Maple Pecan Scones with a Whiskey Glaze

I make these scones solely as an excuse to shamelessly consume whiskey at breakfast.

Well, that’s only halfway true. I make these scones because my favorite part of camping is shamelessly adding whiskey to my coffee. They smell like a lack of a to-do list.

Overscheduling tendencies aside, these little guys are flaky, tender, and ridiculously easy to make. If you’ve never made scones before, this method of whisking melted butter into ice cold heavy cream takes the anxiety out of baking them. Which is definitely rad, but I’m sticking to the whiskey excuse. Happy baking!

---

Maple Pecan Scones with a Whiskey Glaze
Lunera Bakery | April 26, 2020

<left; data-preserve-html-node="true" font-size:2em=""> Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 20 min Total Time: 35 min Servings: 8

</left;>

Ingredients:

For the Bourbon Glaze:

1 Tbsp(14g) Whiskey

1/2 cup (57g) Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Maple Syrup

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste

2 Tbsp (28g) Melted Butter

For the Scones:

2 & 1/4 cups (270g) All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting

1/4 cup (35gr) Milk Powder

3/4 cups (170g) Heavy Cream, plus more for brushing

1/2 cup (113g) Butter

3/4 cup (85g) Pecans, chopped

1/4 cup (78g) Maple Syrup

2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar

1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Baking Powder
Tools Needed:

Baking Sheet

Instructions:

1. Place a rack into the center of the oven and preheat to 400℉. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, or a silpat.
2. Measure out your pecans, and put them onto that sheet pan (you're gonna use the exact same one for the whole recipe). Place them in the oven as it heats up for 5-7 minutes. They're ready once they get slightly darker, and start to smell gloriously nutty (turns out it's a really apt description). If you're afraid of burning them, you can also do this in a pan.
3. Combine the heavy cream, and maple syrup in a freezer-safe container. Whisk with a fork until combined. Place the mixture in the freezer while you get the rest of the ingredients ready. You want it to be in the freezer for at least 10 minutes, but no more than 15 minutes.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Or in a pan. I'm not your mom, just get it done without burning it or making a friggen mess. Set it to the side so it can cool to room temperature.
5. Whisk flour, baking powder, milk powder, sugar, dark brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
6. Add the pecans to the dry mixture, and stir until combined.
   
7. Pull the heavy cream and maple syrup mixture out the freezer, and slowly pour the cooled, melted butter into it whilst whisking with a fork. It's going to form a craggy mixture with some big chunks of butter, and some smaller glubules. Honestly, it's going to look like you've ruined it. You haven't. Those small globules are important to the final texture of scones. They heat up in the oven and create the beautiful flakiness you want in scones.
8. Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated, and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Don’t over mix! Do you want scones, or medieval pelting stones? If you mix until smooth, you'll get pelting stones. Roll with the questionable mixture, just like you did with term papers in college. It worked then, it'll work now.
9. Generously flour a work surface. Dump dough onto prepared work surface, and flip over to coat all surfaces with flour. Knead on counter for roughly 30 seconds. Flip over on work surface to coat with flour then pat into an 8-inch (20cm) circle.
   
10. Cut dough in 8 equal pie-shaped pieces. Transfer and arrange wedges onto the prepared sheet pan. Brush tops with heavy cream.
11. Place scones in freezer for 10 minutes. This helps chill down the fat solids so that the crumb with have the best chance of being tender and moist.
12. Pull the scones out of the freezer, and put them directly into the oven. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and check them every minute after that until they're a uniform golden brown color. Do NOT open the oven door to check, you will lose all the lift from the butter. If you can't see through the glass, we've got other issues to discuss. They're done when they pass a clean toothpick test, or once they hit 190℉. The level of perfectionism is up to you.
13. While the scones are baking, make the glaze.
    
14. Combine whiskey, powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter in a heatproof bowl, or glass measuring cup. Microwave on high in 20-second intervals, stirring, until fully combined. No. I'm not kidding. I've tried this on the stove, it doesn't work nearly as well. Nuke it.
    
15. Drizzle glaze over scones. Let scones sit for 15 minutes to let glaze set before serving.
16. Enjoy with your favorite hot beverage.

Soft Sourdough Rolls

Hey y’all.

As I’m writing this, there’s some crazy scary stuff going on in the world, but baking is a bit of a sacred space. Equal parts meditation, and practical way to care for our families and friends. I hope you’re staying safe, staying home, and working with this dough stills your mind for a little while.

I’ve made this ring of dinner rolls 4 times this week. My family loves that they’ve got a slight tang, are pillowy soft, and can support an entire breakfast sandwich. I personally love that once you get the basic method down, it’s endlessly riffable. It’s what I like to call a Mother Dough- a sort of hardy dough that you can make a triple batch of, and turn into any number of things.

