This thought progression was brought on by an exchange on The Facebook. I'm slightly embarrassed but also slightly thrilled by how it happened. I was tickled pink when a certain someone came in the door and presented me with flowers he had picked on his bike ride home AND goat's milk he had bought and carried with him (I can't eat or drink cow dairy, so the goat products are a special treat). So, in a somewhat uncharacteristic move for me, I posted something about it on The Facebook. I don't usually post anything that is actually personal - I prefer to speak in vagaries and allusions that don't really reveal anything at all. More interesting. Plus I'm pretty private.
So, in response to my post about flowers and raw goat milk, one dear friend, from my life on the east coast, wrote, "hippy! ;-)." Another dear friend, this one from my life in the southwest, wrote "Amish?"
And that got me thinking: yes, and ... yes.
How is that even possible? Or rather, IS that even possible?
Well, if you think about it, there is some common ground between those two worlds: self sufficiency, community autonomy, functionality over aesthetics with regard to one's apparel...and probably more. Of course, there are differences as well. But the commonalities are interesting to say the least. And somewhat poignant given my move from the land of one to the land of the other. I've had a tough time adjusting, at times feeling like I'm in a completely foreign place even though I grew up not two hours from where I'm living now. The southwest spoke to my soul and allowed me to grow into myself in a way I absolutely could not have anywhere else. That's why I'm so attached to it.
But perhaps it's really not so different here. Perhaps it's really not so different anywhere. Perhaps the geographic distances and apparent cultural divisions aren't really quite as vast as they may seem when you've got a firm grasp of your own ideas and identity, and a firm foothold in the present. Firm enough to allow you to accept the things and people around you on their own terms without losing yourself. Firm enough to exist in the best of both worlds, the intersection of all worlds.
Is there really that much difference between the makeup-less, car-less plainly dressed Amish girl riding her old bicycle to market and the makeup-less, car-less thirty something commuting to work on her fixie in plainclothes?
Perhaps there is a little bit of dirty hippy, a little bit of plain Amish, and and little bit of who knows what in all of us.
I like to think so.
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In the spirit of colliding worlds, I felt like creating some scones last night. Scones are the food of high teas, the simplest member of the biscuit family, and totally in vogue. Three seemingly disparate qualities all belonging to one baked good. I wanted them to be simple, and I wanted them to be grain free. I wanted them to be original. Somehow the resulting recipe seems to fit with the thought progression that preceded it. Funny how that happens with our food...it is so much more than physical nourishment.
Without further ado, here is the recipe.
Plain Hippy Scones
Ingredients
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/3 cup coconut oil in liquid form - if you have to melt it, allow some time for it to cool before mixing it with the other ingredients
1/4 to 1/3 cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
cream or milk for brushing
Preheat the oven to 350.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with shortening.
Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Be sure to break up any clumps!
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup until well blended, then add the oil.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a thick but not overly sticky, heavy-feeling batter.
Using an ice cream scoop or two spoons, scoop dollops of batter onto your prepared pan and flatten them slightly. These would be considered drop scones. You should have about 8.
Or, you can make one big ball of dough and flatten it to a circle about 3/4 - 1 inch thick. The slice (not quite all the way through) in a star pattern on the circle using a sharp knife, creating 6-8 triangle-shaped scones. This is a more traditional scone shape.
Bake your scones on a rack set in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes total, rotating the pan halfway through. They won't get very brown on top, but the bottoms will be golden.
As far as texture goes, these are very dense, but with a small, soft crumb - not quite like traditional scones. They are quite tasty about 15 minutes out of the oven.
Enjoy!
~S
Hippy scones!! pure <3 :)
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