Here is another one of my seemingly weekly bread experiments. This was actually a “fail” in terms of what I was trying to do: I was trying to make a long “snake” with the dough, wanted to swirl it back upon itself, and then curl it into a ball, to create a unique form with the actual bread, but that didn’t work and it just ended up proofing together again on the final rise. That is ok though, because it turned out really delicious nevertheless. This Rosemary and Sea Salt Rustic Loaf is going to make great dipping bread into olive oil. I also foresee a Grilled Cheese Sandwich in my future.
It wouldn’t be autumn in my world without plum cake. Pflaumenkuchen, Zwetschgenkuchen, Zwetschgendatschi … whatever you want to call it, it’s a very common autumn dessert or snack to coffee-time in southern Germany. This time, I made one a little different, with the addition of cardamom. I love cardamom too and the combination with the tart italian plums is fantastic.
One of my all-time favorite fruits are figs — I even have a Pinterest collection called “Getting Figgy with It” — so seeing they are in season, I decided to make Almond Figgy Bars. Very buttery, with sticky fig jam and sliced figs and a barely noticeable bit of cinnamon. First of my autumn styled treats.
About ten days ago or so, I baked these Low-Knead Cast-Iron Crisp-Top Dinner Rolls. They were absolutely fantastic, but I was curious to see if a whole wheat or seeded (or both) variety would work as well and turns out, it did. I made them in the same cast iron braiser that I made the others, and the tops came up nice and crispy, the flavor is also great. Overall, definitely a repeatable recipe, though in all honestly, I did like the White Flour ones better. These are a recipe to add to the rotation for sure!
General Reference/Tutorial
“Straight From the Garden” Flavored Chili Oil and
“Straight From the Garden” Flavored Chili Oil and
Urban Garden Experimental Chili Pepper Hot Sauce
I have an urban garden on my porch and always manage to get an amazing array of tomatoes (so far this year, 840) and Chili Peppers (over 300 shishitos and another 5-ish kilos of other chilis — I planted a dozen varieties: Redskin Sweet, Caribbean Red Habanero, Carolina Reaper, Red Cayenne, Shishito-Takara, Cubanelle, Jalepeno, Scotch Bonnett, Mad Hatter, Candy Cane, Texas Habanero and Bhut jolokia (ghost peppers). What happens when everything becomes ripe at the same time — well, you have to do something with the produce, so I ended up making Chili Oil and Hot Sauce. I don’t actually know how “hot” either of these are — they are spicy to me, but I usually have a fairly mild tolerance for hot things, so if you are a hot sauce aficionado, these cold be fairly mild. If you are going to make either of these yourself, mix your chilis according to your own taste.