Wanna make cheesy dinner rolls? Add parmesan and chopped chives to the dough

Out of sandwich bread? This exact recipe will also make perfectly-sized loaf.

In desperate need of cinnamon rolls, or babka? Roll it out, and load it up.

Want to do a make your own pizza night with your kids? Yeah, it works for that too.

So try this recipe out, and let me know how you customized it for you and yours by tagging @LuneraBakery on Instagram, and using the hashtag #bakedbymoonlight.

Stay safe, and keep baking. Also, yes, I totally stole that phrase, “Mother Dough” from Christina Tosi. #sorrynotsorry

---

Soft Sourdough Rolls

Lunera Bakery | March 25, 2020

Prep Time: 5 hrs & 40 min Cook Time: 20 min Total Time: 6 hours Servings: 8

Ingredients:

For the Poolish:

40 grams all purpose flour

40 grams water @ 90℉

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

For the Dough:

260 gr Bread Flour, plus more for dusting

70 gr Poolish

70 gr active sourdough starter

85ml Whole Milk

40 gr room temperature butter, cut into 1/2in cubes

1 egg

8 gr salt

40 gr sugar

20 gr milk powder

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp of neutral oil (such as grapeseed, or avocado), to oil the pan

Tools Needed:

9in round pan with high sides (a bundt pan would work well)

Stand mixer with dough hook attachment, or a hand mixer with dough attachments

Instructions:

1. Stir together all of the Poolish ingredients in a container that is large enough for the mixture to triple in volume, and loosely cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow it to culture for atleast 2 hours, and up to 12 hours. Depth of flavor is created by length of time the poolish is allowed to culture, so it's best to do this the night before!
2. Feed your sourdough starter using your normal process. This recipe calls for liquid starter, but if you normally use a stiff starter use the same weight of starter, and add 15-30ml more milk.
3. Do a float test on both the poolish and the starter by filling a glass with water, and gently dropping a pea sized amount of each onto the surface of the water. If they float, they're ready to use.
   
4. To make the dough add the poolish, starter, milk, egg, sugar, milk powder to the bowl of your mixer, and whisk together until the egg is fully incorporated. Add the flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl; gently incorporate the flour into the liquid by hand until there are no dry bits of flour. You're not trying to create dough, just hydrate the dry ingredients. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to sit on the counter for 20-30 minutes. This is called an autolyse.
5. After the autolyse, start the mixture and slowly increase the speed until it gets to medium low. Allow the mixer to run until a smooth dough ball forms.
   
6. Add butter one cube at a time, allowing each cubes to fully incorporate into the dough before adding another. Mix until a smooth dough ball with no visible streaks of butter forms.
7. Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl. Cover, and allow to rise in a cool, dry place until doubled in size. This will take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours, so be patient! If you're pressed for time, or want to go the heck to sleep, this is a great time to try out that bread proof setting on your oven. Just remember to put an oven safe container with a few inches of water in with the dough.
   
8. Flour the surface of the dough, and tip it out on the counter. Divide the dough in half, both peices in half again, and then finally halve each of the pieces one more time. This should leave you with 8 equal pieces. Fold each piece of dough into a tight ball, and roll the bottom seam until tight surface tension develops. Gently set just outside of your work area while you complete this step for all 8 rolls. This is called a bench rest
9. Brush neutral oil into your desired round pan, and add a spoonful of flour to it. Swirl the flour around the pan until it coats the entire surface, then turn the pan over and tap out the excess.
10. Gently roll each dough ball again to redevelop the surface tension, and place into the oiled and floured pan with the seam side down. Repeat this step with the other 7 dough balls. Arrange the dough until they are evenly spread throughout the pan, and just slightly touch one another. Dust the tops of the rolls with flour, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Set in a warm corner of the kitchen and allow to rise for 1 hour. At this point, preheat the oven to 350℉.
11. After an hour the dough should be soft, and pillowy. Check the proof by gently poking one of the rolls, and watching to see if a small indent remains after 5-10 seconds. Underproofed dough bounces back, and fully proofed dough keeps a small dimple in the surface.
12. Place the pan on the center rack of your preheated oven, and set a timer for 20 minutes.
13. After 20 minutes the rolls should have baked into each other slightly, and have turned a nice golden brown. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the side of one, and seeing if it comes out cleanly. It's always a good idea to take the temperature of enriched baked goods, so if you have a thermometer handy temp one of those lil' beauties. These are done once they hit 180℉.
14. Pull rolls out of the oven, and allow to cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before tipping out on a cooling rack. It's important to take them out of the pan to cool! If you leave them in there, they'll get soggy and gross. What's the point in cutting corners right in the home stretch?! Take em' out.
15. Eat those pillowy balls of goodness are made for sharing, so eat them with your friends and family while they're still warm!

