tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42668728749746820492024-03-13T11:24:06.962+01:00Saffron & BlueberryHildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-71168532980632301352010-12-20T19:33:00.000+01:002010-12-20T19:33:38.700+01:00A thought on HDR and an AnnouncementI am not a fan of HDR at all and feel that, generally speaking, it was originally devised as a solution for the lack of dynamic range available in digital imaging as opposed to film. I think this photograph made under ordinary circumstances, albeit at the right time of day, demonstrates that HDR isn't really necessary unless you're really going for an otherworldly effect or to highlight a particular portion of the image, which is of course what some people use it for though I tend to think that many people do not use it for that purpose.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/5222288208/" title="London Natural History Museum Original Image by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="London Natural History Museum Original Image" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5222288208_7214307cba.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
It's easy to see the tonal range of an image if you can look at it in black and white. The more tonal values of gray you can identify between black and white (up to 30), the greater the tonal range of your photograph. I'm pleased with this image because I captured a large tonal scale without losing details in the white or getting a milky black. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/5222287796/" title="London Natural History Museum B&W version by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="London Natural History Museum B&W version" height="333" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/5222287796_f7b8dc8e21.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
The announcement I wanted to make, for those of you who still visit (and I can't say enough how much I appreciate that you do since I haven't been here for months), is that I'm currently working on a complete redesign of the site, which will be relocated to a different address when ready. I'm very excited to be doing this with the very talented <a href="http://www.peterbagi.com/">Peter Bagi</a>, and can't wait for it to be ready. It may take a while and it will end up being a completely new start, since the site will be more than a blog in many ways, but I think it's worth the work and the wait.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-72588870323827369652010-08-25T17:50:00.006+02:002010-08-25T17:50:00.817+02:00Gifts of ChocolateI was delighted to finally be able to taste the famed Mast Bros' chocolate when a friend sent me some chocolate samples from New York. <br />
The chocolate wrappers and the general presentation of the four bars -this is how she sent the bars to me- was so lovely that I thought I had to photograph it before digging in.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4907474816/" title="Gifts of Chocolate by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gifts of Chocolate" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4907474816_7d70ce4763_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I didn't know the other chocolate brand, Chocolat Moderne, but it turns out that while the Mast Bros. are doing a fabulous job of marketing the philosophy and method behind their artisanal chocolate fabrication, I was extremely disappointed in both bars I tried; I actually didn't eat either bar beyond the first taste. I found the Chocolat Moderne, on the other hand, to be both proper and intriguing chocolate in terms of the flavors.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4907474924/" title="Gifts of Chocolate by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gifts of Chocolate" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4907474924_fa697846b3.jpg" width="500" /></a>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-18357461682692919682010-08-19T16:16:00.001+02:002010-08-24T14:55:59.852+02:00Neal's Yard DairyI've practically forgotten I have a blog it seems, although I keep taking photographs.<br />
<br />
We never miss an opportunity to stop at Neal's Yard Dairy when we're at the Borough Market. And really, how can you not go into a place with huge cheese wheels like these outside. I actually framed this photograph so that you could see the man sitting across the road reflected in the glass. I love reflections. And cheese.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4906883613/" title="Neal's Yard Dairy by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Neal's Yard Dairy" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4906883613_7a6c593c3f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
The employees were very kind to let me take photographs but they also seemed a bit shy, so I tried to be as quick and non-intrusive with my camera as possible.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4906883419/" title="Neal's Yard Dairy by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Neal's Yard Dairy" height="335" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4906883419_9b115dfc3f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
It's a great place to take photographs actually, I could have spent hours in there but of course there wasn't time, and they'd probably have gotten sick of me very quickly.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4906884011/" title="Neal's Yard Dairy by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Neal's Yard Dairy" height="1046" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4906884011_9a633e2ae0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
