Wholemeal Crank

Today, started with some old puerh--probably a shu, ?15-20 years old, that I inherited without any additional information about it's origins. It was probably a souvenir of a trip to Hong Kong, which has a really thick earthy broth, with a strong cinnamon spicy aftertaste--a lot like what Rou Gui seems like it should be (but since I haven't yet tried many of these, I don't know how characteristic it really is of typical Rou Gui). And now, moving back to a nice Alishan oolong--Tsou Ma Fei from Norbu. Spicy and floral and sweet.

I learned a lot from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and continue to use it as a resource. I was inspired by a discussion on shortbreads to start manipulating the grains in my fresh-milled flours to adjust the texture of my baked goods--rice for crunch, oat for softer, etc--and first browned butter with her directions. Lots of good, reliable recipes and excellent pearls here, there, everywhere.

Made several things over the weekend, now reporting back. I used pumpkin seeds, toasted, to make some hermits as follows, more or less: HERMITS 1/2 cup tart dried apricots 1 cup raisins (zapped together in food processor with part of the flour to chop pretty finely but not turn into paste) 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup molasses juice & zest of 2 lemons 2 eggs 400g soft white wheat milled with 3 long peppers 1 teaspoon mace pieces, crushed lightly 6 pods cardamom 1 inch cinnamon stick OR 3 1/4 cup unbleached or soft whole wheat pastry flour 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon ground mace 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted Spread in baking pans--3 @ 8x8--baked 350 about 20 minutes. I think they needed a little less flour, but the pumpkin seeds were outstanding, and I'll make these again this way. And using the suggestion above about using sunflower seeds raw when added to a blander drop-cookie dough, made Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with sunseeds 1 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup sugar 2 eggs zest of 2 small lemons 150 grams hard wheat 30 grams sweet rice milled with 3 inches chopped vanilla bean 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon soda 2 cups quick oats 3/4 cup sunflower seeds, raw 6 oz (180 grams or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips or chopped bittersweet chocolate 1/2 cup raisins, chopped and baked per toll house drop cookies 375 about 15 minutes. I really didn't notice much difference vs my usual walnuts or almonds in this dense cookie. And finally, made lemon-poppy seed shortbread cookies with browned butter, very nice, just a slight variation on this recipe from my web site (which has moved to my new domain debunix.net). I will put the recipes above into better form and port them over to the new site, where they'll show up on the recipe index page here.

This topic has been quiet for a very long time. I've been drinking a lot of tea, still mostly drunk hot despite the warmer weather. Recently, I'm working through some Jin Xuan processed as a green tea from Norbu, a last remaining packet (sent as a gift from Greg at Norbu) of the summer 2009 High Mountain Beauty Alishan oolong I enjoyed so much, and had a recent Dan Cong frenzy with both some less pricey but still very tasty Mi Lan from Norbu and some pricier but superb (as usual) DCs from TeaHabitat, including the end of some Honey Orchid, Song Zhong, and Po Tou, and newly opened a Zhong Ping Lao Cong Zhi Lan Xiang. Greens and puerhs have been around too, some standby Sea Dyke TKY, and more. The hotter weather also brings out some more herbal teas for drinking cooler--hibiscus, mint, lemon grass just feel better in summer. Just haven't been writing about it daily here.

Aha...ground chocolate plus chipped chocolate....I am suddenly inspired to recreate forgotten kisses, yes!

I've been going to this camp for 4 years, and I have been thinking of it as a challenge rather than an obstacle.....but this time, the infinite cookie generator ran out of oomph, and that's why I decided to try a batch or two with these seeds, which I've been avoiding doing for the past 4 years. I've done variations on biscotti, shortbread, bar cookies, drop cookies, rolled cookies, spritz cookies, icebox cookies, but refuse tuiles (too lazy for those); adjust the flour's contribution to the texture by changing the grain mix milled for each batch (rice for crisp, oat for soft, hard wheat, soft wheat); but most of my favorite cookies have nuts in them, and I've made most of the ones that don't have nuts several times already, and don't want to duplicate what their own kitchen turns out (snickerdoodles, plain chocolate chip, simple oatmeal cookies, brownies). Meringues....I recently played a bit with macaroons, and when I was in France 2 years ago bought some, but every time found them too sweet, even when the sugar was minimized and the proportion of nuts was very high. I'm pretty sure I've already done Anise Caps for them, but maybe another variation on those, where the eggs are beaten whole rather than as meringue, and the richness of the eggs cuts the sweetness of the resulting cookie to tolerable levels.

In applications as standalones with spices, toasted. Paired with chocolate chunks, raw. Exactly the sort of insight I'm looking for. And cranberry-sunseed sounds like a very interesting combination, with the blandness of the seeds to temper the tartness of the cranberries.

Ahh....I haven't ever done apricot newtons for this group, but I've done them a lot in the past. And with the new meat grinder to really smooth out the dried fruit filling, that's a terrific idea. Maybe some ground pumpkin seeds to add a little interest to the cookie part would do it.

RAw or toasted?

Coconut is also right out. No tree nuts, or peanuts, and tree nuts includes such botanically distant relations as pine nuts AND coconuts. I blew it on coconuts a year ago and can't do that again. I've done a lot with poppy and sesame seeds, but want specifically to try sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, just don't know how to use them. I'm trying to avoid straight up nut substitutes, like the bowlbys & wheat nuts, when I've a good alternative like sunseeds etc. But it looks like she's basically doing an oatmeal cookie with cocount with a straight up sub of sunflower for walnut or almonds, and using the seeds raw, and with citrus. I don't think I need to see the recipe--just the idea of citrus plus sunseed in oatmeal cookie is a good start. Thanks!

