Wholemeal Crank

Just wondering about the proportions--how sure are you of the flour/honey weights & egg ratio? With so much honey it seems more custard or pudding than cake. Also, I'm curious if the nuances of the honey flavor come through well in such a simple recipe. It could be a great way to showcase some very special honey if those don't get lost in the baking.

I use the original Cake Bible regularly; scouted but am still on the fence about Rose's Heavenly Cakes, mostly because I don't bake cakes regularly, and a few base recipes plus my own variations really suffice pretty well for me; didn't buy the Pie and Pastry Bible because I was already comfortable and confident with my own pies; did buy the bread book despite her really annoying bias against wholegrain flours because the little pretzel breads are fabulous and quite unique among all my other bread books and recipes (and I do make them with my fresh-milled whole wheat flour).

Welcome, Matthew, and what a gorgeous kyusu! What is your favorite thing to enjoy in it? And does the "one of my antique teapots" imply that you have a collection?

As suggested above, the eggs in a brownie are all about texture, not about flavor. The eggless Korova Cookies from Pierre Herme (from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets) are glorious and miss the eggs not at all. However, they are crumbly and crunchy, not brownie-like. I'd start with my favorite brownies and try milk protein as the binding agent, since you indicated that other dairy is ok. Might try it a little denser than regular milk by using powdered milk, and instead of the usual 1 cup powder to 4 cups water for reconstitution, would try 1 part powder to 2 parts water, so using an approximate volume of one large egg as three tablespoons, would start with 3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk and 6 tablespoons water per pan of my favorite brownies. And maybe add an extra tablespoon or two of butter per pan to make up for the missing richness of the egg yolk. Could require several tasty rounds of experimentation to get it right.

I just tried 2 grams in a 100mL gaiwan, and used much cooler water--160 degrees, as for a gyokuro, just to see what treating it as something very delicate would do. Answer: took some of the liveliness out of it. It was a bit too delicate and bland at these temps. After about 4 infusions, reheated the water to 190 degrees, did a 20 second infusion and was rewarded by a richer liquor and more flowery, fruity tea, with soft grounding notes of earthy and smoky mixed in.

Today, mostly drank the Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbutea.com. Finished off the work evening with a bit of gyokuro, brewed in a gaiwan at work. I was too distracted to get the timing just right--need to set a timer to avoid the oops, overdid it syndrome--not a problem with the forgiving oolong, but very poor form with delicate gyokuro!

Berthillon was one of the food destinations I made a priority during a too-short trip to Paris, and it was absolutely worth it. Sadly, I only had one serving there--couldn't make it there twice, darn. Had the Caramel au beurre sale, and it was as good as any ice cream I've had anywhere, anytime, as good as the gelato at Vivoli in Florence. Disclaimer: that was the only ice cream I had in Paris, but can't imagine they're all that good.

Looking forward to hearing more about the Lao Mansa Puerh. It does seem to take some tweaking to get the full potential of this tea.

At the office today, Rishi Golden Yunnan black tea. Good to be reminded that some black teas are brilliant. This one is particulary nice with some ginger shortbread cookies. It has the oomph to stand up to a lot of cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper.

Today starting with gyokuro again. I think this is an excellent tea to start the day.

Nothing lovelier for a cold than HOT hot & sour soup. The soup makes me happy and my nose clears itself out a bit. As long as I'm prepared with plenty of napkins, handkerchiefs, etc, it's great.

Plate O'Shrimp! I was just drinking a bit of dragonwell yesterday, probably my best brewing yet. I only tried for two infusions--three seemed to be pushing it. Soon after I got the tea I was thinking it was a mistake, I would never really like it that much,and it was so expensive; but the infusion yesterday was so delicate and sweet and yes, nutty and vegetal too, just like you mentioned, that I do want to keep working with it. I especially enjoy coming back to a particularly nice tea after a while drinking a bunch of something else. Rediscovering the pleasure of a smoky roasty oolong or a delicate sweet nutty dragonwell is always lovely. Unfortunately I was distracted and rushing out the door this morning and I am not drinking any tea today because I did not make any, and the lunchroom here only has lipton. Sigh.

BTW, my answer did not mention the things you put out as examples in your first post. For peppermint, I would use a few drops of peppermint oil, and be sure to really mix it well into the milk/chocolate so it gets evenly distributed. A little ground black pepper reinforces the pepper in peppermint. I've not had a satisfactory result with peppermint leaf, fresh or dried. Peppermint extract is too much liquid for me to be comfortable with the dry mix I'm using. For Amaretto, I would use freshly ground mahleb (aka mahaleb), the pit of wild black cherry trees from the mediterranean. You would only need a little bit--1/4 teaspoon per cup should be plenty. The seed is a bit bitter, so you don't want to overdo it. Or give them a bottle of amaretto and ask them to add it to taste when they're preparing the chocolate.

Chocolate will keep for a good long while--cocoa butter is very stable, and in hot chocolate, since you're melting the chocolate, a bit of blooming or other change in the chocolate texture won't matter; powdered milk is designed for long term storage; what they'll lose first is the freshness of the spices in the mix.

Just bought it, will report back after I've read through it.

