Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

adrian_turtle just walked over with a copy of The Bakery Men Don't See, open to the "Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp," and asked whether I am in contact with Eileen Gunn, whose recipe it was.

After I said not really, Adrian said "I assume she didn't test the recipe." The specific untested part is the long list of possible sweeteners, which starts with various kinds of sugar and ends "...treacle, fruit preserves, raisins, dates, or gummi bears."

One of Adrian's friends just tried baking rainbow challah, using gummi bears for the rainbow colors. She reports that the gummi bears melted, then solidified into hard candy, and the resulting loaf was stuck to the pan.

This recipe is where I got (slightly paraphrased) "take into consideration any special-interest groups, such as 5-year-olds." I'd thought "consider special interest groups, such as five-year-olds" was from the suggestion to sweeten with gummi bears, but apparently not: having gotten out the book, I see that the special-interest groups and the suggestion of gummi bears are on different pages. Because I am not five years old, when Adrian quotes the part about "special-interest groups" she usually means that she is cooking me sweet potatoes or using ginger in a recipe.

Somewhere along the line, I also combined two different parts of this recipe to get "if you feel the need to peel and slice berries, call 911 or consult your therapist."

I made cattitude a chocolate birthday cake, with a layer of chocolate on top, at his request. This is something like the birthday cake he often asked for as a child.

The basic cake recipe I'm using is relatively light -- it's the Hershey's black magic chocolate cake, which is fairly easy to make and east to make non-dairy -- with semi-sweet chocolate chips melted on top.

The first time I tried this, the chocolate chips all sank to the bottom and melted onto the pan. This time, I took the cake out of the oven about 2/3 of the way through baking it, put the chips on, and then put it back. At that stage in the baking, the center of the cake is lower than the edges, and the chips rolled towards the center.

When the cake was done and I took it out, I used a knife to spread the melted chocolate a bit more evenly; cattitude said it's better with discrete chips, so I can skip that step whenever I next make this.

Because this was an experiment, I baked the cake in two pans, and put chocolate chips on only one, so I could count on having a good cake.

I made a loaf of bread today, for the first time.

I sometimes bake sweets, including cookies and cupcakes, but had neer tried bread befrore. Some people on Discord were talking about no-knead bread, and the person who went shopping for us a couple of weeks ago managed to get both flour and yeast, so I gave it a try.

cattitude and I ate a bit under half the loaf for dinner, with butter on mine and honey on his. Theere was a little bit of pickled herring, and Cattitude had some olives, but mostly we ate the bread, as soon as it had cooled down after baking.



( Read more... )

I was making a couple of batches of apple cakelings, using Jo Walton's recipe: two batches because I had almost half an apple left after the first, and didn't want to waste it. I also wanted to try using lemon extract, which I added to the sugar at the beginning.

I was about three steps in when I realized I'd used the normal amount of butter/margarine, but 1/3 more sugar, because I had somehow grabbed a 1/3 cup measure instead of the 1/4. So I used 1 1/2 or 1 2/3 eggs instead of one (no measuring here, just not-exactly-separating the second egg and putting about 2/3 of the egg white and I think about that much yolk into the bowl with the other ingredients. I increased the flour by an unmeasured amount, by using a heaping quarter cup instead of the usual measured amount. That was going to be 1/3 cup as well, but the cat knocked the 1/3 cup measure on the floor.

Overall, these worked well. adrian_turtle, you might like these, they're not as greasy as they sometimes come out. I will probably try this again, with a bit more lemon, and possibly measured amounts of other things.

Here's Jo's cakeling recipe, for reference. I had the oven at 200C/400F, and baked for a full twenty minutes.

Next time, try: 4.5 or 5 tablespoons of margarine (instead of 4); 1/3 cup sugar; a measured 1/3 cup of flour, and 3/8 tsp baking powder (I'm starting with what King Arthur calls all-purpose flour, which doesn't contain baking powder), and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract. Having looked at Jo's currently posted version of the recipe, I might try actual lemon juice and zest some time, instead of apple bits+lemon extract. (For that she advises increasing only the amount of flour.)

