My Creativity Loves to Cook and Bake - Scones Recipe Included

One thing I love to do, besides painting, is to cook, concoct, and fine-tune recipes to my liking. I find this fun, and it exercises my creativity differently. Today, I share my scone recipe with you. It’s easy to make. It’s agreeable to substitutions. I rarely have every ingredient for any recipe, so 99% of the time, I substitute what I have available. Also, I eat a vegan diet, substituting vegan ingredients when the recipe is not vegan. I have presented my latest scone, triple berry, in one of my favorite handmade ceramic saucers I hand-built years ago. I’ve marked it with my personalized “Mary” stamp to distinguish it from other student potters.

Rye Wholemeal Scones

7/8 C flour of your choice *

5 tsp Baking Powder *

3 Tbsp Brown Sugar *

3 Tbsp Oil *

5/8 C Milk *

1. Mix the dry ingredients and add the wet until it forms a dough ball.

2. Turn the dough ball onto a pan with floured parchment paper.

3. Press the dough ball until you get about a 1-1/4 inch in height disc.

4. Cut the disc into 3 or 4 slices.

5. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

6. Cool slightly. Enjoy with jam, pure maple syrup, or glazed icing.

* Notes

Flour

- I rarely use Rye flour, as you’ll see on the back of the recipe. But rye scones are yummy, too. I’ve gone gluten-free; rye is not gluten-free.

- I like gluten-free (GF) oat flour. I also mix the GF oat flour with brown rice flour, quick-cook GF oats, and/or millet flour. Lately, I’ve used all three in one mix.

Baking Powder

- I use 4 tsp instead of 5 tsp or 1/2 tsp baking soda

Oil

- I use coconut oil. Sometimes, I use olive oil. But lately, I’m going oil free, so I use 3 Tbsp of almond flour as a substitute. You could also try applesauce or mashed banana.

Brown Sugar

- My favorite healthier sugar option is coconut sugar. Sometimes, I use turbinado sugar (raw sugar). Regular sugar is not vegan. To qualify as vegan, the sugar needs to be organic or raw. Coconut sugar and other fruit sugars are vegan.

Milk

- I use almond, cashew, or coconut milk. Or I add 2-3 Tbsp extra almond flour and use water instead of milk. The almond flour serves as an almond milk base in the water.

I want to hear from you!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Recipes

I've included the back of my recipe page where I make notes of my substitutions and versions of the recipe. Most times, I comment whether it worked or not. The clay heart was made by a friend.

The Passion of Place

• Mixed Media on Canvas
• 11 x 14 x 0.5 in

The abstract background of red, yellow, bronze, and gold shows through the landscape with boldness and passion.

I painted plein air at the abandoned salt mine in Camp Verde, Arizona. I left my paintbrushes at home. So, I added the paint directly from the tube onto the canvas, providing a highly saturated color and thick texture.

I worked quickly to capture the essence of the energy of the place. The passion of the working salt mine from years prior came through in the process. The salt mine was also a ritual site for local Hopi Indians. I'm sure that energy is here too.

The Passion of Place

• Mixed Media on Canvas
• 11 x 14 x 0.5 in
• $400
• Mary Rush, Artist shown here with her painting

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Thoughts?

Tell me what you think about this painting in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

The Throne of God - Oil Painting Now Dry and For Sale

 

The Throne of God at the Salt Mine
Acrylic and Oil on Canvas
14 x 11 x 0.5 inches

The Throne of God

• Mixed media on Canvas
• 14 x 11 x 0.5 in

A land formation at the salt mine conjures my imagination of being an enormously large chair where God sits. I always feel I am at God’s feet when I encounter it. He sits on his throne and watches over me as I hike and paint.

It’s always a thrill to hit the hiking trail with paints and an easel over my shoulder. As much as I love painting abstract, I love being in nature too. The new process marries both the abstract and the landscape. I have the best of both worlds now. It feels great.

The white, beige, metallic gold, and metallic silver color palette is subtle except for the highly contrasting lines.

Is This Painting for You?

The Throne of God

• Mixed media on Canvas
• 14 x 11 x 0.5 in
• $400 + $50 shipping

Artist Mary Rush with her painting The Throne of God at the Salt Mine.

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Your Thoughts?

Please leave a comment on what you think about this painting. I'd love to hear from you.

Ancestral Communication - Oil Painting Now Ready for Its Forever Home

Ancestral Communication

• Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
• 11 x 14 x 0.5 in
• $400
• Mary Rush

Since I painted the previous Plein air painting in monochrome hues of silver, bronze, gold, and beige, it was time to add color to the next painting.

I decided on a blue, purple, and green color scheme. The new process of painting an abstract underpainting is so exciting to me. It adds a spring to my step, and I can’t wait to begin the process.

Giddy with joy, immersed in the Southwest Arizona desert landscape, I was prepared to paint. This painting took the shape of the landscape naturally without trying. When I had the painting in front of me on the land, the mountains lined up with what I had randomly painted abstractly. Woo hoo! So much fun!

I grabbed the palette knife and mixed the paint to the sandy color of the desert floor. Slabs of the creamy beige appeared on top of the colorful abstract below it. I laid the paint down, following the formations of the mountains. I let the color show through in places to add surprise and wonder to the landscape scene. Two gold dots peek out boldly.

I love the shimmer of the metallic colors of bronze, gold, and silver in this color palette of blue, purple, green, and yellow.

When I look at the final painting, I hear drums beating in the distance as in ancestral communication.

Me, Mary Rush, with my painting, Ancestral Communication

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I'd love to hear your thoughts about this painting. Please comment below. Thanks!