C is for CAKE!

C is for CAKE!
Originally uploaded by carabou.

This Pain de Genes is incredible. It's from our book, but it's soooo good I have to share.

This recipe uses a separated egg sponge method, and you'll need a mixer. And all the weights are in ounces. I have a scale I picked up at Target for about $20. Preheat the oven to 340. Prepare a pan (an 8" round or square) by brushing it with melted butter and pressing slivered almonds along the top and sides.

In your mixer, using a paddle, on low speed, soften about 3.75 oz of almond paste (just to break it up a little). Add in 2.5 oz of confectioner's sugar and continue to beat on low until the mixture resembles sand. You're trying to coat the almond paste (the fat) thoroughly with the sugar. No big lumps should be present. In a measuring cup (or a bowl), combine 2 oz egg yolk (each yolk from a large egg weighs on average .67 oz) with .8 oz whole egg (a little less than 1) and .25 tsp vanilla extract. Slowly add (in stages) to the almond paste/sugar mixture in the bowl. You don't want to add it all at once (it won't form an emulsion). Instead, add about a third, mix (on low) until it forms a paste, then add the next 1/3, form a paste and finish the same way.

Once it's all pasty, pour into a larger bowl, clean out your mixer, and whip 3 oz of egg whites to a foamy stage, then drizzle in 1.75 oz of granulated sugar and whip (using the whisk) until you've got "medium" peaks. The mix will still look shiny, and if you stop the mixer and lift the whip up, it will droop, but not fall off. You're not looking for a Dairy Queen cone if you hold the whisk straight up. Just a nice droop. You'll then fold this in to the almond paste mixture in three additions (be gentle! And don't wait until it's all mixed in before adding the next batch). Then fold in 2.25 oz of cake flour that's been sifted three times the same way (in three additions). Finally, drizzle just over 1 oz of melted butter (1.125 oz) into the mix and fold in gently.

Pour the whole thing into your prepared pan, sprinkle more sliced almonds on the top of the batter and bake for about 25 minutes (test after 20) until that skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about five minutes on a rack, then slide a knife or something around the edge and finish the cooling process on the rack. Store at room temperature, covered. It's fabulous served with fresh, organic strawberries. And it makes an excellent french toast.

I'm going to be sick

This last pastry block really kills.

No, seriously.

We were working with gelatin, which in itself is disgusting enough on multiple levels, but I finally got around to trying to find the parent company for Cacao Noel (not so easy - they're French).

Through the distributor site, I was able to at least determine the country of origin of the beans. Cacao Noel proudly states they have a factory in equatorial Cote d'Ivoire. A previous roommate did her peace-corp service there, and aside from the stories of men being turned into chickens, the idea that the boxes of chocolate that we're blasting through are all the result of a likely chance of child slave labor (a 10-year old sold for $30?) hurts my very soul:

Following international media reports in 2000 and 2001 of widespread child labor abuses in West African cocoa farms, which produce 70 percent of the world's cocoa, the international human rights community investigated the problem. A 2002 joint study published by the ILO and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture found that an estimated 284,000 children on cocoa farms in West Africa were "either involved in hazardous work, unprotected or unfree, or have been trafficked." Most of the children were on cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer. The remaining children labored on farms in Ghana, the world's second-largest producer, and in Cameroon and Nigeria. (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report 2007, US State Department, http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/)

The industry stepped up rather quickly and forged an allegiance stating they would make the farms slave-labor free by 2005 (Harkin-Engel Protocol). Right. I can't find any follow-up report on statistics (although the one linked above is from 2007) stating what the current child labor statistics are, there is still no ban on child-slave-labor produced chocolate to the US, and knowing industry, this product we use hasn't suffered any harm from the aforementioned slap-on-the-hand industry self-regulated policy, if in fact they were using slave labor, which is probably the case since I can't find anything that says they aren't.

So what do I do? (Other than crosspost, of course)

World of Warcraft groomscake - kind of

World of Warcraft groomscake - kind of
Originally uploaded by carabou.

B&CD are getting married even as I type this. But me, who fell asleep last night while making a batch of brownies and totally burned them, managed to procrastinate just enough that I couldn't figure out how to make the warcraft cake work in the few remaining hours before we were supposed to leave to drive ALL THE WAY OUT to Cedar Park.

The original airbrush idea fell through and. although the backup looks passable, it only barely represents where I wanted it to go. My inspiration and desire are so much more advanced than my ability. I've been living in a digital world for so long that I'm betrayed by the lack of an undo button. Stupid autoshapes. Grr.

I am so glad they love us. I'll be the first to admit that I have sooooooo much to learn on my craft (but not warcraft -- that's a whole other world). Three more months before we start the celebration cake block. Three more months and I'll actually learn all of the techniques for putting together a wedding cake and fancy sugar flowers and towers of tempered chocolate. Three more months, and I will pwn pastillage.

If only they were getting married in November...

But I love them dearly, and they're getting married today in the rain and I still have to transport everything down to Bee Caves (in the humid rain - yay!) without destroying it too much (the N&D is crazy more nervous about this than I am). And I love them even more for letting me make one of the most important things about their wedding without worrying too much.

They're so cool. Love. Kittens. Rainbows. Pink fuzzies. All that.

Testing the tiers

Testing the tiers
Originally uploaded by carabou.

My first wedding cake! And LONG before we get to the wedding cake block in P&B, so I"m sure I"m making all kinds of stupid little mistakes as far as construction and time coordination.

But I have learned a lot. And this is kind of fun, but I realize why wedding cakes cost so much. There's a lot of structural engineering involved. And chemistry. Plus piping (as I'm learning from Chef Mary and Summer) is a zen-like experience that requires some sort of transcendence. Or perhaps just a shot of scotch.

Anyway. I was spending all my money at Whole Foods for the free-range, fair trade, shade grown, local, organic, preservative-free, local, holistic, enlightened etc. ingredients (because, you know, we live in Austin and that's just how we roll) before Casey-Dawn and Brian informed me that CostCo has a lot of the same stuff, and is much cheaper.

I am now a CostCo convert. It's like Target to Walmart for Sams. A little more trendy in the selections, not so much focused on the cheapness (in price) of the product as much as a lifestyle choice for the people who are shopping there. Dare I say a middle class Sams? We live in such a small house that buying things in bulk is silly unless we have a storage freezer.

Oh, wait ... we do. I stopped feeding the dogs raw, so there's no need to store 80# of rabbit and three cases of chicken necks in it. I'm not turning into a mormon, storing a year's supply worth of food, but if a case of paper towels ends up in the freezer, well ...

Central Market is EVIL!

When I was much younger, my mom had a giant fig bush in her yard that would annually produce fresh figs, preserves, filling for kolaches, and other delectable sweets. But mainly they would be eaten fresh, since the peak ripeness is so short, the flavor is so intensely subtle, and she would have to beat the wasps to the flowering fruit to enjoy the harvest.

I was five. And I didn't like them. Hate is a strong word, but the flavor was much too intense for me, and they had all of those seeds.

It wasn't until much, much later, when I was in college, that I found out that I actually liked figs. Okay, to be honest, I actually liked Fig Newtons. I would give blood once a month just for the cookie-and-orange-juice recovery to satisfy my craving for Nutter Butters since I didn't really want to buy them (I was on a limited budget, and I would rather give the money to the band tip jar than waste it on over-processed sweets). The blood bank was out of my favorite at one visit so I decided to give the Newtons a try. I was surprised at how good they tasted, although it could have been a craving for sugar since I had just given blood, but a post-visit purchase reaffirmed the change in my palate (seeds and all).

My love for figs emerged.

We're pretty lucky living in Austin because we can grow our own figs (and I plan to plant one once I find a suitable location). But we can also purchase fresh local figs at the farmers markets, small farms, and even grocery stores. Which is why Central Market is evil - in a good way.

Yesterday I went in looking for either a Meyer lemon or a fresh lychee (they had neither, so I bought a Daisy mandarin instead. Tasty! and it had the flavors I wanted to compliment my earl grey creme brulee for class). Right at the entrance was one of the CM staff foisting off warm figs centered with chevre, wrapped in pancetta and drizzled with honey. I'll use that presentation with dried figs or dates, and with bacon or gruyere, but the flavors were so amazing that I couldn't help snapping up a small bag of sliced pancetta, the figs, and the rosemary-infused imported honey (even though it wasn't local and we've got some good honey in the area, this particular jar was sweet, subtle, and slightly savory - perfect for the pancetta). I passed on the imported chevre for a local variety (which they were out of! so I got some that originated in Wisconsin) and looked forward to telling the N&D about the purchases.

Which he passed on in favor of the peanut-butter/chocolate cheesecake. He had that for dinner last night along with a hot dog since I was in class.

This morning I looked at the figs and tried to figure out how I could best take advantage of their yumminess, without making too heavy of a meal. Fresh - with a honey drizzle, sliced pancetta and ... something else. Here I had a dilemma. Pancakes would be too soft, biscuits or waffles wouldn't give the right accompaniment. I needed something simple, but different enough that it could be perceived as elegant. Popovers? I flipped through Fanny and found a recipe for scones. Of course! But I didn't have cream, so I substitute sour cream instead. Rich and amazing scones, and perfect for what I was after. I served medallions of the goat cheese instead of butter to spread, and put the whole thing on a plate and was amazed at how perfect it was for breakfast.

(and I started eating before I realized I wanted to take a picture, so it's a slice of life shot.)

Snakes and Ladders

Half asleep while I'm entering this. Not enough coffee yet, and dind't get much sleep last night.

Started classes again last night after a break, and we've got a bunch of prep work to do before each session. While the N&D watched "jeckyl" on the TV (a BBC show) I wrote out recipe formulas on index cards, and researched method for what we will be producing tomorrow. And I'm hitting the recipe books because not all of the methods are in the textbook and we're supposed to plan a timeline, too. So we didn't get to bed until long after 12:30 (and we're trying to get up at 5:30-6 to run).

As soon as the light was out in the bedroom (I'm reading a book on social class in England to complement my book on social class in America), I noticed Pico's stomache rumbling and grumbling. So I prod the N&D about food and what that crazy noise was (I had to pick up some EVO at Tomlinsons earlier and got a free sample of the raw medallion food from the distributor). Hope is doing fine, but poor Pico. She sounded like a gurgle machine. I wasn't too worried about it because I did the fast and gorge while raw feeding, so I know it's actually good for them every once in a while, but since she's on kibble, it's not so necessary to clean out the bones from the bowels. Then I noticed the security light was on next to the garage (actually, I noticed it when it went off). N&D let me prod him to go outside. But that took a while b/c then all the dogs had to go pee and do their doggy sniffy thing.

Also not sleeping well because of stress (even with acupuncture). The oven died last night and the N&D told me about it so I can get it fixed soon. I volunteered to make celebration cakes for friends and family next weekend. And we're throwing a lot of our spare cash at making the celebration cakes, fixing up the house, and the EV conversion. Plus we need to get some replacement parts for Kharmann Electra, and the editing job I've been doing has been going really slow because their scanning team sucks. Anyway, when I finally drift off (and have a horrid dream about adopting a ginger tabby that Chuy attacks and breaks its legs, and then while we're dealing with him and trying to decide if we need to rush it to the emergency hospital right then, and how we're going to pay for it, when Chuy (in the dream) eats the tiny kitten we're also kitten-sitting. Nice dream, eh?) when we're shocked by what sounds like a mouse getting strangled by a snake coming from our closet (not a dream. And I know the sound because I saw a mouse getting strangled by a snake at Natural Garden with neighbor while we were looking at their plants last year and getting an order of crushed gravel for the yard. Neighbor may be a golden gloves boxer, but does not like snakes). Esme is in the closet, but there is no mouse in either her jaws or paws. She's just staring at the corner. Again, N&D let me prod him to get a flashlight and shine in to make sure it's in the walls (I really don't think I could handle a snake in the closet. I've seen the snake. It bit one of the dogs on the face, a few weeks ago and it's HUGE!).