This is an extremely rich thing, really closer to fudge than cake. It's easy, can be pareve (the recipe originally called for butter, but I used margarine and everyone was happy), and my family loved it. I offered to make another one for next year; it's too rich to be a reasonable thing to bake for two or three people, but it's fine for ten or twelve; with nine, we had leftovers, and the other desserts were mostly ignored. This is of the "rich, and fits the rules for Passover" category, rather than having been designed specifically to be kosher for Passover.

Yes, papersky, it measures almost everything by volume. The amounts seemed forgiving.

This can be baked in an eight-inch round cake pan, an eight-inch pie plate, or anything of similar dimensions. If you're using a square pan, that would be about 6 by 6.

• 4 ounces dark chocolate, in small pieces. Use chocolate chips, or cut up other chocolate. With chips, I used a measuring cup.


• 4 ounces (=1/2 cup, =1 stick) butter or margarine


• 3/4 cup sugar


• orange extract, probably about a teaspoon (optional)


• 3 large eggs


• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375°F (I think that's about 190°C or gas mark 5, but check before baking if your kitchen doesn't speak American). Grease your pan. Cut an eight-inch round piece of wax paper, put it in the bottom of the pan, and grease the top of the wax paper. (I suspect it would be easier to cut the wax paper to size before greasing the pan. I don't actually know if this step is necessary, if, as I did, you use a glass pie plate, but the recipe said to do this, and it seemed to work.)

Put the margarine and chocolate in the top of a double boiler, with the water on the bottom barely simmering. Melt, stirring regularly. (If you have a microwave, sure, use that instead, but do stir regularly, and use a large bowl.) When they're completely melted, turn off the stove (or microwave) and remove the top half of the double boiler from the still-hot bottom half, putting it on a heat-safe surface.

Whisk the sugar in thoroughly. Next, whisk in the orange extract and the eggs, again thoroughly. (The orange extract was not in the original recipe, and I don't remember if I added it before or after the eggs. It probably doesn't matter which. The amount is basically "one glug from the nice four-ounce container of orange extract I got from Penzey's." The great thing about getting orange extract in containers that size is that it encourages me to use it liberally, not hoard it the way I'm likely to if I have the tiny vial from the supermarket.

Now, sift in the cocoa powder, and whisk just until blended. If you spill some of the cocoa powder in the process, guess at how much and add it back.*

Pour this mixture into your greased pan. Put the pan in the oven. Bake 25 minutes or until a thin crust forms on top of the torte. (I set the timer for 26 minutes, actually, because I have a slightly slow oven, and it had a crust then so I took it out.)

Let cool at least a little while; if you're baking for an event three days later, put plastic wrap or foil over the top of the torte, and refrigerate.

When it's time to serve the torte, cut into small pieces. As dessert after a serious seder meal, this serves nine, with a bit to take home to impress the houseguest who didn't arrive in the city until after the seder, and the beloved who was working too hard to join your family for the celebration.

The recipe I was working with suggested topping this with whipped cream. I didn't for the same reason I used margarine, namely that one of the people I was baking for can't eat dairy. I'm not sure whether that would make it too intense, or whether home-whipped cream with absolutely the minimum of sugar would actually cut this somewhat.

*Somewhere around here, cattitude, who was helping, intoned "Be certain that the rum is of the highest quality."**

**see The Bakery Men Don't See

I baked a key lime pie yesterday, and it is good. (cattitude and julian_tiger agree.)

The procedure is simple, if you have access to key limes. It's somewhat physically tedious, as it involves zesting and then juicing over a dozen small citrus fruits, but not complicated.

It doesn't come out much cheaper than going out and buying a pie, but I'm fairly sure that most of the "key lime pies" I'm offered commercially, even good ones, are made with Persian limes instead of key limes. I like Persian limes. I use them a lot, including in places where many people use lemons. But I also like variety. I don't think I'm going to make a habit of hunting for key limes, and I'm not sure what I'll do with the handful I have left (maybe a mixed-citrus ice cream), but I'll probably buy them again, as opportunity allows.

I have just eaten the end slice off the first loaf of banana bread I've ever baked. It's okay, not great--though I'm hoping the non-end pieces will be better, since I suspect the "dry" feeling came from the amount of well-cooked end/edge in the end slice.

