Strawberry Shortcake
We harvested our first strawberries this past week, and wanted to make strawberry shortcake. I’d never gone looking for a shortcake recipe before. This came out with a texture between those cheesy cakes we used to get in the grocery store next to the strawberries and angel food cake, but so much better than either one!
Strawberry Shortcake
dry ingredients:
- 1 C corn starch
- 1/4 t xanthum gum
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
wet ingredients:
- 1 C butter (one stick) slightly softened
- 1 C powdered sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 T vanilla
Preheat oven to 375 and grease muffin tins. I used tins that were shaped like small bundt cakes.
Combine dry ingredients, mix well, and set aside. (not the sugar.)
Beat butter until fluffy. I used a stand mixer, but a hand mixer would also work.
Add vanilla and sugar, and beat til fluffy again, starting with the mixer on low so you don’t make a mess.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating until fluffy between each. At the end the mixture may separate a little; this is ok.
Add the dry ingredients and … Yep! You guessed it! Beat til fluffy!!
Divide the batter between the cups. It will be thick, but that won’t matter; they will cook into a nice shape even through they don’t start with a smooth surface.
Bake for about 15 minutes. Less will give a softer, wetter texture, more will give a firmer, dryer consistency and a darker color.
I also made a cinnamon whipped topping while the cakes were cooking:
- 1/2 C heavy cream
- 1/2 C 2% milk
- 1 t cinnamon
- 2 T powdered sugar
Beat cream until it starts to thicken.
Add milk, a little at a time, beating between additions, diluting the cream as mich as you can without making soup. Depending on the cream and the milk and the day, you may not be able to use it all.
Add cinnamon and powdered sugar, and beat some more.
I plated it up, sprinkled with some shaved chocolate, and it was delicious! Wonderful accompaniment to a game of Carcassonne!
ISO: The Perfect Sock Yarn
I’m enjoying my carder a great deal. This is an experiment in making a better sock yarn. 40% Romney, 40% Clun Forest, 20% silk. I intend to spin it semi-worsted and then cable it into a 2×2 cabled 4 ply. In my brain it’s AWESOME!
My new (to me) Strauch Petite carder is pretty comfortable making 1 oz. batts, which is a good sample size and a nice round number. I weighed out .4 oz of each of the Romney and Clun, and .2 oz of some Bombyx silk top I have in stash.
Next I lashed the locks on hand cards on 112 tpi Schacht hand cards (thanks for the loan, Heather!)
From what I’ve been able to tell so far in my month of drum carding, every wool seems to have a different best way to prep and load it into the drum carder for the first pass. The Romney and Clun seem to work best if I lap them fairly thickly in shingle-like layers, and turn the drum very slowly.
The stack of fluff on and behind the carder is the Clun and Romney, while the stuff in front of the carder is the silk. Slowly I fed all the wool through and packed the drum. The black brush helps pack the wool down into the teeth of the drum so it all will fit.
Once the wool has all been run through the carder onto the drum once, the combined batt needs to be removed.
There’s a special tool for this! I pull up little sections of the batt until the whole thing has been split, and can be unwrapped from the carder. I have two brushes I can use to lift stray fibers off the drum. This brush has soft plastic bristles:
This is a flicker brush, and it has long metal teeth:
I flip back and forth between them trying to figure out which seems to be working best. Again, every fiber seems to have its own temperament. Finally the batt is free from the carder:
In the next pass I’ll sandwich the silk between layers of wool. The idea is the wool is easier for the carder to grab onto, so if the silk is the filling of a wool sandwich it will card more smoothly. It seems to work. First step is to pull off a strip of the bat, lengthwise:
Then spread it out and feed it onto the drum:
Then add silk by dragging it over the teeth on the main drum, spreading it out in a thin layer:
Once a layer of silk is on, I smooth it down with the black brush:
then add another layer of wool:
Then more silk and more wool until everything’s on the drum. Then the silk and wool batt gets removed:
It has big chunks of silk, so needs to make another few passes to get smoothed out. They are run through the same way, splitting the batt lengthwise and feeding strips into the drum carder. The second pass is a little better:
After four or five passes, it’s nicely uniform:
I chose to make hand pulled roving out of this batt. This meant i first fed a little of the batt through a hole in a diz, and slid the diz down onto the batt:
Then pulled the diz forward about one staple length:
Then slid the diz down again:
And keep on like that til the whole batt has been pulled through the diz:
And I have coils of roving!
