BBB: Sukkar bi Tahin

Oh Bread Baking Babes, I do love each and every one of you. Obviously, I love your picks each month as well, since I've managed to make quite a few as time goes along. But this month? *sigh*

I barely fit it in, mixing, kneading, rising, shaping - baking them and wresting them out of the oven right before heading into work. They sat, cooling on the rack, until I got back home the next morning. And they were so cute - spiral-y and stuffed with sugar. Let me tell you, my hopes were high. I thought- "I'm so lucky, I bought tahini a few months back to make Pocky and since then the jar has just sat! Perfect, a recipe I can use some of it up in!" And really, everything I've put tahini in I've liked. But here's the thing - it hasn't been the star in anything. Hummus? Pocky? It just adds the je ne sais quoi factor to both. But these, these have tahini in the name! and a swirl of it throughout!


And here's where things break down. Because people, I don't like the taste of tahini. Little did I know, it just has a different sort of nuttiness that I'm simply not a fan of. Fortunately (?) for me, I had only made a half recipe - yielding three beautifully swirled, flaky pastries. Oh, and one little one, because I was too vigorous stretching the dough out before making it into a pinwheel and tore the end off one of the strands. (oops?)


So my apologies to Natashya, since I even asked to make sure I could post late and still be counted among the Buddies, but I don't think this is going in my regular rotation. Maybe for me, tahini just needs to be in the background.

Check out the recipe here though, if you're a bigger fan of tahini than I (and many of the Babes were!).

TWD: Riesling Ice Cream with Strawberry Swirl

Vanilla is just so vanilla. You know? (No offense to Lynne, whose choice this was) Yeah, I know that if you use real vanilla, you can get floral notes, spicy notes, fruity notes, yada yada yada. But in the end, the feeling from people is that vanilla is a code word for boring. So when vanilla ice cream is on the table, it's inevitably accompanied by chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, sprinkles, and whipped cream. It has to get fancied up, y'know?


So I, um, fancied it up a bit. Otherwise known as likkered it up a bit. In a completely refined sort of way though, I promise! The addition of some sweet, late harvest riesling, then a swirl of pureed strawberries (cooked up with some sugar and more riesling) definitely puts this one in the refined category. Not that I'm refined or anything, don't go getting any ideas.


And, at a loss for words because I'll be posting this while at work and knowing that I have 6 more hours of work staring at me in the face, I'm out. Cheers, you super awesome TWDers!


Riesling Ice Cream with Strawberry Swirl
adapted from BFMHTY, Perfect Scoop, and Epicurious

1 1/3 cups 2% milk
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sweet riesling
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
strawberry puree (recipe below)

Bring the milk and cream just to a boil in a saucepan on the stove. In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and sugar until slightly thickened. When milk and cream are hot, slowly drizzle 1/3 of the mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly. Once the yolks are heated up nicely, pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Cook over low-medium heat until the mixture is thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Take off the heat and stir in the riesling and vanilla extract. Put in the refrigerator for at least 6-8 hours before churning.

Churn the ice cream according to your machine's instructions. When removing ice cream to a container, spoon in alternating bits of ice cream and strawberry puree. Freeze for 2-3 hours before eating.

For the strawberry puree:
1 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
1/4 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries)
2 Tbsp riesling

Cook all ingredients over medium heat until strawberries have broken down. Puree and cool in the refrigerator.

NFR: Whoops, DB Challenges, and Language

Well crap. Crap crap crappity crap. Three weeks ago, I made the cookie part of the Daring Baker's challenge for July (imitation Milano cookies, I was going to skip the choc-covered marshmallow cookies). Into the tupperware my carefully piped mini cookies went, then that into the freezer for when I'd have time to whip up the filling, sandwich them, and do that photography cha cha cha. And then time passed. I visited home and saw our goats, chickens, and dogs; I went to Boulder and saw mountains and friends getting married; I filled in supervising at work due to a labor situation at a company plant; I worked until 1a last night, got home, and oh shit the Daring Baker challenge is due tomorrow (aka today) shitshitshit. F***.