The Last Flan Recipe You'll Ever Need

I’ve been trying to find the perfect flan recipe for years, and every single one I’ve tried has just been…inedible in it’s own special way. Watery, bland, curdled, or worse- cornstarchy (shudder). Finally, I just decided that if I wanted perfect flan, I had to figure it out all by myself.

This is that perfect flan.

Flan isn’t a deceptively simple thing- it’s really just a couple things blended together and baked in a water bath. That’s why it gets looked over so often. But don’t be deceived, you can make flan that haunts people for weeks after they try it. You just have to buck tradition a little bit, use the best quality ingredients available to you, and get baking.

Trust me on this one. Better yet, try it for yourself! You’ll never make flan any other way.

---

The Last Flan Recipe You'll Ever Need Lunera Bakery | February 9, 2020

Prep Time: 20 min Cook Time: 1hr 15min Total Time: 1 hr 35 min Servings: 10-12

Ingredients:

For the Custard:

24 fl oz Evaporated Milk (2 cans)

14 oz Condensed Milk (1 can, 397 gr)

1/3 cup Heavy Cream (80 gr)

8 oz softened cream cheese (250 gr)

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar (100 gr)

5 Egg Yolks (90 gr)

2 Whole Eggs (112 gr)

4 Tbsp Milk Powder (31 gr)

1/4 tsp Kosher Salt (4 gr)

For the Caramel Sauce:

1 & 1/3 cups Granulated Sugar (135 gr)

Tools Needed:

Heavy Bottomed Saucepan

Oven-safe glass cassarole dish, or 9x3in cake pan, or deep-dish pie pan

9x13in or larger oven-safe dish your custard can safely sit inside of.

Blender, or food processor, or immersion blender

4-6 cups of hot water

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉, with the larger of the two pans in the center of the middle rack.
   
2. Place all custard ingredients in the blender, and blend on high in 30 second pulses until the mixture has reached a pale yellow color, and you can no longer feel sugar grains when you rub a bit of the mixture between your pointer finger and thumb.
3. Add all of the granulated sugar to the heavy-bottomed sauce pan, and place over low heat. The process of making a dry caramel takes about 15 minutes, but it will go from perfect to burned in a split second. Do not walk away from caramel unless someone has suddenly become broken or begun bleeding. Once the edges of the sugar start bubble and turn a rich golden brown, slowly begin to swirl the pan while still on the heat. You will be tempted to start stirring the hot sugar- resist! Swirling will work. Let the sugar do it's thing. The caramel is done once it reaches a deep, rich golden-brown, and all sugar granules have dissolved. Don't get any skin near this stuff unless you really enjoy getting painful 2nd degree burns.
4. Very carefully pour the caramel onto the bottom of the smaller of the two dishes you're using. Gently swirl the dish until the entire bottom of the pan is covered. The caramel will almost immediately start to turn into a rock hard mass, don't worry! It's supposed to do that.
5. Pour the custard mixture on top of the caramel. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, making sure to pinch the edges tightly.
   
6. Place custard dish in the middle of the larger dish, and position them both in the oven. Make sure the whole set-up is both level, and stable.
7. Carely pour hot water into the larger dish until it comes halfway up the sides of the smaller dish. This is called a Ban Marie.
8. Set a timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After an hour, carefully peel back the aluminum foil and stick a fork in the center of the flan. If there is residue on the fork, recover and allow to bake for the last 15 minutes. Keep checking every 5 minutes until the fork comes out cleanly.
   
9. Pull the entire Ban Marie out of the oven, and sit it somewhere in the kitchen for 45 minutes to an hour. Yes, I'm serious. This is a very important step. I see you trying to skip straight to putting in in the fridge. Don't do it.
10. Pull the flan out of the Ban Marie, and place it in the refrigertor for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
11. Pull the flan out of the fridge, and run a sharp knife around the entire circumference of that thing.
12. Place a plate with tall edges over the flan dish, and then flip the entire dish over in one smooth movement. The flan should slide out, followed by ribbons of now permanently-liquid caramel. If it doesn't though, don't worry, heat up the knife, and try scoring it again. Repeat the same flipping maneuver, and give it a gentle wiggle. Tah-dah.
13. Slice like cake, and serve! Make sure to spoon some caramel over every slice. Or don't and hoard it all in the kitchen. I don't know your life.