I have only had a chance to spin a small sample of this, but it was very nice. Sheen and strength from the silk and Romney, with some bounce from the Clun. My first little sample was overspun in the single, so it was too compacted to make a tight gauge knit. I can’t wait to try some more!
Gluten free Buckwheat Pancakes
Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancakes
(feeds about 4)
Ingredients:
- 1 C buckwheat
- 1/2 C masa harina (fine ground corn flour)
- 1/4 C sorghum flour
- 2 T sucanat (brown sugar will work)
- 2 T buttermilk powder (optional)
- 1/4 t xanthan gum
- 1.5 T baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 C milk (goats milk works fine, and water can be subbed for the dairy free.)
- 1 T oil
- 1 large or 2 small apples, or a cup of blueberries
Directions:
Combine dry ingredients.
Beat eggs, then add milk & oil.
Combine dry & wet until fairly smooth, then leave it sit for at least 15, probably 20 minutes. The waiting is important, I promise, or they won’t be fluffy.
If you’re adding apples, peel them and slice it into very thin slices– as thin as you can. If you’re adding blueberries wash them and set them close to where you’re cooking.
Stir up the batter after its rested. If it seems thick, add water, a little at a time, until it is thick but will pour.
Heat a skillet and brown butter in it. Add a little cooking spray, maybe, to make sure the pan is coated with oil.
Drop some batter in the pan and smooth it out a little– it will be too thick to spread on its own.
If you wish, you can lay apple slices into the batter to mostly cover it, or scatter some blueberries over the top.
Cook pancake on medium heat until bubbles form and then break on the surface.
Flip the pancake and cook until done.
Serve and enjoy!
Note: If you have leftover batter, it will keep nicely in the fridge.
Kerry Hill
I received a box of rare breed fiber from sarahw this Saturday; she offered some samples form fleeces she has on Ravelry.
First off, look at these guys, they’re adorable!
I like this fiber. A lot. Enough that I’ve reached out to the only farm in the US with any Kerry Hill bloodlines; they are trying to breed up from AI, and currently have some 75% animals. It’s difficult to get fleece from the UK, because it must be quite thoroughly washed to make it through customs.
Here are the first few samples I spun up:
I also included a handful of unprocessed fiber, a nest of combed sliver and a rolag form the waste of that combing in the picture.
The sample in the upper left is spun long draw from carded combing waste. The little one on top of the washed fiber was finger spun right out of the bag when I first opened it. The rest were spun from combed sliver in various ways: some worsted, some woolen, some two ply, some three ply, and at various thicknesses.
I only tried a little bit as laceweight. The sample fleece I have has very little crimp, so spun tightly it turns into wire, and spun loosely the laceweight drifts apart. You can see what I managed across the top of the combed samples; it just about completely untwisted in the bath. In the thicker singles, though, the scales on the wool seem very grabby. Even the carded fiber wanted to pull itself into a tight, smooth single.
As soon as it hit the water of the finishing bath it poofed out into a fluffy, springy yarn. I can’t really tell the worsted from the long draw samples after their bath. I can pick carded fiber sample mostly because it’s the longest, but I can see that it’s slightly more uneven than the other bits. I still like the little fingerspun bit the best, but it was pleasant to spin and has a very soft, springy character.
I will also say it wants to felt like a stone. I didn’t give it any agitation in the bath, and it was still sticking to itself.
I want MOAR! What possessed me to purchase a box full of unobtanium?
Cream Puffs
I have just made gluten-free cream puff shells for the first time ever. This is a choux pastry, which is something I’ve never tried to make previously; apparently this is how eclairs and profiteroles are made as well.
I’m not sure I’ve ever baked something so beautiful. And I haven’t filled them with the chocolate pastry cream yet.
here, let’s zoom in:
Now don’t you want to come to knit night at my house tonight?
Swatchy Swatch
Today’s telephone time crafting has been swatching Henrietta. My goal is to end up with a shoulder wrap thing, with alternating swaths of stockinette and lace, set off by garter ridges. There have been a number of patterns lately that use this technique to good effect.
I started on US 6′s, which is the blue/green swatch on the right. I liked it, but I wanted to see what a larger needle would look like, so I switched to US 10′s. Holey Moley. It looks like lace! It has the right character for the rough handspun look I was imagining. And it will knit so quickly!!
Both of these swatches are 21 sts across. The one on US 10′s is 40 rows. The one on US 6′s is 56. If I wanted a sweater, I’d go with the 6′s. Since I want a lacy wrap, it’s the 10′s all the way. The swatch is .4 oz, so roughly 1/10th of the yarn I have. I’m going to play with some designs, but I’m thinking I will be hard pressed to get a decent wrap out of that. Maybe an Elizabethan collar sort of thing, that wraps around neck and shoulders.
No yarn was cut in the making of these swatches. :-) I cast-off the first swatch, looped the last stitch around the whole swatch and snugged it down, and cast-on for the second. There’s a small puff of yarn left after the second swatch, which is mostly out of frame on the bottom of the picture, which I dealt with the same way.
My plan is to unravel the swatch, and start the FO with the small skein, then shift to the larger skeins that are actually fractal spun. I believe the shorter repeat in the small skein spun from two ends of a short repeat ply will work well in the smaller start section of a shawl. It will still be stripey. I’m thinking start with the pink end then work through the green, followed by the pinker end of skein B worked through to the dark end of skein A on the bottom. I’m not committed to that yet, though.
Henrietta and the Strawberries
Strawberries are perverse plants.
Last spring I built them a lovely mound. I amended the soil. I planted 4 varieties developed in the region, mixing ever-bearing and June bearing so we would have a big initial crop and then a constant small supply. I trimmed their runners, so the mother plants would focus on their own roots rather than offsets. We let each plant set a few fruits, but plucked most of the flowers.
And then suddenly it was winter before it had ever really been Fall. I never put them properly to bed; I just left them to their own devices. Today I perhaps reaped the rewards of my inattention, except I prefer to believe it’s their perversity, not my lack of care, that made such a mess.
They had, somehow, migrated. Instead of neat little offset rows of plants, they were scattered about with big empty spots and over-tight spacings. This could have been the work of raccoons going after grubs. It could have been the work of the cats and dog. But I think it’s the plants. They had also set a bumper crop offsets on the driveway and brick paths. Lots of perfectly good dirt, but nooooo, let’s set down roots between these two bricks! grrr.
All is now orderly in strawberryland again. Runners are trimmed back to the mothers so I can weed around them, and all the weeds are removed. The volunteer poppies and parsley have been heeled in elsewhere in the garden. The offsets are re-planted in the inexplicable bare spots. All that remains is a good feeding and some mulch, and they should be good for the season.
It felt good to be out digging in the little plot of Earth that’s mine to tend. I had a very grumpy day, but there is something relaxing and, well, grounding about tending the land. Even though it was cold, even though there’s now hail coming down and I’m still shivering, it was good. I’m still a bit down and disheartened, but no longer ready to chew nails and snap at people. I feel much more at peace and ready to face the things that must be dealt with.