It came out with a lot of fanfare, but as a dedicated wholemeal crank, I was disappointed by the lack of conviction--the 1/2 or 1/3 whole grain flours, and they with access to the best quality fresh milled stuff. But I thought the recipes looked tasty and functional, and that they would easily adapt to 100% whole grain. But they were not very different from what I already had in standard cookbooks, so I didn't buy it. Just wondering what was disappointing about it to you--the same issues I had, or recipes that didn't work, or something else?

retreating to the safety of the Diamond Tie Guan Yin for a last cup of the day, while finishing up a bit of paperwork. Gentle even on a burnt tongue.

Used my citrus juicer. I have moderately heavy duty version, not quite as solid as this, but a similar design. The poms were so massive I had to cut them down to sixths or smaller to fit the wedges in.

Trying again with the keemun Hao A from Harney&Sons, and even at 1 gram for a full 8 ounces, there is simply a dominant flavor that I don't like. Maybe this is what someone else fancifully called "chocolate" but to me it is just unpleasant. Plus, after letting it sit a bit, I forgot to be sufficiently cautious and burnt my tongue. That's less of an issue with the cooler brewed teas, or those infused gong-fu style and enjoyed from little shallow cups. I did this one western style in a mug and ouch. I did enjoy the chado keemun, so will keep working on that one, but will retire this sample as not right for me.

I recently posted in some detail about my experiments with flavored hot chocolate in this topic. I prefer hot chocolate to hot cocoa, and when I travel and have access to hot water but not milk, I prepare a mix with powdered milk that has gone over very well as a gift. I like one ounce of 70% cacao chocolate per cup of milk; for those who like their chocolate lighter, a 50-60% cacao may be preferable. Per cup of hot chocolate 1 ounce chocolate, coarsely chopped 1/4 cup instant powdered milk and seasonings to taste, e.g., Chile-cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground hot chile (not cayenne; aleppo pepper, hot new mexico chile, etc) 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon Add the coarsely chopped chocolate, milk powder, and spices to the blender or food processor, cover your ears, and let it go until the chocolate is finely chopped and evenly mixed with the milk powder. Instructions for the end-user: place 1/3-1/2 cup of mix into your cup. Heat some water to near boiling. While it is heating, stir a tablespoon or two of water into the mix in your cup--if you get all the milk at least damp you're less likely to end up with lumps. Then gradually stir in just under one cup of hot water. Adjust the quantity of mix to make it as thick as you like. And alternate seasonings that lend themselves to this: Mixed spices 1/4 teaspoon cardamom 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon Pink pepper and star anise 1/8-1/4 teaspoon powdered star anise 1/8 teaspoon ground pink peppercorn Orange-cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder 2-3 drops of orange oil or a small piece of dried orange peel Mace, star anise, and cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg, freshest is best 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder 1/8 teaspoon ground star anise or anise seed With coconut currry 1/4 teaspoon ginger 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon coriander 3/8 teaspoon mild chili powder or sweet paprika 1/4 teaspoon turmeric 1 tablespoon coconut milk powder or unsweetened dried flaked coconut, whirled with the spices in a spice grinder With lime and cardamom and long pepper 1/4 teaspoon cardamom 2-3 drops lime oil 1/4 teaspoon long pepper Hope that gives you some good ideas.

Couldn't find the pH paper, so winged it. Because I prefer a less buttery curd, and wanted to be sure it would set, I used a bit of cornstarch (yes, I'm a heretic). It still came out a bit too buttery for my preference, but is delicious. 2/3 cup sugar 2 T cornstarch 1 cup pomegranate juice 1/4 cup lemon juice 5 egg yolks, whisked together 1/3 cup butter, cut into chunks Stirred the sugar, cornstarch and juices together until there were no lumps, then brought it to about 160 degrees. Gradually added it to the whisked eggs, returned to heat, brought to near boil so the cornstarch thickened, then strained it into a bowl, whisked in the butter, and poured into serving dishes to chill. It is not very clear, but I don't taste any raw cornstarch flavor, so I'm not sure what that is about. But it is delicious, and I think it will go over well with my target audience tomorrow. I got nearly a quart of wonderfully sweet juice from these four giant pomegranates--they were about one and half pounds apiece--and am freezing some for another try.

Today, starting with the Phoenix Honey Orchid Oolong from TeaHabitat. mmm.

Maybe I'll try that when I run low on the Big Red Robe Wuyi, since TenRen is easier to get to than Chado.

Looks interesting. It would be nice to be able to preprogram a tea maker the day before to have tea ready to go to clinic at the same time every afternoon--saving those last minute rushes that are not so kind to nice teas. But until they come up with one that has a fully variable temperature--the ones with variable temp seem only to have two preprogrammed settings--I'll stick with lower tech versions plus my thermometers.

This has been the year of tea for me, and I've added enough different teawares to my collection to warrant clearing a shelf in the kitchen for them. But it's still too early yet to know what I really like best of all that. The one gadget that I think may be the best find of this year is a silicone spatula, but not just a silicone spatula. It's a silicone spatula with backbone, and a sharp edge, unitary construction that should not only make it last, but avoid the tragedy of the plastic handle that couldn't take the same heat as the silicone part; and it's a spoonula too. Move over, bamboo paddles, wooden spatulas, rubber scrapers, and earlier versions of silicone wonders of the week: I bought the first one while looking for something else at Bed Bath & Beyond, on a whim, but got more this week from Amazon.com when it was clear that they are the best stirrer/scraper/scooper ever.