Pylon

A morning staple in our house...

3 oz whole wheat flour
3 1/2 oz unbleached AP flour
1 5/8 oz oat flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 stick cold butter
1/2 each oats, dried fruit, chopped nuts
1 t vanilla
1/2 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 c milk or cream
raw coarse sugar

Heat oven to 375f.

Mix flours, sugar, bp, bs and salt. Cut in cold butter, add oat, fruit and nuts. Add egg, vanilla, buttermilk, stir to combine.

Split dough in half, knead each half w/ flour. (It will probably be very sticky, so you'll want to add enough flour while kneading so you can handle the dough.) Shape into 1/2 to 1 inch thick disks, cut each into 6 pieces. Move to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush tops with milk or cream, sprinkle with sugar. (This is technically optional, though the texture really makes a difference.) Bake for 22 min.

NOTES

Any kind of fruit or nuts will work. I usually stick with the 1/2 c. oats, but will sometimes go as much as 1 c. on the others. My favorite right now is 1/2 c cashews, 1/2 golden raisins and 1/2 candied ginger. I've also had great success with cranberry-walnut and almond-blueberry. Anything goes. But make sure the fruit is dried. Fresh or frozen has too much moisture and they will fall apart.

It's a forgiving dough, so you can do other things with it. I did a batch with poppyseeds and dried lemon zest which worked well. They were glazed with a 2-1 mix of sugar and lemon juice. If you are avoiding the sugar, it's not the best way to go. But if you want to impress people.....

Last night's batch was for pasta. Dropped the sugar and vanilla out, added about 1 c shredded asiago cheese, plus a little more sprinkled on top. Worked very well.

Also, for those of you without buttermilk in the house (like me), you can sub out 1/2 milk with a couple of T lemon juice added. Works just as well.

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman