I am a complete sucker for any of Maurizo Leo’s recipes on The Perfect Loaf .

His ciabatta, ciabatta rolls and foccacia are my go to recipes for each … all “sourdough”/naturally leavened. He is a software engineer cum baker so sort of speaks my language :)

Food 52.

So.

The dough itself is easily mixed and then needs time and then … as above, cut and cover for a rest before continuing.

Now, I have made doughnuts (sourdough) in the Bombolone style: round and filled with various custard. This dough is very similar.

There were questions about baking options (vs frying) and I had air fried the Bombolone style … at any rate, I offered to post and write about comparison … also about freezing the dough as I don’t need to make 12 doughnuts!!!

Above are air fried and glazed…

Texture and taste are good! Honestly, though, I am not tasting apple or cider … the dough is moderately sweet.

On to deep frying.

Deep fried in rice bran oil, then glaze and then cinnamon sugar. My first tries with just cinnamon sugar … the sugar mix did not stick, even right out of the fry, so I made a light glaze of powdered sugar and cider, then the sugar.

Loverly!

“hole” interior

Doughnut interior.

Deep fry vs Air fry … deep fry definitely has a crisper outer “crust”, but interior crumb is similar with both.

Ultimately, I like the bombolone style better, then the deep fry, then the air fry … BUT, if I want a sweet with my morning coffee and do not want to mess with oil … I would be very happy with air fry.

…. just FYI … I have 7 frozen rings in my freezer … future sweet mornings.

***Tech side note … I updated my laptop to Windows 11 … zero issues and I have not explored all features, but my normal work flow is … NORMAL :)

Throwing caution to the wind, I also updated my iPhone and iPad to iOS15 … also no issues and my head did not explode dealing with new look and feel.

YEA for updates!!

Despite our little mid-week hiccup … we had a pretty good week!

I completed a number of work tasks – YEA!

A fun bread bake(s) using a new bread board for shaping:

I have noticed that when I take time to shape properly, my final results are much better. And I noticed that many of the shaping videos I watched … the bakers were shaping on wood surfaces.

So, I went searching and found the bread board above on www.Overstock.com … same supplier of our beloved little kitchen sofa. The board arrived this week and I’ve taken it for a spin for rolling out Naan (above) …

…as well as shaping a new recipe: Seeded Spelt-Rye Sourdough.

Results!

I am pretty happy with crust, crumb and flavor. I will be experimenting with some variation in flour and hydration, but this first go was very good and I loved working on wood! AND, the lip will be great for attaching my pasta maker which has had issues trying to attach to the counter top.

Today’s weather was 100% blue sky! It was cool with a VERY brisk and fresh cold-ish wind, but still … just wonderful to be outside. Today is also the 3 year anniversary of Emmett’s arrival at the fambly Summers so we had extra walks and treats and enjoyed and reflected. Yes, horrible sadness that Auggie is not with us, but we did have 3 years all three of us and they were wonderful years.

The first little lupin!!! For reference, the lupin above are about the size of my little finger fingernail. But, there were a lot of them here and there.

The two of us …

After our walk, I set up 4 cameras: DSLR, Omni Action, iPhone, iPad … and filmed something that I am calling “The games we play” (much editing to be done!)

Above photo is the end of that session. The pillow is a target for one of the games and Emmett decided that he had had enough of everything and/or was just tired (me too!), so “the end”.

Happy Friday to all and on with the weekend. Some exciting plans in the works … stay tuned :)

Last Sunday was my birthday and it was a wonderful day, but with all of the bug stuff happening, baking and cooking was not top of my list.

BUT, I had seen this pie about a week before my birthday:

I immediately bought a subscription to Bake from Scratch Magazine .

It is a gorgeous magazine full of wonderful recipes including Erin Jeanne McDowell’s Banana Coconut Cream Pie from her book:

I have the book on pre-order :)

Late May, I happened on a YouTube video from Erin’s series for Food52.com called “Bake it up a Notch”. The video I watched was how to make puff pastry and it included both traditional puff pastry and a fast, easy “rough puff” which takes about 10 minutes to put together and after an hour in the refrigerator is ready to use. I had so much fun and so much success with the rough puff! Erin is fun and funny as well as a great teacher of “how to” do some complex baking things. She always includes a section on “how to fix what went wrong and/or why something can go wrong”. AND, she spends time on encouraging observation, i.e. yes, follow the recipe, but also pay attention to look/feel/smell.