Um, my bad? You see, I had a filter, a mental vocabulary filter. Well, two of them, one for the office and at home, one for the plant. The office one let maybe 5% of my language through, the plant one around 30%. But the stress from work, and working shifts through weekends when I haven't seen the boyfriend in 3 weeks? Well, that's just sucker punched a frigging hole through both of my filters. I'm letting about 90% through, and that's not okay. Seriously, after spending 12 hr shifts for a week and a half with a bunch of (self-proclaimed) millrats, I basically have no filter and no sense of decency or propriety. Remind me not to call my grandmother and thank her for the birthday card until I get that filter back, mkay?


So getting back to the Daring Baker thing. I made a sixth of a recipe of the milan cookies that were chosen this month (what?! it called for 6 egg whites, and mine were slated for macarons!), piping them into teeny weeny little cookies, picturing the fun innards I'd sandwich them with. Chocolate, chocolate with raspberry, with orange, with mint, with almond, with espresso, buttercream with lemon curd. I'd dip them entirely in chocolate, although I was already planning to ignore the horror that would occur if I tried to dip them in tempered chocolate - eek! I even piped some squiggles, which was hilarious, especially when I realized I'd need to pipe mirror images in order to be able to sandwich them. Yeah, go ahead and revoke my B.S. in engineering right now.

yeah, I r smart, so sue me

So they're in my freezer. Chillin. Until life slows down, and I can get through more than just the next day at work. My apologies to Nicole that I couldn't pull this one out in time, but hoo-rah to my fellow Daring Bakers who actually managed to squeak it out!
The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

NFR: Musings and Thoughts

Many times, I'll look back at the first few posts on this blog, just for fun. Or masochism, because hoo-wee are they bad! I'm not sure who starts a blog and knows exactly the voice they want to use for it, the personality they want behind it. I find that my voice is very different from the ones that caused me to start blogging - Orangette, Tartelette, Gluten Free Girl (oh my, I'm pretty sure I did zero work the first day I came across Shauna - I spent the entire day reading through the archives!). 101Cookbooks, Smitten Kitchen, and Cream Puffs in Venice came after that, followed by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Later, Use Real Butter and Lemonpi joined the mix. And now, I read a variety of blogs, ranging from design blogs like d*Sponge to photography blogs like Still Life With. Throw in some comics (xkcd anyone?) and my sister's blog, and you've got 471 blogs that I read every day.

Aren't they just adorable?

And they all have entirely different voices. Some are snarky (userealbutter, how I love you), some are dreamy (Cannelle et Vanille), and some just make me laugh (The Pioneer Woman, The Way the Cookie Crumbles). What's my voice though? What makes my blog unique, or worth being added to someone's RSS feed aggregator?


In the end, it depends on my mood, I think. I can be snarky, random, humorous or contemplative, but I never manage a unified voice. Maybe that's because of that human element. It depends upon how I'm feeling that day, how much time I have to really sit down and consider how I want to write something. For the longest time, I was happy but bored at work. That led to the more random and snarky posts. Right now, I'm filling in as a supervisor on second shift because of a work situation, and the humor is sort of gone. Funny how that works, huh?


But there are things that lift my mood like none other - Y making french toast macarons for me, Jen giving me hiking suggestions, friends volunteering to take me around Seattle when I visit over Labor Day weekend with the boyfriend. And my latest toy, Poladroid. You see, I love the slightly used, messy look of a Polaroid shot, but don't have the camera. Enter Poladroid - a free, downloadable program that gives the Polaroid effect to a photo you've shot. It's my new latest obsession, can you tell?


And here's where I'm asking for feedback people (because I don't have enough blogs to read every day). What blogs got you into blogging? Which are your favorites and why? Do you work to have a unified voice, or is it a day-by-day evolution?

