Simple Things
Feb. 11th, 2018 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mama_kestrelI bake rather a lot. Tonight I remembered that I had a cup of heavy cream leftover from another project, which needed to be used up before it went bad if it hadn't already. I checked; no, still fine. So I decided on cream scones, which are easy and would go well with the root vegetable stew in the crock pot. It having been awhile since I made them, I did a quick search for a recipe.
Am I the only person on the planet who still thinks in terms of how long it takes to set up and clean up these amazing gadgets? Every single recipe I found relied on a food processor to cut the butter into the flour/baking powder mixture. All right, sure, it takes under a minute if you do it that way, but that doesn't count getting out the machine if it doesn't live on the counter (as mine does not), nor inserting the correct blade, nor disassembling and cleaning the entire bowl/lid/blade assembly after. Say, if you're efficient, 5 minutes each for assembly and disassembly, plus washing up. And you don't save a bowl, either, because if you try to blend in the liquid in the processor it will end up overmixed and tough; the machine simply works too fast. So the dough ends up in a bowl for final hand-mixing anyway.
By contrast, it took me about 3 minutes to cut the butter in with a pastry blender, which included locating the pastry blender someone had put away in the wrong place. Cream gets mixed into the same bowl; no transfering. I have to wash the bowl and the pastry blender.
Sometimes low tech is much more efficient.
The scones are good, too.
Am I the only person on the planet who still thinks in terms of how long it takes to set up and clean up these amazing gadgets? Every single recipe I found relied on a food processor to cut the butter into the flour/baking powder mixture. All right, sure, it takes under a minute if you do it that way, but that doesn't count getting out the machine if it doesn't live on the counter (as mine does not), nor inserting the correct blade, nor disassembling and cleaning the entire bowl/lid/blade assembly after. Say, if you're efficient, 5 minutes each for assembly and disassembly, plus washing up. And you don't save a bowl, either, because if you try to blend in the liquid in the processor it will end up overmixed and tough; the machine simply works too fast. So the dough ends up in a bowl for final hand-mixing anyway.
By contrast, it took me about 3 minutes to cut the butter in with a pastry blender, which included locating the pastry blender someone had put away in the wrong place. Cream gets mixed into the same bowl; no transfering. I have to wash the bowl and the pastry blender.
Sometimes low tech is much more efficient.
The scones are good, too.