In other news, Henrietta is all spun up, plyed, and awaiting finishing. 250 yds (unfinished) of worsted-ish yarn from 4 oz. I’m pleased. :-) As ever it’s shockingly darker than I expected, but I like it. I want to try to make a wrap of some kind, but I believe it will need to be mixed with another fiber; 250 yds isn’t a lot to work with, and I expect to lose at least 10% in the finishing.
The tags are for me to remember what end to start from when knitting, since I set up what should end up being gradual color shifts. I racked my brain trying to come up with a way to mark the yarn that would survive a fulling, and then realized I have plenty of scrap fabric and a laundry marking pen. I made up tags, lettered them sequentially (writing on satin is hard!) and tied them to the starting ends of the skeins, so I’ll know where to begin when I start knitting, no matter how long the yarn marinates.
It ended up that my first ply– the one that was split as a single length of the braid– is much shorter than the second ply. I *think* this is because I slipped into semi-worsted point of contact spinning, rather than the honest long draw I was doing on the first ply. Semi-worsted is much more well suited to cuddling on the couch watching tv. :-)
La Push retreat with Judith MacKenzie
On Sunday after brunch I left for this retreat. It’s now Friday, the official retreat is over, and I’m here on my own for a day, expecting Zack and David tonight. To say I’m missing them would be putting it mildly. I kept rolling over in bed last night expecting the weight of a cat on the covers, expecting David beside me, and feeling little jolts when neither of those things were true. It’s a good vacation in the sense that I’m definitely ready to be heading home. I love my everyday life, and I miss it.
The weekend should be lots of fun, though. There are many things to explore here on the reservation, and other places to go on the Peninsula. There’s a wood carvers studio, and some other tribal arts centers I expect Zachary will appreciate. The opportunities for stunning photography should please David.
The drive out here was so much fun! I carpooled with Heather, who makes a wonderful companion. She is wheat and cow dairy free, so my gluten free needs are easy for her to understand. We also seem to be able to talk and talk and talk and laugh and talk some more, and never tire of each others company. Five days of togetherness in unfamiliar and intense surroundings is challenging, but we were as delighted with each other at the end of the trip as at the beginning. I’m so glad she’s moved here, so close to me! I look forward to friendship and fiber arts collaboration for years to come.
She and I stopped in Port Gamble at the Artful Ewe on the way, and had tea at the Tea Room. I purchased some tealy green locks from a local Romney cross sheep to spin. Heather walked around touching things and cooing. We pet Grace, I gave Heidi lots of hugs, and we got back on the road to La Push.
The retreat has been fascinating. There were delightful people, good food, and of course lots of spinning! I spent most of the week working on my woolen spinning, with occasional breaks for some “comfort” spinning of fine worsted yarn. I spun several hundred yards of silk for the progressive yarn project, and I’m looking forward to making more so I can start the plying.
I learned the yarn I want to spin: fluffy, airy, diaphanous woolen yarn, is best accomplished with down breed sheep. The first time I sat down with Judith on Tuesday to talk about what I wanted to work on I showed her a little sample that was the closest I’ve ever gotten to what I want, and she said, “Oh! You’re using wool form the wrong sheep! Here, try this,” and handed me a length of Columbia roving. The sky opened and the clouds parted and five minutes later I had a sample of exactly what I’ve been trying fruitlessly to produce for several months.
I also confirmed that I’m really really allergic to lanolin. I spun some of the locks I’d picked up from Heidi, working on making the “wolf yarn” on Judith’s A Spinner’s Toolbox video, and after about 15 minutes my forearms were red and splotchy. No more lanolin for me. :-(
It was an interesting exercise, even though I had to quit. If I work further on this yarn, I will focus on spinning the fine core yarn, and add fluff where possible, rather than focusing on the fluff. Even though the fluff is the goal, the fine yarn core is the structure of the yarn. Spinning it from the back of my hand as Judith demonstrates is HARD! I believe that will be the key, however.
I do not believe wolf yarn is on my quest for fluffy diaphanous yarn. I like the order of the Columbia far more than the chaos of the wolf yarn. I need to spin and knit enough of each to be certain how it looks in the finished product, but I’m virtually certain from what I see in the yarn. It’s an interesting, challenging exercise, however, and worth pursuing for that reason.
On Wednesday, Judith gave us a length of Rambouillet mixed with Mohair to spin woolen. I hated this. Hate hate hate with the heat of a thousand suns. It was difficult to draft, and nearly impossible to join when it broke, which was frequently. I persevered, however, and by dinner time I had a hundred yards or so of finished woolen yarn. Ugh. It was No Fun.
Just before dinner on Wednesday, we started lichen dye pots. This was nifty! I love the colors that were produced. Judith put in samples of her Rambouillet, and I tossed in the Columbia and Rambouillet/Mohair blend as well. She pulled out little skeinlets every few minutes as the dye bath started simmering so we could see the progress of the dye.
At the end of the retreat yesterday, Judith sent me home with all the samples, which was a delightful gift! The downside of this is the icky factor. I do not like icky stuff, and the slimy yarn matted with lichen definitely twigged my icky nerve. Heather is happy to dye me up more, however, should I wish, and no one else at the retreat seemed to mind handling the finished yarn. I believe this is my own personal foible, and reinforces my belief that while I am intellectually interested in how dyeing works and I very much appreciate the product, I have zero interest in going through the process myself. I am so glad there are folks who want to dye!
The other highlight yesterday was spinning bison down. Judith had some bison roving, and oh was it delicious. We had also spun up a sample of bison/silk. I hope I have enough of these, perhaps plied up with some plain silk, to make something.
This is far from all we did and saw during the retreat. Judith had many things for us to sample, including several different silks and cashmere. Mmmm, cashmere. She showed us yarn from paper, and some finished products and swatches from the yarn. One of the participants taught folks traditional cedar weaving. We saw whales on the last day, while sitting down for breakfast with one of the tribe elders. I look forward to the next time I can do something like this!
The Oceanside Resort itself is a mixed bag. The setting is amazing! My room looks out over the ocean. The view is spectacular, and it’s certainly a secluded retreat. My room is decently appointed, with a usable kitchen.
For the money I’m spending, however, I expect more service than is provided. I’m on my sixth day here, and have not had any maid service in the room. I asked one of the room cleaners for clean towels yesterday, and was sullenly directed to a service building at the other side of the retreat. I walked around the building until I found an open roll-up door to a sort of garage room, and had to shout to get someone’s attention, who was not at all friendly about the towel exchange. I had to give her my room number to be allowed to take extra towels beyond the two provided so that the three of us can all shower tomorrow.
The walls seem not to be insulated at all; someone checking into the room next door at 11 or so last night, not being particularly loud, just walking back and forth getting stuff up from the car and settled, kept me up for the better part of an hour. Folks who had rooms on the lower floor complained that they could hear everything going on in the room above.
The office is only open from 8 am to 8 pm, and that’s the only place on the resort property with access to a phone or internet. Outside of those hours it’s necessary to drive a 40 minute round trip to Forks. This would not be so bad if there were cell phone service, but there is not. I do appreciate the solitude of the setting, but would still like to be able to check in with the folks I care about to make sure they are ok, and have some way for them to reach me.
I have most of today on my own. I’m hoping to get more rest, to make progress on a Secret Knitting project, and to at least get a good start at spinning the Abby Batt “Peace Flag.” First, though, I’m going to head over to the office to check email and post this entry. I’ll add pics and links next week when I have better Internet access.
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Question to Zachary: “What should I make for brunch?”
Answer: “Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!”
Question to David: “What would you like for dessert?”
Answer: “Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!”
Question to Heather: “What would you like me to bake for the retreat at La Push?”
Answer: “Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!”
