For this week’s mix offering, I chose King Arthur Flour’s Strawberries and Cream Scone Mix. There were a couple reasons I chose this mix, one was that I just wanted to try one of their scone mixes, and the other was that I was intrigued with their product called Jammy Bits that were in this mix, that you can also buy separately.

In this particular mix they have the Strawberry Jammy Bits added – and I thought that would be a great way to try them out without buying a whole package in case I didn’t like them! They are a blend of strawberry puree, apple juice, sugar, and pectin. You can add them to any of your baked goods, they even suggest using them in your granola. They have quite a few Jammy Bits flavors, including raspberry, blueberry, apricot, peach and orange. You can find them on their Fruits and Nuts shopping page.

So, on to making the mix! It was super simple, all I added was one egg and one cup of heavy cream. They do have an alternate “recipe” for using butter and milk instead of the heavy cream if you’re interested. I chose to just follow the original ingredient directions of using the heavy cream as both the wet ingredient and the fat. Also, instead of using as scoop to make round scones, I wanted traditional triangle-shaped scones. So, I divided the dough in half, and patted each half (with a little bit of help from some flour for dusting on my hands and on my parchment lined baking sheet) into a about a 3/4 inch thick circle, then cut into 8 triangles. I separated each little triangle from the other slightly and brushed both circles of triangles with heavy cream. On one of the circle of triangles I also sprinkled some King Arthur Sparkling Sugar for decoration, then baked them both (on the same sheet pan) at the prescribed temperature of 400° for about 16 minutes. When they come out of the oven, you let them rest for 5 minutes – then you are free to indulge!

I of course had to sample right away – they smelled so delicious while they were baking! And they did not disappoint whatsoever. They are just as delicious to eat – both my guys absolutely loved them. I knew they must be good when Harry asked for another after he’d eaten his first one! Thank you KAF for another wonderful mix! And if that’s not enough, they have a really cool article on things you can do with scone mixes (any flavor – and they have at least 20 different kinds of scone mixes to play with!). There are “recipes” for using the mix to make pancakes, muffins and even a coffee cake. I do plan on trying one their variations soon!!

Back at the beginning of the year, I made crumpets for one of our Friday posts.  I could not find all of my crumpet rings at that point, so I had to order new ones.  King Arthur had a “deal” where you got a box of English Muffins Mix with the rings; as one who always falls for a deal, I said what the heck and I ordered the mix with the rings.  This week, I decided that it was finally time to give that mix a try.

English Muffins are one of my favorite breads.  I enjoy them for breakfast with butter and jelly or as part of a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese.  In my mind however, English Muffins are not just a breakfast bread.  I also use them for my lunch sandwiches as well – PB&J, egg salad, cheese…you name it; they are all delicios on an English muffin!  That said, I have high expectations for my English muffins.

The King Arthur English Muffin Mix comes with a bag of dry ingredients and a packet of yeast.  You provide an egg, three tablespoons of melted butter,  1 3/4 cups of water, and optional semolina flour.  All of the ingredients, with the exception of the semolina flour, are combined and mixed for 6-8 minutes.  (I used the dough hook on my KitchenAid mixer.)  The final consistency is somewhere in between that of batter and tht of bread dough, sticky but not drippy.  The dough then rises for about 90 minutes.

After ninety minutes, the dough had doubled and was ready for cooking.

The English Muffins are cooked in rings in a skillet on the stovetop.  The burner temperature is set to medium low.  Grease your muffin rings.  I ran a bit of butter around the insides.  They are then placed on the heated skillet.  The skillet surface inside the rings is then dusted with semolina flour before being filled with 1/3 cup of dough.  The dough is sticky and does not spread when dropped on the skillet.  I used the back of a soup spoon coated with cooking spray to spread the dough evenly in the rings.  The muffins cook until they are set on the sides and are golden brown.  The rings are the removed (Simple kitchen tongs will do the trick here.) and the muffins turned to cook on the second side.  The cook time is approximately six minutes on each side.  The trick here is to set your temperature accurately so that the muffins cook all the way through, but aren’t overcooked on the outside.  I have a gas stove and I cooked mine on almost the lowest setting.  This worked.  I did not end up with gooey centers! 🙂  I know this because everyone in my family was waiting impatiently to “taste test” the final product as soon as they were removed from the skillet.  In an ideal world, the muffins should cool for a bit on a rack before serving.

The box says that the mix makes twelve muffins.  I got eleven.  I think I may have given a few of my muffins a little more than 1/3 of a cup of dough.

Making these English muffins is super easy and, with the exception of the time for rising, they really take very little time.  What a nice treat homemade English muffins are for breakfast on any day.  Threre’s no need to wait for a special occasion!