My friends. They are teh awesome, if you hadn't heard :)

TWD: Raspberry Blanc-Manger

I've been dreaming a lot lately. Dreaming is a dangerous thing, you know, especially when it hits in the middle of a work day. It leads to all sorts of unsavory activity - emailing friends for information and contacts at universities, perusing gorgeous photos of the Northwest, reminiscing over an amazing weekend. And while I still haven't made up my mind, I'm slowly but surely meandering my thoughts in a certain direction. That direction involves lots of applications and emails, conversations and research. All good things, and ones that I'll have to fill all of you in on as the situation progresses. Until then, I have a couple of thank yous - to Y, for an absolutely perfect birthday gift of french toast macarons (it comes a very close second to my D90 from the boyfriend) and to Jen, for the perfect hiking recommendation of Pawnee Pass. While I might have sworn at my friend for saying "but we're almost there," the adventure of finally getting 12,500' above sea level by the power of my legs alone was 100% worth it.


One of my closest friends just got married this last weekend. To an amazing woman, who fits him perfectly. It's like they're puzzle pieces, coming together from different boxes, different pictures, that just happen to lock right together. Makes you think that, in the end, everything works out just the way it's supposed to.


And it doesn't hurt that we were then able to gallivant around Boulder in all of its forms - the mountains, the parks, downtown on Pearl St. Catching up with old college friends, meeting and hearing about new significant others, finding out about jobs and life. Oh, and being those people at the wedding - a dozen or so of us, with a half dozen dSLRs in tow, massive zoom lenses, extra flashes, filters, etc. You should have heard the clicking! The "official" photographer (a friend of the bride) mentioned camera envy upon seeing all of our toys :)


So I'd say my life is doing pretty darned well right now. I have options, chances to change. There's nothing like that feeling of opportunity, as much as I hate that word. Work is to blame for that - anything less than good happening is an "opportunity." I'm sorry, it's just something crappy, nothing more to it. But this is the right sort of opportunity. The one with, you know, opportunities around every corner :)


And on that note, I think I'll leave you with possibly the classiest way to serve berries and whipped cream - a blanc-manger. Thank you Susan for picking it - despite the number of bowls and pots required, it really was beautiful and tasty!


Last Week: Brioche Plum Tart
Next Week: Vanilla Ice Cream

Sour Cherry Pie

Allow me to introduce you to the newest additions to my parents' menagerie. You see, when my sister and I went off to college, and then our different ways (her to grad school, me to Oshkosh), I think my mom had a bit of loneliness set in. As a result, the standard pets that we kept around were just not enough. I'm not entirely sure why an indoor cat, a few outdoor cats, a dog, a half dozen sheep / lambs, and a few horses weren't enough, but we'll just move past that.


No, she needed to branch out beyond that. On from sheep and horses (the cats and dogs stayed) to goats and chickens. Um, yeah. Goats. Chickens. Don't ask me, I don't have the answer. So when I went home last weekend, I got to meet the goat herd and the chickens in their coop. Oh, and Sophie, soon to be their newest dog (hunting beagle, so adorable!). While the chickens were interesting, since they were much more active than any chicken I'd ever seen, it was the goats who were most entertaining. They clambered all over the woodpile, populated with wood split from trees that had gone down in ice storms in previous years. They hopped around, ran about, and generally were very funny to watch.


And in the end, I'll get to try true free-range organic chicken and goat. What more could I ask for? Actually, I'm planning on subjecting the guys at work to goat since they made me try cow tongue. Turnabout's fair, right?


While I was there though, we also wandered through the farmer's market. Not only was I bombarded by beautiful produce (5 pound boxes of blueberries!!!!!), but I ran across a stand selling quarts of sour cherries! Since I won't have time to head up north to pick up sour cherries here in Wisconsin, I just had to get them. And obviously, make them into pie. The very night I returned from Indiana. Priorities meant pie came before unpacking and sleep, and that's just the way it is. (If you're wondering, sleep came next, and unpacking is still a ways away)


Now that I've had sour cherry pie, I cannot understand why anyone would make pie using canned cherry pie filling. The flavor? Completely different. Totally better. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the goat once I get some...