So we have a large snake eating the mice in our walls. It's a natural exterminator, but I'm really unsure what to do about this. I like snakes; I just don't want to share my living quarters with them. Mice are really destructive and we'd have to get them out of the house; most methods of extermination aren't guaranteed to work quickly and humanely. Especially after watching Ratatouille. So the snake is the most humane way of killing the mice, and once they're gone, it will leave, but I don't know if it will kill them fast enough (mice breed fast, and snakes only kill when they're hungry - even if they are large). And what if the snake has snakelings? And can I handle Chuy always trying to get under the house to get to the snake (he's already destroyed the side facing and we have a large tire, several pieces of wood and concrete blocks trying to keep him out. He's a strong, determined dog)? And then we'd have to send in an old lady who swallowed the fly ...

So that's my morning AGGGGH! And I just killed the third fly of the morning (still fewer than last year) and only drank about an inch of coffee in my caribou coffee mug. Why am I afraid of the day?

New Shirt!

I had an appointment today at my sliding scale acupuncture clinic that is two blocks away and fabulous. When I left, it was drizzling slightly. When I got to the light at Airport and 38 1/2 street, I was in a deluge. Tony and Paul were sooooooo nice and loaned me a pair of pants and donated a shirt to my drenched self. I was amused at the state of my own pitifulness. But such is the hazard of taking chances with the weather and not wanting to drive around in a self-enclosed box - especially for TWO BLOCKS. So the rain -- not my fault. Not thinking to take an umbrella or wear a rain coat -- yeah. I gave them a bigger donation than I usually would. They were really nice.

Even if you don't live in Austin, you should check out a community acupuncture clinic. Seriously.

No love for laminated doughs

This is another whiny-whine-whine post. Seems to be that kind of day. I don't know why, but I just don't care about this block at all. It could be that I really don't like mediocre danishes, croissants and puff pastries, or that the class is just too scattered and I don't feel we're getting enough actual feedback on how to make good product. Actually, I have a huge problem with that but I'm not going to be the one that whines about it, because in this case, sousveillance really doesn't matter. It's a certificate. I'm paying out the ass, but the more I talk to people in the community, the more I'm getting that the general student that comes out of the program is mediocre at best. And today I saw the infomercial. OMG. I could have produced better as a sophomore. In fact, I think I did. Plus, I really believe there could be more of an effort on what to look for to keep things from going wrong, more assistance with making superior product, less general -- I don't even know what it is. I know I'm more sensitive to this than a lot of people, but it's like there's a really bad feeling coming off of the instructors. There's too much -- hate isn't the word, but its not a good thing. Apathy? Ennui? It's hard to tell. And honestly, I really don't care. Maybe having culinary people teach baking isn't such a good idea, as they seem to think they're all rockstars. Hah! I've never seen someone burn so much stuff. At least three times a week. What are we supposed to be using as a gauge? And the lessons make as much sense as a crack addict. They're all over the friggin' place. My notes are toast, and I don't bother taking them anymore. If they meshed with the book or with a product that actually looked good, I might care more, but they don't. There's not even the knowledge that the convection oven and the convention oven are two totally separate things with a 25 degree difference in temperature. Okay. You're right. Ad hominem. Maybe I really just need a vacation. One more week and three days. I'm looking forward to it. I just hope I don't carry the disdain into the next block. Cuz that would suck. Balls.

Purging the evilness of US Bank

So I've got to purge the evilness of my last post, and I just happen to have some lovely mushrooms. They are currently whispering, "we want to be made into a sauce chasseur, and served with fresh homemade pasta!" How could I not oblige such a request? I don't have any demi glace, so it won't be as nice as it could be, but I don't think it will be difficult to enjoy. And it will give me practice on making sauces. Darn.

I'll recommend this recipe with the modification of using a whole, peeled, deseeded tomato instead of the sauce, and only use 2 tsp of butter at the beginning to soften the mushrooms and shallots, and use the rest of it at the end ("monte au beurre"). Also, don't forget to add salt and pepper with the mushrooms, after the liquid reduction, and before serving (to taste, of course). The brandy can probably get left out, too.

I read at one source that the sauce is meant for poorly shot game. It's still quite tasty.

US Bank SUxOR!

Just sent this to US Bank. It took seven days for a check to get from my house to their business; oddly, in just enough time so they could charge me a late fee (it usually takes four days). Then, gloriously, another six days and they still hadn't run it through through my bank account. So, of course, I called them to see if it was lost, if I needed to send another check. They were quite horrid. I was upset. The woman "service" rep couldn't manage to answer my simple question. What a dog.

I just had the worst possible experience from your phone customer service. I was transferred three times, with a long wait in between each because the person couldn't assist me with a simple question; when I finally reached someone, she was horribly rude. All I wanted to know was my current balance. She couldn't have been more rude unless she started to curse me out. I am horrified, and am quite glad I am able to close my account completely. Won't be doing business with US Bank; won't be recommending it; will be actively telling people how horrid it is. Thanks! Have a great day.

I don't feel better; I've written better stuff. But still. They suck. And I hate them.

Bake Shop Love

Last night I presented my petit four platter. YAY! It's done! I got some good critiques on what I was doing, and I learned a lesson: don't try things that you're not so good at. Concentrate on the things you can do, and make them absolutely fabulous. Yeah. I still made an "a" on the project, but it could have done better. The only thing that saved my butt was the fresh raspberries. Without those, my platter would have sucked balls.

Soapy macaroons

So I've decided on the flavor of the macaroon, but now I'm having problems getting the taste exactly perfect. I've settled for a french buttercream with creme de cassis, blackcurrant jam and violet syrup. However, after messing with the proportions, I discovered (nastily) that just a quarter of a teaspoon too much of violet syrup makes the whole thing taste like soap. And although these look quite nice, they are just a minute undercooked, or maybe it is just too humid today to make macaroons (and I'm also worried that the filling color isn't going to match the color of the macaroon, a requirement for the presentation, but instead of fretting, I am instead going to turn to my trusty vial of gel coloring. It's a resource and I've got it). I acknowledge that I'm still learning the craft of the macaroon, but the filling - there's the art, and there's where I'm having the most fun. Especially when I'm fatally determined to work with an idea that smells of soap. If I try lavender, there's a chance it will end up smelling like old ladies. My stubborn determination to make a purple-colored, flower-scented macaroon has put me in a lose-lose situation. But at least I'm realizing just how much I love creating flavors. I might scratch the whole buttercream thing and make a blackcurrant curd instead. Mmm. That might actually be quite good. And with a little Pimm's on hand ... Even better, since I doubt I'll be able to get any ube halaya, I think I'm just going to pipe some royal plum jam that's been slightly flavored with lemon and orange juice on them.

Macaroons come in all colours

Macaroons
Originally uploaded by TypeFiend.

Even blue. And you can't argue with a patisserie that's selling them. Even if I never get to make all of the flavors and color combinations, it gives me inspiration to make eating them a goal.

I still have so much to learn

I have found a new ideal. I tried to mimic a macaroon I'd never heard of before so couldn't try when we were in Paris (the Pierre Hermé Ispahan) and have quickly discovered that it might have gone easier had I not quartered the recipe. Or maybe I just still have so much to learn regarding technique. I have been humbled, but it's still pretty darned tasty (and Hope is following me around and licking my feet begging for another. She loves macaroons). Next time, no prosecco while baking, and maybe, just maybe, the rose paste will make the buttercream taste less cloyingly sweet. I had to settle on what the asian market had for rose syrup. I bet I can find better if I look around.

Petit Four Sec

We're working on a petit four platter, and have to come up with six different types: tarts, bar cookies, macaroons, madeleines, petit four glace, and petit four sec. I've been using Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and the croquet party of the Red Queen as an underlying theme (it hopefully won't be too obvious on my platter). My dry petit four is a cookie that I've done before, with a twist: White pepper in the cookie and nasturtiums picked fresh from my garden as garnish.

I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!

The original recipe is on epicurious.com (cardamom butter squares). If you want my version, just let me know in the comments and I'll send it to you.

Bread formula!

Tasty. There are a couple of modifications I'd like to make, but this is such a wonderfully light bread. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I really like oat flour.

I should probably convert this to a more kitchen-friendly measuring system, but for now ...

Herbed Ginger Oat Roll

10.2 oz bread (wheat) flour
6.8 oz oat flour
11.9 oz basil-mint syrup
.17 oz rice wine vinegar
.51 oz fresh yeast (.21 oz active dry)
.34 oz salt
1.53 oz unsalted butter
.68 oz minced candied ginger
.17 oz lemon zest
egg wash, palm sugar, oatmeal flakes and lemon zest for crust

Basil/mint syrup

1 cup basil/ mint leaf combo 1 Tbsp lemon agave nectar 1½ cups water pinch baking soda

Place leaves in a pot of boiling water for about 10 seconds. Remove and immediately plunge in iced water bath. Remove, squeeze out excel liquid and puree with agave nectar, water and a pinch of baking soda in a blender for about 20 seconds. Pour through a fine strainer, pushing the liquid through with the back of a spoon. Add more water if needed to bring liquid to 10.2 ounces

Cool or heat the herb syrup to 90°-100°F and dissolve the yeast in the liquid. Put flours in the bowl of the mixer fitted with a dough hook with the yeast/syrup water and mix for about 4 minutes. Let sit for about 10 minutes in bowl. Add salt and vinegar, then butter a small chunk at a time and letting it combine before adding the next, minced ginger and lemon zest. Knead in the machine for about 5 more minutes. Ferment until doubled in size. Punch down and scale to half, about 16 oz; roll and bench. Shape using the baguette method, rolling out to 16-18". Proof until doubled in size. Snip dough with scissors at a 45° angle about 2” apart and almost all the way through dough. Separate out alternating sides and press into side near bottom. Brush with egg wash and top with grated palm sugar, oats and zest. Convection oven at 375°.

And I feel my vitriolic bile regarding that person has subsided enough to remove the post of hatred. I still can't believe it happened, but out of sight, out of mind. Too bad the cookies I'm making burned because the "compose" feature of blogger totally rewrote my code in an evil way. No out of sight for that. I was going to take them up to the acupuncture people. Oh well. That was my last egg, too. To the store, C!

Adventures in bread!

I've been playing around with making a new bread formula in my head for the past couple of days. Everyone in class has been coming up with some great ideas; it's nice to think that we're already being given the chance to create new foods (rather than just learning all the the desserts from 1950). I was going to make a s'more-inspired loaf, but realized that it's spring, and I didn't really want something sweet and chocolately (with marshmallows!) in this heat. So I pulled out my acupuncturist-recommended book and started looking at flavors that are seasonally appropriate. Spring is wind, birth, green, sour, East, and wheat and oats, although the book then said that a good spring mix is pungent and sweet. I'll never quite figure it out. It's like Chef says: "Bake it until it's done!" *sigh*

So I'm in the middle of making a spring-inspired loaf based on a baguette recipe (I like the crustiness of the baguette, although I might go with the more tender ciabatta base if this doesn't work out). I've made my liquid a basil syrup, as it's fairly sweet and will hopefully give the bread a hint of green without being disgusting, with rice wine vinegar, salt and a mix of sweet rice and wheat bread flour. I added a roll of candied ginger to one of the loaves; I've got three types of rice flour (fun at the asian market!) and bought three types of candied weird flavors, including tasty olive (not so much); preserved jujube (I had to actually spit that one out); black rice cake; and something that had absolutely no English on it other than the importing company. I have no idea what it is.

Batch 1, Loaf 1: Glutenous rice ball. Ew. Flavor is too subtle. Nice crust, though. baked at 425 in a steamy oven on a pizza stone.
Batch 1, Loaf 2: Second loaf from glutenous rice ball, with a ginger core and an egg wash sprinkled with palm sugar and grated lemon zest. Too much ginger, and the texture is still pretty disgusting. Rice flour is like corn starch. Mmmm. also baked at 425 in a less steamy oven (on a pizza stone)
Batch 2, Loaf 1: I reduced the rice flour and added in some water chestnut flour (it doesn't help. Chestnut flour looks like tapioca and although it has a little more structure, acts the same as rice flour). The bread flour ratio is still 60:40. I wonder if it would be different if I were using clear flour ... I wonder where the average consumer can get clear flour ... can they? Used a more processed basil syrup (but still with agave syrup. Rolled "xoi nep than" into the dough in three stages (first at the first turn, pressed down, second at the second turn, pressed down, third at the third turn, pressed and pinched). It came out quite nasty from the oven.
Batch 2, Loaf 2: Pretty much the same as above, except instead of the black rice cake, I used preserved golden jujube and only in the center roll (it was still a little too strong for me). Egg wash on both (I like the egg wash) with a dusting of lemon zest and palm sugar. Dawn suggested this would be good with a richer pork dish.
Batch 3: Last batch is half oat flour (which I didn't have so I blended some instant oats) with the rice flour and processed the wheat flour with the yeast before adding in the other two flours. The courseness of the oats eases the gumminess without taking away from the softness that the rice flour offers. I like a soft crumb, but I don't want to add shortening or egg. I also didn't use the basil syrup, to see if it adds or detracts. It adds. Didn't get a chance to play around too much because of dinner plans. But I like the texture of this bread and the flavor of the ginger.

Conclusion: Rice flour is sticky. The basil and ginger make a lovely combination, with a pinch of cayenne to counter the sweetness. The snip pattern is very cool. It would be an excellent loaf to put next to a salad of lightly sauted scallops (in a rice wine and sesame oil mix) and served next to a fresh microgreen salad (baby romaine, maybe some fresh pear and cherry tomatoes, thin slivers of other vegetables (fresh beans, etc.) and served with a light vinaigrette. The subtleness of the ginger and basil is perfectly refreshing in this experiment.

Now let's just hope Chef thinks so ...

I love Esme.

So my sweet surviving cat ate some of her kibble this morning (don't worry - it's not any that was recalled. And I know kibble is bad, but she'll eat it as opposed to all of the other foods except for really really really crap food). She ate her kibble, and she must have eaten just a little too much of it, because she started to gack it up. I heard her. Except this is how much my kitten loves me. She gacked it up in the litterbox. I love her.

And on a not quite so disgusting note, I get to make up my own bread recipe in class using the guidelines for the bread formula and all of the ingredient functions we've been learning over the past week. The seven functions of egg. The five functions of salt. The nine functions of sugar. And yeast, oh, yeast. Our sourdough starter (named Mr. Bubbles in honor of the starter that sacrificed itself to another class's clumsiness) is quite the -er- lovely (yeah, that's it) glob of nastiness. I can't imagine anyone would think, "Hey, lets COOK with this." But then, I also don't understand duck confit. Or chocolate covered ants. But maybe that's just me.

Challah back, girl!

I feel sad that I didn't make it to a friend's Cinco de Perro celebration this weekend (oddly enough, on the 5th of May). The oppressive weather, and the oppressive pile of things we've been avoiding (including laundry, cleaning, mowing the lawn, shopping for food, bills ... you know, all the normal things that normal people generally keep up on) were all waiting. Plus Lasso stopped by to work on his ev conversion and I really felt uncomfortable saying "hey, we're going to go drink with friends, see ya!" to him. So we mowed the lawn and worked on the chicken coop instead. It will be finished one day (I hope). I'm certain I won't be able to get chickens when it's finally done. *sigh*

But on a lighter note, we've been exploring the richer doughs in the culinary bread block. Our practical this Friday will be challah and brioche. I chose the "star" braid as it just seemed easier than the 5-strand braid. Call me crazy. Weird, but if we do a good job on it, we'll even get extra points. Don't know why. I think it's easier. But you have to work quickly. I think I have it down, but I've never seen any star braids but my own and the others in class. It's still pretty. And this isn't even a Char picture.

Mycology

We're making breads in baking class and everything is very yeasty. We're even making sourdough starter from water, flour and squished grapes. Yum. My partner, sweet little thing that she is, named ours "Monostat". Other names in the class are "Mr. Bubbles", "Yeasty Boys", "Lucille DoughBall" ... you know. Cute names. Chef wouldn't let us call ours Monostat, so officially it's "The Vampire YeaStat". But we call it Monostat for short. Yup. Fun Times! Anyway. So with all of the rain, and yeast on my mind, I walked out with the compost this morning and saw a huge fungus growing next to the gas meter. I'm not a mycologist by any means (although I do likes me some fungus on my pizza -- mmmmm), but I think this might be Suillus Cavipes - which has "mediocre" edibility. Except it was growing under a gas meter, not a larch (and for some weird reason, I now have a Monty Python sketch running through my mind). Whatever it is, I'm still not eating it. But it is kind of cute, in a fungus-y sort of way.