SPARKLER8666

Just a shout out to the two "most helpful" reviewers. I actually hate the ketchup based sauces and was offering an alternative. There are plenty of ketchup based asian sauces on Allrecipes, if you like your sweet and sour to taste of ketchup, feel free to use them. The whole point of this recipe however, was to provide a lighter, thinner, fruitier alternative to the ketchup based sauces. Thanks for the feedback though. Sparklers

A wonderful combination, makes a rich and thick sauce we all love. I use fresh garlic not dried and more like 2 heaping teaspoons (but we love garlic) and also add a good heaping tablespoon and a 1/2 of dried basil. (Update: watch the amount of paprika you use, I had discovered Penzy's half sharp paprika and decided to use it in the recipe... Even though I decreased the amount by 1/3 knowing it was strong, it overwhelmed the sauce. I remember that happened another time with a fresher more flavor forward paprika I had tried. So beware of the amount of paprika.)

MODIFIED: I always use whole wheat white flour which I increased to 1 and 3/4 cups, and increased the baking powder by a quarter tsp, and I watch my sugar so I used a quarter cup of Splenda brown and a half cup of white sugar. I liked the idea of a tang of flavor from the lemon one person recommended, but I didn't have lemons so I added a bit of fresh squeezed mandarin orange juice and a bit of the zest finely grated as well. I always add chocolate chips to banana, pumpkin and zucchini bread, so I added 2/3 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips. Also I baked them as muffins because I was hungry and wanted them faster. Also I forgot to add the eggs. I decided to mix all the wet stuff together and all the dry stuff together and then slowly add the dry into the wet with a whisk. It worked beautifully, I just forgot the eggs. Anyway, despite all these modifications the final result was a tender, yummy and not too heavy banana chocolate chip muffin. (By the way, I added the chocolate chips into the dry mixture before adding it to the wet. The flour coating keeps them from sinking to the bottom.)

I had to make changes... I didn't have worcestershire or the time to saute the onions and I had three pounds of meat, 1 part veal, 1 part beef and 1 part lamb. I subbed whole wheat bread crumbs for the white, and 2 jumbo eggs... had to add a bit more of everything because the recipe only calls for 2 pounds of meat and I had three. Had parmesan, a bit of sharp cheddar and a bit of three cheddar... so I ended up with a three cheese meat loaf. Also I subbed thawed frozen garlic cubes (3) and onion powder (2 tsp) for the sauteed onions and garlic. However, I felt that a 15 oz can of tomato sauce would be too much for even the 3 pound loaf I was making, so I only used an 8 oz can. And made my own catsup blend to go on top with mostly catsup, a dollop of mustard and a bit of brown sugar. Very flexible recipe that let me do all that and it still turned out lovely.

I made a few alterations of course. I couldn't boil the onions, that made no sense to me. What tastes better, boiled onions or onions slow sauteed in butter? So I sauteed them with a little chopped fresh garlic in the butter and made them part of the roux. But I combined the roux with the asparagus/broth mixture and let it boil (stirring) for a few minutes before I pureed it with my immersion blender (love that thing!) Oh, yeah, I added a little parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp of half sharp paprika, a tiny bit of fresh ground nutmeg and some onion powder. And I doubled the recipe, ended up juicing an entire lemon to get that lemony tang I was looking for.

These were good, but just a little too crunchy on the exterior and a bit chewy overall for me to give them a 5, probably from the excess butter on the crunch and the addition of the egg for the "chew". Some recipes call for letting the dough rest before baking, and if I try this recipe again I will do that and see if that makes them more tender. The upside however, is that they were super moist in the interior, and the butter lent good flavor. However, I like to mix in "stuff" for flavor anyway, my favorite additions are coconut and chocolate chips, but if I don't have those on hand I add little nuggets of dried fruit (apricot chunks, dried cranberries, pineapple chunks) and nuts. So, for me the "extra" buttery-ness and excess sugar are overkill. I usually only add 2-3 Tbsp of sugar not a half cup. I went ahead and put in a 1/3 of a cup, but knew it would be way too sweet with the coconut if I added the full half cup. I also liked the quantity, I divided the dough in half and got 16 decent sized scones. So, overall they were good, but still not nearly as good as James Beard's recipe that he got from his mother. With only 5 ingredients (no butter and no egg,) it produces a moist, rich, a tender crumb, and soft lovely scone with very little effort. (You can look it up online using a search engine.)