Yesterday I rebatched our first batch of soap. Our soap batches weigh about a pound each and I divided this first batch in two. I wanted to add peppermint oil to half and Vitamin E to the other half so that if either of them caused the soap to seize I would know which one was the culprit. The both played nice so today when I rebatch the second batch of soap I’ll try half of it with a combo and I haven’t yet sorted out what to do with the other half. I haven’t got anything to use for a loaf mold just yet so I’m using the molds that Grace gave me.
Last night Jason made a delicious white bean and escarole soup for dinner. He’d asked me to make some sort of bread to go with it which I saw as the perfect excuse to try another recipe from "Baking with Julia". The breads are supposed to have a depression in the center and although I docked mine I clearly didn’t dock enough as they puffed right up but they certainly don’t taste like Kleenex so I consider them a success.
Onion Bialys
for the sponge:
2 1/4 cups warm water (not more than 115 F)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons shortening
1/3 cup sweet onion, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup sweet onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups bread flour
In a large glass bowl, whisk together the water, sugar and yeast and allow to stand about 5 minutes or until foamy. In a small saute pan over low heat, sweat 1/3 cup onion in shortening until it’s soft and translucent. With a wooden spoon, stir the flour and onion mixture into the yeast mixture. Stir for about 3 minutes then cover tightly with cling film and let stand about 90 minutes or until doubled and bubbly.
Sweat remaining onion in canola oil with poppy seeds over low heat until translucent, set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 500 F. Place an oven proof skillet in the bottom of the oven and your baking stone or pan in the center. When the sponge is ready, add salt and 2 cups bread flour and begin to knead the soft dough right in the bowl. Add as much flour as is needed to obtain a workable dough and knead until it’s soft and pliable, about ten minutes total. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes.
Divide the dough into 12 portions and shape each into a round about half an inch thick. Create a depression in the center and prick well with a fork. Divide the onion mixture evenly between the breads and prick the centers again before baking. Put ice cubes or cold water into the skillet and transfer the breads onto your stone or pan with a bit of cornmeal to prevent sticking. Bake ten minutes at 500 F, reduce temperature to 450 and bake a further 5 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
All week long I kept thinking, "I’ll get to those placemats today. They won’t take long." I just never did find the time to sit down and sew them up but today I cranked them right out. There are two pieces of fabric both cut to the dimensions I wanted plus half an inch seam allowance. I put them right sides together and stitched up the short sides, ironed the seams to one side, stitches across the top and then across the bottom leaving a 3-inch gap for turning. I turned them right side out, pressed them all ’round and then ran a little top-stitching about1/8" in from the edge which makes them tidy looking and also closes up that opening quite nicely. Here they are all ready to be pressed into service at dinner-time.
In the fall of ‘05 I went on a fiber expedition with Grace and some friends from the Island Pond Spinners. One of the ladies talked about making soap and gave us each a bar at the end of the day. It was definitely some of the nicest soap I’ve ever used. Grace and I talked about getting together with Nancy for a soap making lesson but it never did pan out. Last year at one of the fiber festivals, I picked up some mint-scented soap and over the winter noticed how very helpful it was for winter itch and I again resolved to give soap making a go.
When Grace moved away to the West coast last fall she left me with some books and tools for soapmaking (thanks Grace!). Bonnie and I arranged to get together and make soap at her farm. This week we managed a bit of experimentation. Based on notes from her previous trials we formulated a new recipe to try and concocted our first batch. We used beeswax from her own hives, olive oil and coconut oil. Sodium hydroxide (commonly known as lye) proved a challenge to find in the dry form needed for soap making but we did locate the right stuff at the hardware store.
Our first batch set up very quickly and seemed a bit lumpier than might be desirable. Armed with books and websites we learned quite a bit and I reformulated a second recipe to try today based upon what we’d learned. It seemed to go quite well and appears to be much smoother than the first go. It’s really not fair that you must wait weeks for it to cure before you can try it out. These two soaps are plain unscented as the initial soapmaking would destroy essential oils. In a day or two I’ll try "rebatching" a portion of the soap in a re-melting process where I can attempt to blend in small amounts of additive to enhance aroma and skin-softening qualities.
The pork is slowly but surely making it’s way onto our table once or twice a week on average. Last night it was pork tacos for dinner. I chopped some onion, softened it in the pan and then added about a pound of ground pork. I spooned off as much of the fat as possible once it was browned over medium heat and then stirred in about a teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder, and about 2 teaspoons each of ground cumin and ancho chili powder then salted to taste. For a sort of refried bean kind of thing, I softend some more chopped onion in another pan, added canned black beans that had been drained and rinsed along with 1/3 can of water, 1/2 teaspoon each garlic and onion powder, 1 teaspoon each cumin and ancho chili powder and salt to taste. In addition we had a green salad with tomatoes and avocado and fresh grated cheddar cheese with toasted corn taco shells. Yum!
oh cookie cookie cookie, starts with a C! I squeezed in a bit of baking yesterday and tried out some new cookie recipes that had a certain two boys lurking about in the kitchen all afternoon begging for scraps and gee doesn’t that one look misshapen or maybe that one’s just too small?
Cranberry Sparkles
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar, more for rolling
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Whisk together flour, cornstarch and salt and then blend this into the butter mixture. Fold in the cranberries. Form about 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball and roll in the sugar. Place balls about 2 inches apart on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake 25-30 minutes or until just beginning to brown.
Chocolate Crinkles
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, more for rolling
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and sugar until
light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda
and salt and then blend this into the butter mixture. Form about 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball and roll in the sugar.
Place balls about 2 inches apart on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake
25-30 minutes or until just firm.
I’ve had the sewing machine out again to work on another set of napkins. This morning I’m cutting out pieces for matching place mats as well. The napkins are just a single piece of 16" square fabric with satin stitch along the edges but the place mats will have a muslin backing. I’m beginning to eye the navy narrow-wale corduroy as potential table linen makings as well.
What with Christmas and all the holiday chaos I haven’t worked on my scrapbooks in quite awhile. Yesterday I finally made it out to a crop and made good progress on our summer vacation photos. I think I’m about halfway through the trip pictures and it’s time to print up another batch and trim them before the next crop.
Heidi demonstrated some little borders like these but hers were a Christmas thing. I had little thin strips leftover from making mats for my pictures so I created my own borders following her general pattern but using my own colors and stickers. I don’t usually go in for much embellishment but when there are only a few photos on the page or when it’s just memorabilia I think it makes it look much less bare.
Yesterday I worked on soap batch #2. We learned a bit from batch #1 so #2 turned out nicer. It had no pockets of liquid as the other did and was very uniform throughout. I had a wee bit of trouble grating batch #1 but #2 grated beautifully as you can see. 
