“When Jesus walked the earth He knew the power of sharing food. He knew that breaking bread—sitting together for a meal—built relationships and strong kinship.”
c e hollis
Cinnamon Scones are a quick bread and add some glamour just by their name to a tea time or a cup of coffee with friends. Here is how I make mine. Two cups of flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon combine in a bowl. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Add 1/2 cup of raisins and /or pecans to the flour. Stir in 1 1/3 cup buttermilk. Turn the dough out onto a cookie sheet. Dust your hands with flour and shape dough into a disk. bake for fifteen minutes. Then slice the dough into pizza shapes and pull them away from each other. Melt 1/3 cup butter and pour over the pieces, Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and return to bake another 5 minutes. Serve with sliced peaches, berries or other fruit. (And more butter!)
Biscotti is another favorite at my house since we are coffee lovers. I like to bake bread and cinnamon rolls and also pies and cookies. Pies are to me either a double crusted fruit or a pecan. One of the blessings of owning the orchard is that I always have plenty of pecans for baking. Pecans are versatile and so there are many things I can bake with them. We also eat them in salads and raw. I often bake peach and berry cobblers for company. Cobblers are easier than pies and along with some Blue Bell ice cream will feed a crowd.
My granddaughters love to visit the farm and get in on baking in the kitchen. Here we made Grapenut bars. They are sweet and crunchy and buttery good. Some of my grandsons like cooking too but they are adept at sampling, for sure.
Of all the batches of cookies I have baked over the years of raising my seven children these are the favorites. I believe the grown sons and daughters can smell these baking miles away because they will come if I put a batch in the oven. These are molasses cookies and if you have ever smelled a pan of gingerbread you will recognize the spicy sweet syrup scent. The dough is made into balls and rolled in sugar and they flatten and crack when they bake.
Cinnamon rolls are a favorite with my neighbors. I bake big batches with lots of butter, pecans and raisins in the winter and deliver a plate full to each of my five closest neighbors.
I love baking not just for the treats to eat but for the smells in my house, for the feeling of accomplishment and also for the joy it brings to the eaters! To see someone enjoy a pie, cookies, cake or cobbler is part of the reward. What do you bake at your house?
When have you been shared baked goods at someone’s home—a square of cornbread slathered with butter, sliced yeast bread, biscuits and syrup, a fresh hot cinnamon roll, or slice of apple pie?
You remember, don’t you?
What’s Good About Home! 
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