I could try all these cheeses easily, I'd just need a bit of time and a good bottle of wine would be welcome as well.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4907474672/" title="Neal's Yard Dairy by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Neal's Yard Dairy" height="1120" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4907474672_977aff33a0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Anyone else like Neal's Yard Dairy? I especially love the clotted cream butter they sell, although they don't actually make it.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-71312003437934422342010-07-27T00:21:00.000+02:002010-07-27T00:21:24.164+02:00Belgravia [Bell-Gray-V-Ah]If you don't see any people in these, it's because people are seldom out on the street in Belgravia. I think of it as a hole in the space-time continuum...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZu2HgqW5mSGf4rTkqerLNWIrgCMTxw9LGh8xbah9z416Jwut-MPjo05MAyJruYa2nsXuJcBZIYSxCfW6VGJJXHvuwsXMZZhiNRF1UJd-7ZriTbYAPGdC3hOYBxKDcwniLURDQv2sYRI/s1600/Walk+through+Belgravia+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZu2HgqW5mSGf4rTkqerLNWIrgCMTxw9LGh8xbah9z416Jwut-MPjo05MAyJruYa2nsXuJcBZIYSxCfW6VGJJXHvuwsXMZZhiNRF1UJd-7ZriTbYAPGdC3hOYBxKDcwniLURDQv2sYRI/s640/Walk+through+Belgravia+1.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPhGC2y3V5FIzUOuGS5oXdOe57IuH2ckBPYIxIpV4QK0I4ee3F4P-JzCCXlFWiIWy2n0-1ldm4MD6NvU_8PxJPcj1ldzBjHu7YTzTsgkOkyqXFthMGUFMmgo08qqxLByTugS4ky919gE/s1600/Walk+through+Belgravia+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPhGC2y3V5FIzUOuGS5oXdOe57IuH2ckBPYIxIpV4QK0I4ee3F4P-JzCCXlFWiIWy2n0-1ldm4MD6NvU_8PxJPcj1ldzBjHu7YTzTsgkOkyqXFthMGUFMmgo08qqxLByTugS4ky919gE/s640/Walk+through+Belgravia+2.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK1Ue3LbEgkew7PwwoSSep5J6F1UCW2KOqR5TrC6IjgQyBHAuV4Y0Yd915huso1ED_1zkecgyiRHvPnFd5h3UMUSegFXSuQo6KRTp3nQIWs20c5GSz4dv76RMZm_fQ6cngXvzGb4P9WQ/s1600/Walk+through+Belgravia+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK1Ue3LbEgkew7PwwoSSep5J6F1UCW2KOqR5TrC6IjgQyBHAuV4Y0Yd915huso1ED_1zkecgyiRHvPnFd5h3UMUSegFXSuQo6KRTp3nQIWs20c5GSz4dv76RMZm_fQ6cngXvzGb4P9WQ/s400/Walk+through+Belgravia+3.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-7518305425249842982010-07-14T17:49:00.005+02:002010-07-14T17:49:00.888+02:00In the time it takes to make a hot chocolate......you can run around and take pictures of a chocolate shop. Sometimes, like here, they're studiedly corrugated chic. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4792832841/" title="The Rabot Estate by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="The Rabot Estate" height="334" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4792832841_01c1ca23f3_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4793467648/" title="The Rabot Estate by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="The Rabot Estate" height="371" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4793467648_671408fd35_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4792833203/" title="The Rabot Estate by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="The Rabot Estate " height="371" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/4792833203_e33e803162.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
By the way, Bonne fête du quatorze Juillet les copains!Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-10398681150926006772010-07-12T23:37:00.004+02:002010-07-12T23:41:25.939+02:00I don't know plant names, sue me.I'm plant-challenged for the most part; what is the name of this flower?.. anyone?.. anyone?.. Bueller?.. Bueller?..<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4787928194/" title="What kind of flower is this? by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="What kind of flower is this?" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4787928194_b00d88d603_o.jpg" width="500" /></a>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-45251571522370895572010-07-08T16:22:00.005+02:002010-07-08T19:54:08.691+02:00Letting Go, the Photography Portfolio and a Thank You<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4775013902/" title="Egg by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Egg" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/4775013902_68d8467b52_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I haven't been around because I've been pondering actually going forward with this blog or shuttering it entirely, as I mentioned in <a href="http://www.saffronandblueberry.com/2010/05/to-blog-why-what-and-pumpkin-coconut.html">this post</a>. The conclusion, which seems like the most logical thing the more I think about it, is to continue but more in the form of a photoblog so that written posts will not necessarily be a rule of thumb, and to expand to other topics of interest to me, but first things first. I will no longer include recipes when I do write posts to accompany photographs of food, unless I can't find a similar recipe anywhere else on the web; I apologize if this is distressing to you but I'm sure your relationship with Google search will benefit from this arrangement. I'm arranging for the look of the blog to be overhauled to accommodate all these changes.<br />
Thank you for joining me in any capacity over the last three years and I hope you continue to accompany me on forthcoming adventures. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4774428593/" title="Portfolio Home Page by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Portfolio Home Page" height="313" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4774428593_716365541f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
As many of you already know, I've finally, after thinking I probably should and then getting a sudden impulse to finally do it, uploaded some of my best pictures to a photography portfolio. I'm without my film cameras or boxes upon boxes of negatives, good and bad, which are all sitting in storage half the world away, but there was enough digital work available and a few ancient scans of some film pictures to cobble something together. So after weeks of organizing, sorting, choosing, collaging, trashing, re-collaging, organizing into categories, queueing in the proper order, requeueing again and again, etc... here it is: <a href="http://hildasaffari.com/">My Photography Portfolio</a>.<br />
You can also find it in my sidebar in case you don't want to click on the link above now and want to peruse it later.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4753994587/" title="Rustic Strawberry Tart by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Rustic Strawberry Tart" height="768" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4753994587_bffc14bce7_o.jpg" width="514" /></a><br />