I am feeling ridiculously domestic. Not because I baked banana bread--the recipe is right there in Fanny Farmer, though I used pecans because we don't have walnuts, and it's quite simple. I am feeling ridiculously domestic because of what prompted me to bake banana bread: not a deep desire for banana bread, or for home-baked sweets in general, but because I had two bananas that had turned dark brown, and this recipe seemed simpler than the banana cake a few pages later.

I think this is the first time I've actually used my grandmother's loaf pan, though I seem to recall either cattitude or adrian_turtle using it for either potatoes or yams last month.

The recipe calls for three ripe bananas, so I bought two more bananas, one for baking and one to eat plain. (Also some other groceries--and I had lunch at a cafe on Broadway, doing my part for the local economy during the transit strike both by working from home, hence getting paid my normal salary, and patronizing a local business.)

Addendum: I just had another slice of the banana bread. It really is too dry. I suspect the problem is that one of the bananas I used was still bright yellow, not black or even spotted brown. Next time I'll know this. "Only be sure, always to call it research."

These came about because of a suggestion cattitude made when I did lemon-walnut cakelings a while ago. He was right--pecans are better for this.

This time, I didn't bother zesting the lemon.

2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces (measured, not weighed) sugar
one large egg (which weighs 2 ounces)
one tablespoon fresh lemon juice, with pulp. Well, slightly over, because I had slightly over from juicing the large half of a lemon.
A capful of lemon extract (it's probably about a teaspoon, but I used the cap from the bottle, because that worked last time)
a handful of roasted unsalted pecans, broken into small pieces
a little over a quarter cup (yes, 2 ounces again) self-rising flour

The standard cakeling method: preheat oven to 400 F/200 C (gas mark 6, thanks Jo). Line two cupcake pans (total of 12 cupcakes) with muffin papers.

Melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon extract. Whisk in the egg. If you're used to making cakelings, notice that it seems a bit thinner than usual.

Fold in the pecans.

Sift and fold in a quarter cup of flour, look at the result, and fold in a little more.

Spoon batter into muffin cups. Break up two more pecan halves and put the pieces into the last few cups, because while there's plenty of pecan in the first ones you made, the last few are very thin.

Bake 17.5 minutes.

They're now nice and just a little brown around the edges when they come out of the oven.

Note, when posting the recipe for your friends, that you have a slow oven, and those with fast ovens might bake this for 15 minutes or less, and should certainly look at them by the 15-minute point. Note also that you meant to use cinnamon sugar, and then forgot until they were in the oven, but they seem to be better without it, unlike the apple cakelings.

It's papersky's basic cakeling recipe, this time withouyt the apple, beating in half a teaspoon of orange extract just before the egg; folding in a large handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips after beating the egg in, and sifting in a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon just before sifting in the flour (and folding both in at the same time).

The proportions worked: it's noticeably but not overpoweringly cinnamony, and still orangy and chocolaty.

This is based on papersky's apple cakelings, plus suggestions and comments received the first time I tried this. These came out properly chocolately--in a cake way, not a brownie way--with a nice hint of ginger, and stronger ginger when I bit into a bit of the crystallized ginger. Note: crystallized ginger that is quite strong when eaten by itself is tamer after baking in these cakelings.

2 ounces butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 ounces sugar
1 large egg
1 ounce Baker's chocolate, melted with a few random chocolate chips (to make up for the amount of chocolate that sticks to the pan)
Crystallized ginger, cut small (a handful)
2 ounces flour
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C; you're still on your own for gas marks).

Beat the sugar into the melted butter. Beat in the egg, whisking thoroughly to get plenty of air in.

Fold in the melted chocolate and the ginger.

Sift the flour, ginger, and cocoa into the liquid mix, then fold it all together, stirring thoroughly.

Spoon into muffin tins, and bake 20 minutes. Enjoy.

(This was going to have cinnamon sugar, but I forgot about it until the tins were in the oven, and it didn't seem worth pulling them out.)

Annotations, 20 November 2003: The cinnamon sugar makes no discernible difference to the flavor. Sifting in more cinnamon, with the ginger, cocoa, and flour, might be worth trying.

A Droste dark chocolate pastille as part of the melted chocolate works. Spoon the melted chocolate from the saucepan into the mixing bowl instead of pouring: less is lost that way. (If you have a microwave and are melting the chocolate in a bowl, bravo, and the principle probably still applies.)