Crashed Down on the CrossBuns

Yesterday my friend Jessica and I made Hot Cross Buns (it being Easter and all). The recipe was a further step in the evolution of my trusty rich bread, which was the formula base for both the Christmas bread and the Saffron buns. However, for the HCB, I decreased the butter a bit, increased the sugar a bit (and switched it to brown sugar, or B-Sug as we say in the biz), changed the spices around... I think that's it.

We didn't have time to candy up some citrus peels, so we just used zest instead. Some would say this defies traditional HCB methodology, but there were still currants. Those are just small raisins, by the way.

And look, we used the KitchenAid, with the new and improved spiral dough hook!

For the crosses on top, we used the weird paste that you just make out of flour and water, because I hear that's more traditional.  The crosses came out dark in the bake though, so I don't know what's up with that.

What She Said*

The other day my friend Sara, a sausagetarian, gave me a shout out on her blog. I was right chuffed, as they say, because she's a legit food writer and all. (On a side note, if you're at all curious about culinary school, read her post and the NYTimes article that prompted it).

Sara does a few posts here and there titled "Why Do I Own This?" She'll pick something from her kitchen arsenal, a once-a-year type item, and write about it. I get a kick out of it, mainly because she's got a good collection of kitchen stuff.

I'd like to steal her thunder, just this once. Although, to avoid legal entanglements and things, I will call this post: "Why did I just buy that?"

After two years of swearing that I would never buy a silly Le Creuset baby spatula, I finally found the hole in my life that only it could fill. Why did I just buy that? This is why:

Because wasted Nutella is a travesty.

*Title taken from the Smiths song (duh, haven't you been paying attention?), not the Michael Scott thing.

Meat Is Murder

Or at least some would say so. In 2005, I went vegetarian for a few months. It wasn't because I thought animals shouldn't be eaten; I was persuaded by some of the environmental arguments, socio-cultural arguments, and anti-animal as commodity arguments. The main reason that this didn't last is that I went to Capernwray Hall for nine months, and their veg option consisted of a steady diet of Quorn. That got old.

The ideals have stuck with me though, and I do try to be more aware about how much meat I eat (because who can deny that we're a meat addicted country?) Anyway, these ideas were first presented to me in the liner notes of Moby's album "Play." (This is a great album, by the by. I think I listened to it every day in 2001.)

And speaking of Moby and his veganosity, he just co-edited a book titled "Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety (thinking twice about the meat we eat)." It's a collection of essays, really, and he'll be at Powell's this Saturday at 4:00 to do a little meat and greet (ha!). I'm going to try to make it in, but my brother and his family will be in town this weekend, so we'll see.

Now if you know much about Moby, you know that he's passionate, but also very accepting and tolerant. In an interview with FOODDay, Moby states:

"To change people's minds, you have to respect the people you're talking to. Part of that is presenting the facts available, and not being pedantic or judgmental."

The essays in the book are by all sorts of people, so some of them may be preachy, I don't know. But I anticipate that this will be a good eye opening read. Maybe enough to kick me back onto the vegwagon. (But I don't think I can do vegan... I just love dairy too much, in all it's glorious forms...)

All Ovens Have Secrets

And here is mine, so let it be known: we got a new oven!

Writing Frightening Verse

So, update on the oven situation. Our landlord says that he can no longer find replacement heating elements for our oven size (22"). He said the only option looks like to get a completely new oven, either a 24" or a 20". Now, a 24" oven won't fit in our lil' nooklet, so we may have to downsize the thing. Super bummer, by the by, because I don't think my baking stone will fit in a 20" oven :[ We'll see how it goes. There may still be the possibility of finding a 22" heating element, so we'll see. In the meantime, you can still read my sporadic musings on life over at Prisma Obscura.

Oscillate Wildly

Here is my new KitchenAid! I used it to make three huge batches of cookie dough to send out to folks, which is a good thing. But now here is the bad news. In the middle of baking said cookies, my oven died. It's not really the best oven to begin with, but this just really took the cake. Oh well. That's how the cookie crumbles. I'd get it fixed, but I just don't have the dough for that kind of thing. So, to those whom I promised cookies, please bear with me.

Reel Around the Fondant

 (shout out to Christian Gridelli for the title!)

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Most of that is because work has been crazy busy lately. I've been training new hires, which always takes more energy than regular work, because you have to talk about everything you're doing the whole time and go slower than normal so they catch on. Fleh.

People said I was virtually dead, but they were so wrong; I've been baking up a storm.  Last weekend, I made petit fours for my friends for Valentine's day. How nice. I even made another video for it, because the process might be interesting to some people. They would have been posted sooner, except when all was said and done, I realised that I didn't film the actual fondant part. And what would a fondant titled post be without the fondant? Ridiculous. That's what it would be. So I made another batch of fondant today and filmed it.

Here's the deal though. I feel awkward making videos. It's just me talking to a camera, so I don't really know what to talk about to make it interesting. And my approach to baking is kind of nerdy, so I feel like it doesn't really appeal to a wide audience. Also, I noticed afterward that I say "alright" at the beginning of every clip. I'll work on that.

So, if you're interested, this first video is how to make a genoise sponge cake.  Some people see no worth in it, but I do.  It will be the base for my petit fours. My genoise consisted of only eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and cocoa powder.




So genoise is usually brushed / sprayed with some sort of flavored syrup to give it flavor and moisture. I used a rose syrup -- equal parts sugar and water flavored with rose water. I also filled the cake (after splitting it in three layers) with raspberry jam, and then punched out circles with a biscuit cutter. (see where this is leading? little chocolate raspberry rose cakes. how freaking adorable.)

This next video is all about fondant, and in my opinion it is far more interesting than the genoise video. Now I'll bet you're thinking about that weird sugary play-doh that you've seen Duff and the Charm City crew drape over their creations. Well, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not really sure about the history of that stuff, but I'm pretty sure that it used to be called sugar paste.

Fondant, in this case, is a runny, sticky business. It's very versatile, and you've definitely had it before. I won't tell you about its many incarnations here, because I do that in the video, and I need to leave you with some reason to watch it.




So after I had this lump of sugaryness, I warmed it gently over a double boiler (you can't get it over like 100 degrees, because then the crystals that took you forever to make just melt away and it comes out lame). When it was pourable, I glazed the little cakes with it. Poured fondant is sort of transparent, so it looks brownish because my cake was chocolate.

Here are pictures of the cakes. The little pink design was just royal icing, a mix of egg white, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. Have you ever used that mixture to "glaze" a cake or cookie? It's fairly common, and essentially the cheater's version of poured fondant.

Coming soon -- Scott's KitchenAid debut!