And finally, thank you to Olive Magazine which is one of the BBC's food magazines here in the UK for mentioning Saffron & Blueberry in its August issue in the "Websites and blogs that inspire us" section. I'm honored and thrilled to be included alongside two star bloggers, Matt Armendariz of <a href="http://www.mattbites.com/">Matt Bites</a> and Y of <a href="http://blog.lemonpi.net/">Lemonpi</a> who has been mentioned here before as being a partner in [sweet] crime.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-15173226673867564792010-05-11T15:50:00.005+02:002010-05-11T22:19:43.124+02:00On Not Styling and PhotographyI said in my last post that I would write a manifesto about how I don't style food, so here it is, and I thought it might be helpful to someone out there since I get emails about my setups (or as you'll see, lack thereof):<br />
I don't style food: I don't know how to do it, and to be honest it's not something for which I feel I have either a knack or an inclination/interest. Yes I love beautiful ceramics and nice fabrics, but no I don't want to collect them for the sole purpose of styling food to take pictures of it. You'll read why just below. <br />
What interests me is photography. Taking photographs of food is necessary for a food blog and while I was incredibly lazy about it before my little girl was born, for whatever reason, her coming into the world motivated me to actually put some effort into the act of taking pictures for the blog. Don't ask, I don't know why this was the catalyst. <br />
<br />
I've mentioned here and there before that we don't live in our own house so to speak, and by that I don't mean that it's not our house because we rent it, I mean that it's not our house because we've been made to live in it for reasons that are too complicated to describe here; think of it as a corporate house with corporate furniture that we are neither allowed to discard nor even move out. This means that I don't have a separate table nor the room for a separate table, however small, to set up by the windows with the best light here. On top of that, we've been living in and out of boxes for more than a year as our moving plans keep changing. This significantly affects my desire to collect props for food pictures, as in I'd rather not collect things for which I mostly have little practical purpose other than to style food, especially when I might have to pack a lot more breakable things to transport somewhere else that way (and with the baby who takes great delight in opening up boxes and taking as many things out of them as possible before I can stop her). <br />
Moreover, I believe in the food being the thing of greatest interest in the shot so I tend to photograph the food as I see it when I'm going to eat it or sometimes completely abstractly if that is the way it strikes me, e.g. pictures of <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/10/playing-with-my-food-dbs-do-macarons.html">matcha macarons</a>. <br />
<br />
So, an average setup in my world -actually this is quite a neat and simple setup, nothing like some other setups I've done which were totally guerilla compared to this- means something like this:<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4596156812/" title="Chocolate Picture Setup by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Chocolate Picture Setup" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4596156812_89b286bab0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
What you're looking at is a notepad upside down on a serving tray flipped upside down onto a moving box which is shoved up against the TV table, with the background being whatever I could find at the time so the lid of a gift box for the baby's birthday. The usual back of a white baby floor mat that I use as a reflector being unfindable at that moment in time, I grabbed the first thing I could find to reflect some light, that being the bottom of a box that had been mailed to me which, in spite of the airmail tape on it, reflected enough light to be of use to me. Why the quick and dirty setup you ask? Because I take pictures when my baby naps which is not often and not for long and I want to be done with it as fast as possible, so I set up the most basic thing that will get me the result I'm after. With this setup I'm on my knees on the floor taking pictures. I have a good tripod which I mostly don't use for lack of room and setup time. <br />
<br />
Obviously it's not an ideal setup but it gets me where I want to go. On the left the picture just out of camera and on the right, the picture after adding a touch of contrast (+.05) and adjusting the exposure (+.20) a little bit. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4596157004/" title="Chocolate Before & After by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Chocolate Before & After" height="372" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1219/4596157004_a35efe5c2a_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Why am I showing you this? Because I think it's a shame that people think you need anything fancy to get a decent picture and because you don't have to have a lot of props (or any props in my case) to get a decent picture; If I can do it by cobbling a few things together that have no apparent relation to photography, there's no reason for anyone out there to get a bunch of equipment to do it. On the contrary, having very few things forces you to have to think as creatively as possible. <br />
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One thing I haven't shown is that I make sure that no direct light fell on the chocolate. It was actually a slightly cloudy day here and my diffusion paper having been packed away a long time ago in the far reaches of the boxes in the back of the garage, I just left the Roman blind down and let that filter the occasional bursts of sunlight coming in. It's thicker than what you'd probably want to filter your light but shows that you can use anything, even a white bed sheet for example. On overcast days I simply pull the blind up and use the light as is, for example in the pictures in the <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/04/let-them-eat-coconut-sour-cherry.html">brioche post</a>.<br />
<br />