Sour Cherry Pie (adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

1 recipe for double crust pie dough (below)
2 lbs sour cherries
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1 Tbsp lemon zest

First, the fun part - pitting cherries! Like I told Maria, the easiest way to do with if you don't have a cherry pitter (BOO UNITASKER) is to use a piping tip. I just stuck it on my fingertip and poked the pits right out. Easy peasy. Now mix together the cherries with the rest of the filling ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Split the dough in half, with one larger half and one slightly smaller. The larger half will be the base, the smaller the top crust. Roll out the larger half into a rough circle, flouring your table and rolling pin so the crust doesn't stick. Once it's big enough, drape it carefully over the pie pan and carefully shape it into the corners. Fill with the cherry mixture. Roll out the smaller half the same way, then drape over the top. Trim the excess, making sure to leave about an inch of crust around the edge of the pan. Fold the edge under and crimp as decoratively as you'd like. Brush the top with milk, dust with sugar, and cut some slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue baking for another 45-60 minutes, or until it's bubbly and a knife inserted pierces the cherries easily. Allow to cool at least an hour or two before cutting.

Double Crust Pie Dough
(yes, I know Crisco is the devil, but the devil makes some seriously tasty flaky pie dough)

2 cups flour
generous 1/2 cup shortening
1/4 tsp salt
ice water, 1/4-1/2 cup

Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until it resembles coarse meal. Slowly dribble in ice water, tossing together with two forks (to avoid overworking) until the dough holds together. Shape into a single mass.

TWD: Brioche Plum Tart

I think people could learn a lot about others by what TV shows they watch when they're alone at night. And what they eat while watching them. You see, it's like saying your favorite book was Anna Karenina when really you go home at night and read those heaving-bosom romance novels with Fabio on the cover. There's what you'd like people to believe, and then there's what is actually true.

For instance, in the interest of coming clean to you, I have to admit that I watch four shows semi-regularly. In order of how long I've been watching them, there's Grey's Anatomy (since the show debuted), The Secret Life of the American Teenager (the past month, trying to catch up on season 1), and Dead Like Me (watched a couple episodes, and am planning on watching more). See? Not really the most intellectually stimulating television.


And when it comes to books, while I occasionally enjoy actually thinking when I read, I tend more towards fluffy science fiction. Science fiction can be incredibly formulaic, but I find that quite comforting. I re-read series, and the longer a series is, the more I like it. Go ahead, ask how many times I've read through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. And how angry I was that he passed away before finishing the final novel (which is now three novels!). And then how relieved I was when someone ended up ghostwriting it, allowing it to be published this! coming! fall!

So I must admit this comes around to baking as well. You see, I can talk all I want about butter (yum!) and fat (mmm), but in the end, I cheat. I scale down recipes. I make lean brioches. I eat salads and fruit like it's my job. And then I run. And swim. And kickbox. So this recipe was just perfect for me. A lean brioche, jam, and fruit on top? Win win! It sounds decadent, feels decadent, but still allows me to not pop out of my jeans. So thank you, Denise, for picking a recipe that I can feel good about. And thank you, dear readers, for not shunning me for my gauche tv and book choices. Win, win, indeed.

Last Week: Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies (as the bf said, these just make me feel unhealthy when I eat them)
Next Week: Raspberry Blanc-manger

Pickling

See that? Right there, above these very words? Yeah. You're looking at my first foray into pickling, which appears to be gaining followers throughout this whole food bloggy internets thing. Green beans, fresh, doused in a simple brine. They're in my fridge now, since I didn't bother to hot water process them. It's gonna be torture until I can open them up and taste them, but I'll stay strong, I promise.

I love the process of canning, preserving, pickling, etc. I grew up doing it, thanks to my mom and her neverending energy and will not to waste a single tomato coming out of our garden. We would make dill and sweet pickles, pear preserves, tomato sauce, horseradish, zucchini relish. Oh, that zucchini relish - best thing ever in tuna salad. Some day, I'll have a really large zucchini I need to get rid of and I'll share the recipe with you. It's special.