I volunteer at a camp several times a year that is militantly nut-free. I like to bring several kind of baked treats to the longer sessions especially, and have run through most of my standards by now--gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies, vanilla spritz, poppy and other variations on shortbread, oatmeal cookies with lots of other stuff, and lots of variations with sesame, and quite a few things made with cacao nibs. I am easily bored with bland cookies that just vary the proportions of butter, sugar, and flour, and I adore nuts. So I'm thinking about breaking down and using sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds for interest, but I have never used these in sweet cooking before. The infinite cookie generator in my head is on strike, because of a deep resentment against the whole idea. I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for how to best compliment their flavors with spices and/or dried fruits or other flavorings (sunseed better with clove? cinnamon? mace? anise? massive vanilla? raisins? apricots? as butter vs whole vs ground?), and having never baked with them before, I don't have a good sense of how well they hold up to baking--do they get rubbery like peanuts? And I've so often been disappointed by rancidity in both of these in the past--what's the best way to avoid that? Will a slight off taste shine through even if toasted and then baked and wreck the cookies?

A friend recently suggested what turns out to be a very nice combination for an herbal iced tea: rooibos, hibiscus, and mint. Tart and refreshing when chilled. I prepared some as a hot infusion and chilled it overnight, very nice. But I made too much and the 2nd day version was not worth drinking.

Room temp.

I have gotten into the habit of dragging my pressure cooker along to ski trips and other high altitude settings if I'll be doing anything more than making oatmeal. Just so much more efficient. I haven't done it enough to have anything systematic to say about timing at pressure vs lower altitude boiling times for pasta, steamed veggies, etc.

That question sent me to google, and to my favorite spice-information site to look it up. Ocotea quixos is a South American native tree of the laurel family (cinnamon is from the same family), and apparently its flavor resembles cinnamon. Hmmmm....I wonder if cassia buds might give a closer flavor than cinnamon bark?

Thanks, the photo really helps. I'll start scouting every hispanic and international market I come across now, to prepare for when the figs ripen. The first crop is already getting quite good sized, but usually isn't ready until July.

This looks like a lovely thing to try with my fig tree this year! I can get panela from a variety of local markets here, but if the key is the molasses content, is there anything wrong with adding molasses directly to any panela I can find? And should I be aiming for something approximating US dark brown sugar (but with real molasses)?

Missed this thread first time it came up. Lentil soup is my favorite thing, whether savory & sausage-rich or curried veggie. My favorite versions are this hearty German-style soup, this almost sweet-n-sour variation on an Armenian recipe, and my own meatless but not necessarily vegetarian lentil-spelt variationthat gets an unexpectedly chewy kick from the spelt.

Put it all in--unless it's really giant, and you're making a small batch....

Use the rind. It won't disguise good beans, and will enhance the overall dish.

My weekend treat: last night I made what have now been independently confirmed (by two people I did not have to bribe to say YUM) as delicious caramels seasoned with Thai curry spices and peanuts, inspired by the Thai curry brittle from morninggloryconfections.com. Tiny Thai chiles, galangal, ginger, Thai lime leaf, lemongrass, coconut milk, and a spicy gingery aftertaste that has my mouth dancing with joy. Thai Curry Caramels

Sad to see the Cultured Cup go--they sponsored some online tastings here that introduced me to a bunch of very nice teas, and I still have a treasured stock of their amazing Lemon Rooibos tea that is very popular wherever I share it. Going to have to find another supplier for that one when mine is running out. I have not ordered any teas from Amazon, because their teas are pretty limited. I would agree iwth checking out their offerings from Rishi--Rishi's stuff is generally decent, ahead of most of what's available prepackaged in tins--but the variety, quality and selection doesn't match the best specialty online retailers.

There were some interesting revelations when my Dad took over the kitchen and started taking on some of Mom's classic cookie recipes. He actually chopped the raisins for oatmeal cookies--and it made quite a difference to have smaller bits spread throughout, no big burnt raisins on the outside, better balance between batter and fruit. He also followed the directions and did not refrigerate the dough for gingersnaps, and they came out higher, rounder, quite different. So many things in the directions we just ignored because we learned from watching Mom make things, and just referred to the directions to verify the quantities of the ingredients.

Welcome to eGullet, and the tea forum, teadrinker. Hope you've got some tea that's more to your liking since that post. I'm currently enjoying a session with some Tie Guan Yin from Norbu, a very tasty straight-up oolong. Sweet, floral, but unflavored/unscented, just delicious C. sinensis. Unless I'm skipping C. sinensis entirely, I pretty much stick to plain teas. I do drink scented/flavored teas on occasion (mostly when my usual teas are not available), and I've tried Earl Greys quite a few times, some fancier and some less expensive brands, and I have never been able to enjoy any of them. I think I must be missing some scent receptor that enables one to experience pleasure from bergamot. But that just means more Earl Grey for the rest of you, right?

Still drinking tea.....lots and lots of it. Today, I started with Honyama sencha from Yuuki-cha, moved on to a mix of some Jin Guan Yin and Tie Guan Yin from Norbu (tail end of one, eeked out to a thermos-full with the other), and this evening enjoyed many infusions from another new green tea from Norbu, his Kai Hua Long Ding, quite delicious and clearly in the Dragonwell style, and then on to Mi Lan Dan Cong, a mellow and quite reasonably priced Wudong oolong that is better than most of the 'commercial' DCs/Phoenix oolongs I've met (not that many yet, but a few that weren't very nice).