My next EJM baking success was biscuits. Biscuits have been my baking nemesis! But this video, released on Father’s Day, of Erin and her Dad making biscuits … Erin in New Jersey and her Dad in Kansas … so helpful and now I make both the sky high traditional biscuits and drop biscuits whenever I want. Both freeze well (pre-bake) so it is also fun to have some in the freezer, ready to pop in the oven.

All of the above to say that I am now a HUGE Erin Jeanne McDowell fan! Aside from being an excellent baking teacher, her passion for food and being in the kitchen and just her general joie de vivre (exuberant enjoyment of life) are just what I want right now!

Back to Birthday Pie!!

I also did not have all the ingredients I needed for the pie … on my birthday and as I’ve been grocery shopping every 2-3 weeks vs every week, I find I really don’t WANT to run to the grocery on a non-shopping week.

But, this week was my week for grocery so I got the few things I didn’t have … except, I forgot Nilla Wafer cookies … RATS. I looked for a recipe to make my own and wow – they are easy and I had everything needed and in a happy coincidence the wafers take 3 egg whites and the coconut custard for the pie takes 3 egg yolks … so happy, happy, no leftover whites or yolks to use up in whatever.

The wafers:

The only tricky thing – for me – is that the cookies are piped. I have tips and pastry bags but I have not done a lot of piping. I need more practice and also to follow the recipe directions of leaving a lot of space because the cookies spread. However, as they were going to be buried in custard and some crushed over the bananas … appearance was not an issues. AND they are SO good: crispy, light, vanilla wafer cookies

I used Erin’s “All buttah” pie crust recipe and for this pie, it includes some toasted coconut.

The coconut custard in the making … crust and wafers awaiting.

Half of the custard topped with vanilla wafers…

Top with the remaining custard and into the refrigerator for 4 long hours! Long because it smelled so very good!

Finally! The custard gets topped with banana, crushed wafers, whipped cream and then some bits of banana and coconut. Mine is not nearly as pretty as Erin’s, but it is delicious.

Birthday Pie!!

New year, new stuff !!!

Good grief. 2020. It sounds so very futuristic to a person born in 1955, who read 1984 (George Orwell) thinking it was so very far in the future.

Anyway.

Last week, I saw something like this:

So that is toast, with avocado and bananas (!), lime zest and juice and a drizzle of honey plus red pepper flakes.

At first, I thought “Ewww” … but then I read the article and watched the video … mostly drawn by the bread in the lead photo!

And I was so taken by Apollonia Poilane’s passion for her craft of bread baking and the story of how she took the reins of the bakery at a VERY young age, that I tried the recipe for Avocado tartine with banana and lime!

And I LOVED it! Additionally, it is a nutritional powerhouse. I bought Apollonia’s book as well. It is both a beautiful and poignant story as well as what look to be wonderful recipes.

Ultimately, it is yet another lesson in being open to new things.

Other new baking things include:

Pumpernickel Sourdough. This turned out to be the best pumpernickel bread that I’ve had in ages!!

Einkorn Cardamom-Cinnamon naturally leavened (sourdough) rolls. Einkorn was new to me last year and it is my favorite heirloom whole grain. It worked wonderfully in this roll recipe.

Still on food, but I’ve shared before the “Souper Cubes” I like for freezing 1 cup (souper cube) portions of many things: cooked meats, beans, rice, broths …

That is chicken, shredded carrots and black beans. The very cool thing is that a cube fits in a half pint mason jar for thawing …

The freezer is this solo human’s friend and “Souper cubes” add to the ease.

New things in my personal tech experience…

DJI Osmo Action Camera … sometimes called the GoPro “killer”. Whatever. I dove into the action arena with the DJI Osmo Action.

It’s tiny!

Video is it’s strong point.

On a “selfie stick” … I also bought a gimbal, but am struggling to find time to get that set up … so meanwhile, the stick.

Unlike the GoPro, the Osmo has a front camera :)

Stay tuned … for maybe a bit. In addition to getting all of the hardware up and going, I have to spend more time learning about the editing software. SO.MUCH.GOOD.STUFF.

So.

Leaving you with some scenery …

Lovely light.

Me and the mountains!

Auggie in sunshine :)

Emmett in the snowy woods.

New Year, New Stuff.

Always keep learning and exploring!