Even now, now that my mom is too busy at work for extensive canning and preserving efforts, we can still enjoy the fruits of her labor. You see, a family of four didn't really need all of the produce she preserved, so we're still working through pickles dated before the turn of the century. Some things don't last, like the loaves of zucchini bread she would make and freeze (I'd make off with them every time I came home from college, bringing 2-3 loaves back to share with friends). Apple pies (unbaked, just assembled) would disappear on long winter nights as a wonderful end to a warm wintry meal. And pickles, which got stronger and stronger as years went by - word to the wise, don't try the spicy ones, they'll grow hair on your chest. And the last thing I think I need is hair on my chest.

But these green beans? I think this is a start to a wonderful friendship, me and pickling, preserving, canning. I don't have room for the scale of preserving my mom did, but when I do, just watch out. Pickles, pies, breads, and jams galore!

Basic Brining Liquid (adapted from Food in Jars)

1 1/3 cups water
1 1/3 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp each coriander seed, whole peppercorns, whole cloves, whole allspice berries
3 bay leaves, crushed
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Bring all ingredients to a boil (open windows, the vinegar will knock you out). Pour over your chosen pickle-able produce which has been packed in a freshly washed canning jar. Leave 1/2" headspace, and run a knife around the edge to get rid of bubbles trapped along the sides of the jar. Seal the jar and let cool until it is only barely warm. The jar may seal, but you still need to store in the fridge, as it hasn't been hot water processed. Let sit 2-3 days before digging in!

TWD: Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies

Look at these. No, seriously, look at them. Don't they look gorgeous? Slim and elegant, shiny, a beautiful brown... But you know what they aren't? Well, um - solid. Evidently, Katharine Hepburn liked gooey brownies. With a nice coffee kick and a hint of cinnamon. And a lot of butter.

Also, allow this to be the time that I comment upon alternate spellings of names. You see, I began this post with her first name spelled with an "e" a la "Katherine," rather than "Katharine." And this just brought to mind one of my least favorite things about baby names. Well, everybody's names, but you get them when you're a baby and have no say in the matter, so I'm going with baby names here. Hope you're okay with that (although if not, what can you really do?).


Now, I'm okay with that little switcharoo. I'm pretty alright with Steven and Stephen too. But then people go off the deep end, calling their adorable newborn such names as "Madysonne" or "Meghanne" or "Adecyn," whathaveyou. This has become such a trend, my name has been dragged through the mud along with all the others. You see, people have begun believing that everyone's name has extra vowels, repeated consonants, etc. So I've seen my name spelled "Katelynne" and even as mangled as "Kaytelynne." Um, really? It's really not difficult. The only thing to choose from is whether I'm "Caitlin" with a "C" or "Kaitlin" with a "K." (And we all know, Caitlin with a "C" is infinitely better)

So why don't we have a movement here, people. Let's head back towards "vintage" baby names. Eva. Nell. Mae. Charlotte. Emma. Simple names, with very few ways to spell them. There's no need to fancy names up or give your kids names you'd give a dog (Um, Snow? Bandit? Zeus?!?). Let's get back to the time when the biggest question was whether you should spell it Katherine or Katharine (or Catherine, for you sticklers out there).


Or, you know, you can go exoticize a perfectly good name. *shudder*

P.S. Don't think I'm immune to this one. My mom desperately wanted to name me Aubra. Thank you, Dad, for stopping that. I could just hear the playground chants of "Aubra Cadabra" and "A Bra..."

P.P.S. And these brownies? While I love fudgey brownies and coffee, here are the few things I mentioned in this week's P&Q on the TWD site that I'd do next time: halve coffee, leave out cinnamon, reduce butter by one Tbsp, increase flour to 1/3 cup, bake 35-40 min, and refrigerate before cutting.

Last Week: Rewound Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Next Week: Brioche Plum Tart