Basic info on this shot is my Nikon D200 with the 17-55mm/f2.8 lens, the Aperture set at f8, shutter speed of 1/40 with an ISO setting of 250.<br />
Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.<br />
I've got something exciting to share with you all in an upcoming post. Not sure if it's going to be the next one but working relentlessly to make it as soon as possible, so stay tuned.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-7999383509022684322010-05-06T23:19:00.004+02:002010-05-06T23:46:16.820+02:00To Blog: Why? What? and Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry BreadSo here I am again a few days later than I thought I would post this because I've been thinking about many things relative to this blog, the most salient being: why blog? Or more precisely, why blog about food in my case.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4584537925/" title="Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry Bread by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry Bread" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4584537925_11e6d8f325_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
There are many posts out there about why blog. Some of them make a lot more sense to me than others but they're all valid to their own authors, and in the end I have to find the reason for myself. A while back I had whole new plans for this blog which all revolved around food, and of course as things are wont to do, things changed. Then I decided that I would post photographs and other things and write fewer recipes and that it would become a more general blog, and that got under way, but somehow I was driven back to more recipes and fewer other things than food, basically only food. <br />
The thing is, dear readers, that I really love food, but I'm not sure I love blogging about it anymore.<br />
<br />
When I started blogging about food almost three years ago, I'd been blogging for a year on another platform and was a bit frustrated with my blog because it was general and I felt the lack of focus meant that it was more of a journal than anything else, and between you and me, I've never been much of a journaler. At all. Then one day while doing a recipe search, for a cupcake recipe of all things, I discovered food blogs and started perusing them and loving them, because I love food, and after a while I thought to myself that the simplest way to create focus in my blogging would be to blog about food. Thus Saffron & Blueberry was born.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4584538477/" title="Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry Bread by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry Bread" height="746" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4584538477_39726e930a_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
There have been lots of ups and downs in my life since then, lots of periods where I didn't blog much, the crux of the matter being that, when it comes down to it, I love food but I don't think I love blogging about food, not to the extent that I want every post to be about food anymore. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I am trying to get back into work which is completely unrelated to food and which most of the time commands so much focus from me that the blog, while I love it, will end up being something that takes time away from the other parts of my life.<br />
<br />
And so to more practical considerations:<br />
- It turns out that while I do love to write, the creative writing that I've done has nearly always been short stories or essays, and I don't enjoy writing recipes. If you've been reading this blog and it hasn't struck you, I practically never claim credit for recipes I blog about. Even when I've adapted them all both in ingredients and wording to make them my own, I don't consider myself a person with her own recipes. And for the most part writing about food does not come easily to me the way it does to someone like Jamie, who simply has a river of words to say about it. <br />
- I do like the fact that I can come back for reference to recipes I've blogged here like having my own cookbook, but the truth is, I'm just as happy to bookmark someone else's recipe that's worked well for me and go back to their blog to look it up. Or copy-paste it into a word document (of which I have many) in case that blog leaves the tendrils of the interwebs. <br />
- I don't have the slightest desire to write a cookbook, be a recipe developer, become a food writer, become a food stylist, or any of the other more obvious reasons a lot of people blog about food, irrespective of whether or not they'll succeed. As I said above, I don't feel the need to catalog recipes I use here, it's far simpler to catalog them in my own documents without writing about them.<br />
In fact, re: food styling, next post will be a manifesto purely about the not food styling I do for this blog.<br />
- I love the community of foodies and friends that I've found through blogging about food, but now that I've found you all, do I need to keep blogging about food for us to remain friends? I think not.<br />
- Actually, the one thing I really don't mind about food blogging is taking photographs of the food because I love photography and taking pictures of anything you're not familiar with photographing is an opportunity to learn, but then the answer seems more clearly to me to be to simply not write posts to accompany the photography, at least not most of the time. Some food blogs do quite well with this format. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4581976365/" title="Egg experiment by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Egg experiment" height="747" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/4581976365_3071b18380_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
So what's the answer?<br />
Do I continue and diversify?<br />
Does this blog simply become a photoblog?<br />
Will you all be very unhappy if I no longer post recipes? <br />
Anyone else struggle with this and have an idea?<br />
Anyone have an opinion about this in particular or a reason for me to stay the course?<br />
I've spoken to some friends about this and everyone has had really good input for me, but now I'm wondering, as a blog reader who most likely does not know me, is there something I should think about that I haven't mentioned?<br />