It seems like there’s only one answer to any question I ask these days about baking. This is the new universal favorite baked good in the house. Pumpkin pie’s spicy sweetness mixes with chocolate into a rich warm flavor. The moist crumble of a perfect banana bread combines with a little bit of texture given by the chips and oat bran. Delicious!
The best part for me is it’s also full of nutrition, with lots of pumpkin and oat bran, and very little sugar other than what the chips impart. Sometimes I just sprinkle a few on the top without mixing them into the batter, and they are not missed. It’s dairy free and gluten free.
I got the foundation for the recipe from gfreecuisine.com, but it’s morphed substantially from their base recipe. And so without further ado, I give you:
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Equipment:
- 3 loaf pans, 8 x 4 inches. I recommend glass, because it will be easier to clean the melted chips.
- Stand mixer recommended.
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 C sugar
- 2 C pureed pumpkin, or canned pumpkin. (Don’t get the pie mix! :-)
- 1 C vegetable oil
- 1/3 or more C water, added at the end to make a good batter.
- 4 large eggs, beaten well.
Dry Ingredients:
- 1/2 C oat bran or Scottish Oats for a bit more texture.
- 1 C masa or corn flour (not corn meal)
- 1 C tapioca flour or starch
- 1 C sorghum flour
- 1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 T pumpkin pie spice
- 1 T cinnamon
- 2 t nutmeg
- 1 T xanthan gum
- 1 & 1/2 t baking soda
- 1 & 1/2 t salt
Extras:
- 1 & 1/2 C chocolate chips; I prefer the miniature ones, and remember to look for dairy free, if needed.
- 1/2 C nuts and or dried fruit, if you like them. I do not.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350
Grease and flour the three loaf pans, using tapioca or corn flour.
In a stand mixer or large bowl, combine the wet ingredients and beat until smooth and somewhat frothy. Adding air at this stage makes the bread fluffier.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk to thoroughly mix. If you don’t mix well enough, the bread will have an uneven consistency.
Add the flour gradually while the stand mixer is going on its lowest speed, or in small batches if you are mixing by hand. Stir until just combined, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. The mixture should look like a heavy cake batter. If it gets so thick that the bottom of the bowl is visible, add water as needed to smooth it out. How much is needed varies with how wet the pumpkin is; use your judgement. I have added as much as a cup and a half, and as little as 1/3 C.
Fold in most of the chocolate chips, nuts, or fruit, if adding. Retain some to sprinkle on top of the loaves.
Divide the batter between the three pans, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. The center of the bread should stay firm when you shake the pan, not jiggle like jello. You can also test for doneness by inserting a knife. It may come back with melted chocolate chip, but shouldn’t have batter on it.
Turn out the loaves immediately, preferably on a wire rack. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. This bread freezes well; I always freeze one or two of the loaves.
Candy Brandy Pears
This is one of my favorite desserts. The one I always want after a good meal. Just the right amount of sweetness, and warm, satisfying flavors.
Candy Brandy Pears
Ingredients:
- 3 – 4 pears sliced in half and cored
- 3 – 4 T butter
- 1 C orange juice
- Spices; I use apple pie spice and a little ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and whatever else smells right
- Optionally, brandy or other alcohol, to taste
Instructions:
Put the butter in a skillet large enough to place all of the pears face down in.
Brown butter.
Add pears, and sprinkle spices over them.
When the pears start to stick, add orange juice, 1/4 C at a time. Pour it over the pears to wash the spices into the butter.
As the liquid cooks off, keep adding the oj, and baste pears in the developing sauce regularly as they cook.
If the oj is gone and the pears are still not soft enough to eat with a spoon, start adding water in 1/4C amounts and continue basting until they soften.
Remove pears to plate, cut side up.
Add alcohol to complete the caramelization of the oj & spices into a sauce. If you prefer not to add alcohol, a little water will also help lift any sticky bits.
Pour over pears, and serve immediately. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream go well with this dessert.
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