The Indiana State Fair opened on Friday August 3rd, however I was in New York City that day. It was the last day of G's summer ballet intensive with the Bolshoi Ballet and our whole family went to see her perform at her end-of-intensive performance. We checked her out of her dorm on Saturday morning, loaded up my in-law's mini-van to the hilt, and left New York City for eastern Pennsylvania. Sunday was spent white water rafting the Upper Lehigh River. Monday we hiked Glen Onoko Falls, then drove to Canton, Ohio. We got home on Tuesday. I went to work on Wednesday. That left me Thursday to prepare for my first sponsored competition, King Arthur Flour.
King Arthur Flour's competition this year was scones. Make any kind of original recipe scone using King Arthur Flour. For some reason I had orange cardamom scones stuck in my head. Orange scones didn't sound very original but for some reason cardamom did, and the idea would not leave my head.
So, I made orange cardamom scones. I pictured tall high-rising scones, tender on the inside with a craggy crisp golden brown exterior, coated with a thin glaze of sweet orange icing.
Take One...
The batter came together wonderfully and I patted it out on a Silpat, used a biscuit cutter and cut out circles, then squished the left overs together and cut out some more. The squished together leftovers looked far more "rustic" than the first round of circles and I only got 12 scones out of the batter. I put turbinado sugar on the 6 rustic looking ones and left the other 6 plain. I was trying to decide if they looked better with a sugar topping or a glazed topping.
I baked the first 6 with the turbinado sugar... and they were too dark. The bottoms looked almost burnt. I baked the next 6 for five minutes less. These had better color but were much flatter... like hockey pucks. Plus, I couldn't taste the cardamom.
Take Two...
Plan this time was to make them all look "rustic" by making them all thicker with craggy tops, and I used two teaspoons of cardamom instead of one. First 6 came out looking pretty good. I made the mistake of leaving the other 6 out on the counter (rather than the freezer) while the first 6 baked and they got soft so they spread out more in the oven... so they were flatter and much bigger. Ugh. I had to show 6 scones that looked exactly alike in size and coloration... and I still couldn't taste any cardamom.
Take Three...
I put in a whole tablespoon of cardamom. Then I cut my scones slightly smaller so I got 15 scones out of the batter. Next I baked them 3 at a time so if something went wrong with a batch I'd have more chances to correct them. This was it; I was not making more scones!
Thankfully I was able to come up with at least 6 scones I liked in this batch. But I still couldn't taste the cardamom. I decided I'd leave "cardamom" out of the title of my recipe since if it's in the title the judges are looking for that flavor but if it's not, then the extra flavor is a bonus. I renamed my recipe "K. Arthur's Extraordinary Orange Scones" instead of "Orange Cardamom Scones." By now it was 2 am. I left the scones on a rack to cool and went to bed.
Friday morning. Competition day. I checked my scones to glaze them. I live in Indiana and it's hot and humid. Even with the air conditioning on there is humidity in the house. I had the scones sitting out for 6 hours. When I picked one up I could tell the exteriors were not crunchy anymore. Arghhh... They were perfect 6 hours ago. What to do? I heated up the oven to 250 degrees and put them back in for 10 minutes, hoping to make the outsides more crunchy again without drying out the interiors. Did that, cooled them down again, then glazed them. Hopefully the glazed sealed in some of the crunch.
Scones plated for competition
Turned in my scones and went to check on how my pre-fair entries did.
Sugar Skull Cookies
Mocha Pecan Torte
Loaded Potato Rolls
Caramel Corn
Banana Delight
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I was happy the Sugar Skull Cookies got First because I spent quite a bit of time on them. I was a bit disappointed the Mocha Pecan Torte didn't win but it's always hard to win again with the same cake in an anything goes cake category. I was pleasantly surprised the flat rolls placed as well as they did. I was disappointed though that my caramel corn did not place any higher as I have won multiple times with this. The fact that my other two items did not place did not surprise me. I never tasted the banana cake after I switched the recipe so it might have been awful. The chocolate chip cookies were a disaster and I knew that.
After checking on my items I went back upstairs for the competition. First person I saw was Fancheon Resler. Fancheon was the first person that befriended me at the State Fair and I always look forward to seeing her. She no longer competes but her daughter Kenda does and she was here looking after Kenda's entry as Kenda was working over at the Glass Barn for the run of the Fair. Also saw Robin, Becky and Jennifer, then spied Michael, Phyllis, and Marjorie across the stage.
Robin took this picture of me with Jennifer and Becky
There were a LOT of scones. Unfortunately, there were several other orange scones... so mine weren't very original. The judges liked my scones. They were technically very good. However I knew I had lost out on originality. Michael made Ginger Apricot Scones with crystallized ginger. They smelled wonderful and were incredibly original. I knew he won as soon as I saw them. I was right. He won. Kenda came in second with a savory scone that had cheese and jalapenos in it. I had a feeling a savory scone would do well too because it's different. I, however, could not get orange cardamom out of my head! I didn't place. Oh well. It was fun.
I didn't get out of the fairgrounds until well after 5 pm. Now I had nine bazillion orange scones at home that I had to get rid of, plus I had to make a pie for pie turn in on Saturday. I texted my friend Hope to see if she would take some scones, plus a practice pie. I was starving too. I perused my drive-thru choices going home. Decided Subway was probably my healthiest choice. Pulled into the parking lot and thought I'd call and ask hubs if he wanted something too, then saw that Hope had texted me back. She definitely wanted the pie but just a couple scones... and, did I want some beef and noodles? She was making beef and noodles and told me to bring a container if I wanted some.
God Bless!!
It's wonderful to have good friends. Heck yes I'll take homemade beef and noodles! I pulled out of the Subway parking lot and hurried home to find a container.
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