<br />
So while you ponder this and find <i><b>the</b></i> answer for me, I suggest you make this pumpkin coconut sour cherry bread, which is one of the best (and easiest) snack loaves e-ver. I used canned pumpkin because it's long past the season for pumpkin anymore here and I had a can that someone had brought me from the US to use. This is an adaptation of Lena Corwin's recipe for pumpkin cranberry bread via the good graces of Kristina Gill over on <a href="http://www.designspongeonline.com/category/in-the-kitchen-with">Design Sponge</a> and includes coconut milk, ground coconut and sour cherries; I also used half light brown flour and half all purpose flour, and used raw sugars while reducing the sugar by one third, although I might even go so far as to try to reduce it by half next time. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4584538151/" title="Spring in the square by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Spring in the square" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4584538151_3e0c4c5e58_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Pumpkin Coconut Sour Cherry Bread</b><br />
adapted from Lena Corwin's recipe for <a href="http://www.designspongeonline.com/2007/11/in-the-kitchen-with-lena-corwin.html">Pumpkin Cranberry Bread</a> on Design Sponge<br />
<br />
For one standard loaf pan + two mini loaf pans<br />
425g (1 3/4 cup) canned pumpkin = one small can<br />
100g (7 Tbsp) butter, melted <br />
150g (2/3 cup) coconut milk<br />
60ml (1/4 cup) water (60ml) <br />
4 eggs<br />
225g (1 3/4 cup) all purpose flour <br />
225g (1 3/4 cup) light brown flour <br />
200g (1 cup) raw granulated sugar<br />
200g (1 cup) light muscovado sugar<br />
200g (7 oz) toasted ground (or shredded) coconut <br />
{ 2.5g (1/2 tsp) cinnamon +<br />
5g (1 tsp) four-spice }<br />
OR <br />
{ 5g (1/2 tsp) cinnamon +<br />
2.5g (1/2 tsp) nutmeg +<br />
2.5g (1/2 tsp) ground cloves +<br />
2.5g (1/2 tsp) fine ground black pepper }<br />
10g (2 tsp) baking soda <br />
10g (2 tsp) baking powder <br />
2.5g (1/2 tsp) salt <br />
120g (1 cup) chopped dried sour cherries <br />
<br />
- Heat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F).<br />
- Grease the loaf pans (although I actually forgot to do this and they came out fine due to the fat of the butter and coconut milk). <br />
- In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, butter, coconut milk, water and eggs.<br />
- In a smaller bowl mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, ground coconut, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt) and the sour cherries<br />
- Mixing by hand (and preferably with a wooden spoon), combine the dry and wet ingredients. Mix just until the batter is combined.<br />
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans, filling them up about half way.<br />
- Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-5256509950312817602010-04-25T15:00:00.009+02:002010-04-25T20:16:04.890+02:00Let them eat Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4541451359/" title="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche" height="333" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/4541451359_cc1f2a0a53_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Seemingly, when the internet is <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html">"broken"</a> so is my ability to think of anything to say in a blog post. For a long time I tried to think of what angle I would take on these brioches; I think I was also blocked from the effort of writing the <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/03/madeleines-for-baba-hassan.html">post about my grandfather</a> and feeling pressured to say something equally meaningful when writing subsequent posts. The truth is I don't know if I can ever replicate the depth of feeling in that post, and I probably shouldn't try since few things elicit such depth of feeling in me anyway. So instead of trying to emote all over the place, I'll tell you about brioche.<br />
<br />
Why did I make brioche? That's like asking me why I have sudden cravings for things. Do you know why you (if you cook or bake) have sudden cravings to make things? It's only this week that it's truly starting to warm up here, though if you're not directly in the sun it's still quite chilly, and all the mucky weather we'd been having previously made me really want brioche. Brioche is comforting, of course how could it not be with all that butter. Here, you can't just pop down to the bakery around the corner and get a beautiful brioche with a little head poking out of its rotund body, so after much hemming and hawing, it became clear that to enjoy some I would have to make my own. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4542084762/" title="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche " height="746" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4542084762_d80359b968_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Actually, I'd been meaning to make brioche for a long time, I just was never motivated enough to actually do it. And then I got on this brioche kick and that's all I was making for about three weeks, not every day of course, but just trying out different recipes, and in particular testing to see if I could substitute coconut milk in various brioche recipes. Why? The truth is that I had a can of coconut milk, which I don't often use, and I didn't want to make pudding or curry; I just wanted to add a bit of coconut flavor to something in which you don't usually see coconut. So, mild obsession with brioche + can of coconut milk that needed to be used = some sort of coconut brioche.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Anyway, it turns out that if you simply swap coconut milk for milk in brioche, the dough becomes very sticky and greasy as if you'd added a lot more butter. It's still good, it's just more dense and less maneuverable than regular dough. Even with regular milk and swapping some of the butter with coconut milk as I did in the final recipe below, the dough stays denser than a normal brioche, but I didn't mind that. After trying many recipes, the final recipe adapted below comes from my on and off <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/09/its-huff-puff-time-aka-makin-vol-au.html">pastry boyfriend, Michel Roux</a> (basically he's my pastry boyfriend whenever I pick up his book, which is often, but I have many of them, all waiting on my shelf to go on a date with me). <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4542084474/" title="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4542084474_d663e1453f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
In order to get a real taste of coconut in there, I finally had to add ground coconut which I first lightly toasted to bring the coconut flavor out. Seems like a lot of trouble and maybe I appear to be <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html">obsessed with coconuts</a> to you, but actually I'm not. I am, however, a woman on a mission when I want to figure something out; some people like to call that pigheadedness, I like to think I'm just unreasonably obstinate.<br />
<br />
So finally, after a long, unending, rather unforgiving winter, here we are with spring. Let's hope that the warmer temperatures we've been having for the last couple of days will actually carry on. There will be more coconut and sour cherries in my next post in a few days. I feel that's the least I owe all of you after such a long absence.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4542085170/" title="Winter into Spring by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Winter into Spring" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4542085170_48816ecb73_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b><br />
Coconut Sour Cherry Brioche</b><br />
adapted from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pastry-Savory-Sweet-Michel-Roux/dp/0470421347">Pastry: Savory and Sweet</a> by Michel Roux<br />
<br />
For the brioche dough:<br />
(70ml) 5 Tbsp whole milk, just warm<br />
15g (1/2oz) fresh yeast<br />
500g (1lb + 4Tbsp) flour<br />
100g ground and lightly toasted coconut<br />
15g (2 1/2 tsp) salt<br />
6 eggs<br />
280g (1 Cup + 3 Tbsp) butter, slightly soft but not at room temp.<br />
70ml (5 Tbsp) coconut milk, cold so as to stay solid<br />
30g (2 Tbsp) caster (fine) sugar<br />
Dried sour cherries <br />
<br />
For the eggwash:<br />
1 egg yolk<br />
15ml (1 Tbsp) milk<br />
<br />
- In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast into the tepid milk.<br />
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, put the flour, salt, eggs, ground coconut and the dissolved yeast in milk mixture. Mix on low speed to combine and knead the dough on low for 5 minutes. <br />
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and knead the dough at medium speed for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. <br />
- In a separate bowl, mix the butter, coconut milk and sugar together. <br />
- Add a few pieces of this mixture to the dough. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the rest of the butter mixture a piece at a time. <br />
- When all of the butter is incorporated, which may take a little time, turn the speed back to medium and knead for 6 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, shiny and comes away from the bowl easily. <br />
- Cover the bowl with cling film or a towel and set it somewhere warm to rise. <br />
Let rise until the dough has doubled in volume.<br />
- Once risen, pull the dough out and knock it down 2 or 3 times with your hand, then set it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours. Do not leave the dough to chill in the refrigerator for longer than 24 hours. Overnight is usually a good bet.<br />
<br />
Once chilled:<br />
- Butter the molds you are using. I put baking parchment, which I buttered, on a baking tray and used bottomless ring molds which I set on the tray before inserting the brioche dough into them. <br />
- Measure out the quantity of dough you want to use. For instructions on shaping the dough to make traditional-looking brioches, see <a href="http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-treats-buttery-saffron-brioche.html">Meeta's post</a>. To make them look like mine, you simply measure out a ball of dough that will fill the bottom of your mold. <br />
- To add any extras such as the sour cherries simply put them into the ball of dough before inserting it into the mold. Do not work the dough, simply shape it. <br />
- Mix the egg yolk and milk together and brush the brioche with it.<br />
- Leave the brioche to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in volume. <br />
- Heat the oven to 200˚C (400˚F).<br />
- Brush the brioche again with eggwash and bake immediately for 15mn, then lower the oven temperature to 170˚C (340˚F).and bake for an additional 30mn. <br />
- Take the brioche out of the oven and leave it in the mold for a few minutes before unmolding it onto a wire rack to cool.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-46236525295892515502010-04-15T11:04:00.000+02:002010-04-15T11:04:24.680+02:00Connection NightmareIn the 2 minutes that my internet works before it goes out again for the next 10 minutes, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not dead, or taking a break, I just can't get on for more than a couple of minutes at a time and this makes it impossible to post right now. Thanks Virgin Broadband.<br />
Please standby while we sort out our technical difficulties.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-59427506726886990452010-03-31T23:59:00.006+02:002010-04-01T10:41:33.757+02:00Madeleines for Bâbâ HassanI sat at the end of the kitchen table, eating a late makeshift lunch. My grandfather stood by me, leaning on the table with one hand, on the counter with the other. He preferred to stand like that rather than sit sometimes, the effort of ensconcing himself in any chair, other than his beloved deep leather one in the living room, and then having to get out of it not much later a great strain on his now frail body. He seemed to be looking at his feet but I knew otherwise.<br />
"What are you thinking about?"<br />
Without looking up he said "your sister loves chocolate and I love your sister... therefore I love chocolate." He looked at me sideways and, with a twinkle in his light gray-green eyes and a little smile added, "that's a sophism."<br />
