These are also pretty awesome without the glaze.

Holding onto Summer

You know as well as I do that when Labor Day hits on the first Monday in September, there's a shift in the season.  Despite the fact that the first day of Autumn isn't until September 22, you invariably start packing up the vestiges of Summer.  If you have kids, they go back to school and you begin to pack up the fun.    The days feel less carefree and dusk begins to arrive a few minutes earlier every evening.

But look outside...the weather isn't giving up it's heat, humidity, or beating sun just yet. September can be notoriously hot.  So, while part of you may be thinking about apple pies, hot chocolate on a chilly fall evening, or a whiskey to warm you up on a rainy Saturday afternoon, there's another part of you that doesn't want to let go of the bright, cool tastes of Summer.

The past three weeks of 90+ degree weather here in Los Angeles has made me want to put as little effort as possible into cooking.  I've baked way less than I have in months, and I am happily still in an eating rut of sandwiches where the closest thing to cooked is toasted bread and salads multiple times a day is okay by me.  The fruit bowl on the dining table has been overflowing this Summer:  plums, peaches, nectarines, berries, and melons have abounded.  I've been perfectly content standing over the kitchen sink, biting into a ripe peach, trying to keep the juices away from my shirt.  I'll think about making something more substantial, and find myself grabbing a plum and calling it a meal.

I was able to pick up cantaloupe a few days ago for practically pennies.  I think they were three for a dollar.  Since I can't resist an excellent price, I bought them.  I can easily eat half a melon sprinkled with a little sea salt and be a happy camper, but with three melons in the fridge, I knew I'd have to do something else with them.  After making July's cucumber soup, sometime over the past month I came across a recipe on Pinterest for a chilled cantaloupe soup.

Obviously, it took a few days to get the motivation up to make it.  I cut up the cantaloupe a couple of days ago with every intention of making it within hours...but as I mentioned before...this heat.  It makes me lazy.  It makes me wish I could just lounge by the pool drinking sangria.  (I don't have a pool, but I did have sangria.)

Well...I finally made it.  It was worth the wait.

Cantaloupe Soup
(Adapted from a recipe on Food52.com)
Makes 4-5 cups

2 medium cantaloupe melons, cut up (about 6 cups)
1/4 cup almond milk
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one orange
Juice of one lime
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh basil, sliced
2 tablespoon jalapeno 
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

In a blender, add half the cantaloupe and all ingredients except the sour cream and feta.  Blend until pureed and continually add the remaining cantaloupe.  Blend until  no chunks remain.  In a small bowl, mix feta and sour cream  until the consistency of cake frosting. 

Pour soup into bowls and top with a dollop of the feta cream.  You can also serve it as an appetizer in shot glasses (or any small glass).  

One Year to the Day...

...I started this blog.  That's right...it's the one-year anniversary of Kat Cooks Bakes Eats!  When I started writing, I figured if I was lucky, I'd have some friends and family read a post or two and indulge me.  I look at that traffic widget and I still cannot believe the locations that check in here.  I am floored, flabbergasted, grateful, and humble that so many people find their way and actually read this.  The internet is a BIG place and I have a very, VERY small space in it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, if I didn't talk about food, I'd be doing you a disservice.  Last week, three of my best friends (affectionately known as The Girls) and I met for lunch at Breadbar in Century City.  It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it.  I had the Cauliflower Soup and finished every last spoonful.  It was amazing.  Served with homemade croutons and drizzled with a curry infused oil.  Like I said...AMAZING.  I came home, determined to make it myself.  I don't think I was home half an hour before I poured olive oil in a jar and added a liberal amount of curry powder to the oil.  Over the past week, I'd shake the jar, turning it over and over to mix the spice and oil together.  I bought a head of cauliflower over the weekend, already had cream in the fridge, made croutons late last week and had vegetable stock in the freezer.  All the ingredients at the ready.  Last night was the night.  The air was turning cooler and the clouds started rolling in (Yes!...we're going to get a bigger taste of Autumn here...rain and cold weather for longer than a day).

I changed the soup up a bit, turning it into roasted cauliflower and carrot soup.  It was absolutely delicious.  I still topped it with the curry oil and homemade croutons.  Just right for a cool evening and definitely would have been better with a grilled cheese sandwich accompanying it, but I was feeling a tad lazy and didn't want to wait to have my soup.

Roasted Cauliflower and Carrot Soup
(by me)


1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
3 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste


Optional:  curry oil, croutons


Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss cauliflower, carrots, and garlic with olive oil in oven-proof dish.  Sprinkle Parmesan and a bit of salt and pepper before popping it into the oven.Roast vegetables until soft (not too soft, not too hard, but just right), about 40 minutes.   In saucepan, heat stock and add vegetables.  Bring to high simmer for 5-7 minutes.  Remove pan from heat, and with immersion blender or regular blender, puree vegetables and stock.  Add cream and mix to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.


You don't need to drizzle it with curry oil or top with the croutons, but I highly recommend it.  I love how the curry flavour mixes with the cauliflower.