It was the last time I would see that twinkle in his eye.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4465958018/" title="On My Grandfather and Madeleines by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="On My Grandfather and Madeleines" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4465958018_2101ff6fca_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
When A. mentioned a long time ago that he liked madeleines and would I make him some one day, I immediately thought of my paternal grandfather, Bâbâ Hassan. It probably sounds silly and Proustian, especially coming from a French girl, but it's really nothing like that at all.<br />
Bâbâ, as we simply called him (and which means father in Farsi) was a man of simple pleasures. He didn't eat many sweets or fancy pastries -this was Paris after all- but he loved madeleines and crêpes. As far back as I can remember, when he would take us grocery shopping or send us out to get something around the corner, he would always buy some madeleines or ask us to get some crêpes; one ought to be sure one's stash wasn't going to run out you see.<br />
<br />
I'm thinking of a picture I have of him (that is in storage unfortunately) which captured him in the prime of his life and embodies many of the things he was to me. It's black and white and shows him sitting at the Iranian delegation's desk at <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/">UNESCO</a>; he looks quite dapper in a three-piece suit, wearing big headphones for simultaneous translation and leaning back in his chair, head cocked to the side and smoking a pipe.<br />
In it I see the intent listener I knew, the scholar and professor of mathematics, the avid and erudite reader with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, the reciter of classical poems by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez">Hafez</a>, the author, the translator, the bookstore owner, and his myriad other personas. Above all, though, I see my adored grandfather who taught me to play backgammon, who would take me to the <a href="http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/jardin_albert_kahn">Albert Kahn Garden</a> to feed the ducks, who would ask me when I was going to have children because, he said, "you were such a delightful child," who was the kindest and gentlest person I knew. Thinking of him and of the stories I can tell Baby Saffron of being a child with him makes me feel like a child again. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4465181311/" title="On My Grandfather and Madeleines by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="On My Grandfather and Madeleines" height="748" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2721/4465181311_28bb57e0af_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
We walked together, my hand in his.<br />
It was a Saturday afternoon and I'd been dropped off with my grandparents by myself. My grandmother was out and about so, left to our own devices, my grandfather and I chose our preferred activity together. We went out armed with a small bag of stale baguette bits. After passing a few people, he turned to me and asked the usual question:<br />
"What will people think when they see us?"<br />
I looked up at him, already smiling at what I knew would come next.<br />
"Will they think I am your grandfather, and you are my granddaughter? Will they think I am your father and you are my daughter? Will they think that you are my mother and I am your son?" -at this point I invariably started giggling- "Will they think that you are my grandmother and I am your grandson?" and so on the possibilities were listed; I contributed the ones I could think of. We reached the gardens this way and spent the next hour walking around, tossing the bread to the ducks, taking a break on a bench and enjoying the afternoon sun. <br />
<br />
He was born in 1916 on the shores of the Caspian sea. He remembered riding in a horse-drawn carriage at the age of three with his nanny for two days straight to Tehran as the White Army, hotly pursued by the Red Army, rode through Northern Iran destroying everything in its path. Through hard work and sheer determination, he moved his little family to France in the 50s and started all over again, learning French, teaching math, giving his children and later grandchildren a henceforth immutably <a href="http://www.expatharem.com/2010/03/03/cultural-jet-lag/">multicultural, multilingual vision</a> of the world. He witnessed technological changes in his lifetime that would be akin to an inhabitable city being built on the moon in mine. He refused to recall the girlfriends he'd had before meeting my grandmother at the tender age of 21. He loved his family above all other things. He saw war. occupation. revolution. By the end he was tired, his body betraying him slowly over the years, though his mind was sound and youthful to the last. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4478447725/" title="On My Grandfather and Madeleines by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="On My Grandfather and Madeleines" height="746" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4478447725_9eaeb58c21_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
A man was browsing the vintage comics in the back of the store. There were few of them as this was primarily an antique bookstore, but my grandfather had a great eye for worthwhile printed material of any kind. The man was dressed in ripped, dirty jeans and an old, battered, white T-shirt. His ratty clothes and the unstudied stubble on his chin indicated not careful hipsterism but rather a complete lack of concern for his appearance. <br />
My grandfather did not budge from the book he was reading behind his desk. In his experience you could tell absolutely nothing from a man's outward appearance. He spent most of his days reading while waiting for customers to choose and purchase books, as that is perhaps the most wonderful perk of having one's own bookstore, being able to read all day.<br />
It was only when the man finally grabbed about half the stack of comics, valued at about $100 each (in old Francs), and walked toward him that my grandfather wondered if the man could actually afford them, still he said nothing. The man put the stack down in front of my grandfather and, reaching into his jean pocket, pulled out a wad of one thousand (old) Franc bills. He paid for the comic books, which my grandfather put into a bag for him, and walked out the door.<br />
We watched him cross the narrow street, get into a white Maserati, and drive away. <br />
<br />
I wish I could describe his smile, his laugh, in a way that would do them justice; the depths of his voice; the purr in the back of his throat when he spoke that may have been a result of his smoking for years (though I never even knew he was a smoker until, as a teenager, I discovered old pipes in one of his closets) or just a result of his being closely related to cats; his passion for felines, inherited from his grandfather and passed on to his children and grandchildren, resulted in his being called <i>The Cat </i>(Pishoo), and they too recognized one of their own in him, the most unfriendly of cats shunning all other humans but gladly jumping uninvited into his lap.<br />
<br />
He passed away in 2002, soon after his 86th birthday.<br />
I miss him every day.<br />
My father ended his eulogy with this quote, which encapsulated him perfectly:<br />
"Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best." - from Plato's <b><i>Phaedo</i></b><br />
<br />
Have some madeleines for him, preferably with a large cup of tea. He'd like that. <br />
من شما را دوست دارم بابا <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4468164252/" title="On My Grandfather and Madeleines by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="On My Grandfather and Madeleines" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4468164252_1c0d354448_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Note:</b> I wrote a post at Expat Harem which mentions my grandfather and is a more in-depth snapshot of who I am and what this gift of multiculturalism is that he gave us. It is linked above and <a href="http://www.expatharem.com/2010/03/03/cultural-jet-lag/">here</a>. <br />
<br />
<b>Madeleines </b><br />
adapted from <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/12/humpy_madeleine.html">David Lebovitz's recipe</a><br />
<br />
Butter, melted for the madeleine mold<br />
Flour to coat the mold<br />
3 eggs, at room temperature<br />
120g (2/3 cup - 2tsp) granulated sugar<br />
1/8 tsp salt - I use Maldon salt which I grind<br />
175g (1/4 cup) flour<br />
1 tsp baking powder<br />
125g (9 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature<br />
<br />
- Brush the madeleine mold with melted butter. Then dust with flour, making sure to remove any excess by tapping the mold, and place in the freezer.<br />
- Whisk the eggs, sugar and salt together until they've doubled in volume and the batter flows off the whisk like a ribbon. The simplest way to do this is with an electric hand or stand mixer. <br />
- Mix the flour and baking powder together.<br />
- Sift the flour and baking powder mixture into the egg, sugar and salt batter while you progressively fold it in with a spatula. Do not skip the sifting part or you will invariably end up with lumps of flour in your batter. <br />
- Gently fold the butter into the batter a few spoonfuls at a time. Fold just until all the butter is incorporated.<br />
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate the batter for at least 1 hour. (I prefer to chill mine overnight)<br />
<br />
Once chilled: <br />
- Heat the oven to 210˚C (425˚F).<br />
- Using a small or large spoon (I used mini madeleine molds so a small spoon worked for me) put enough batter into each mold to fill it if the batter spreads out. Don't spend time shaping it or spreading it as you may warm the dough which would negatively affect the result.<br />
- Bake for about 7-9mn or until the madeleines look done to your liking (I like them slightly brown on the bottom). <br />
- As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, flip out the madeleines onto a wire rack to cool.<br />
Madeleines are usually best the day they are made, but can be kept in an airtight container for up to three days, or frozen well-wrapped.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-78877944033530671722010-03-29T16:00:00.003+02:002010-03-29T17:27:21.509+02:00Join Us at Food Blogger Connect 2010!<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4473344306/" title="FBC10 Post Banner by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="FBC10 Post Banner" height="90" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/4473344306_8822de75d2_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<div style="color: black;">It's <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-blogger-connect-when-food-bloggers.html">Food Blogger Connect</a> time again and this year it's going to be a really phenomenal weekend! Two and half days jam-packed with food, fun, roundtables and hands-on workshops, networking, awards and some really cool prizes.</div><br />
<div style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.foodbloggerconnect.com/">Food Blogger Connect 2010</a> will take place on June 4th, 5th & 6th in London. You don't want to miss it!</div><br />
<div style="color: black;">Click <a href="http://www.foodbloggerconnect.com/latest-news/fbc-2010-register-is-open/">here</a> and you'll discover who will be speaking -the line-up is phenomenal, including bloggers such as Jaden Hair of <a href="http://steamykitchen.com/">Steamy Kitchen</a>, Béatrice Peltre of <a href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/">La Tartine Gourmande</a> and Luisa Weiss of <a href="http://www.thewednesdaychef.com/">The Wednesday Chef</a>- and the gorgeous venues, the itinerary and other relevant information. You will notice that the cost has gone up from last year as you will also notice there is so much more on offer! Dinner, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, BBQ, blind folded wine tasting, cocktails and brunch are all offered before, after and in between the information-packed workshops and roundtables. There will be prop swaps, awards and many prizes like cupcake decorating classes from <a href="http://www.beasofbloomsbury.com/">Bea's of Bloomsbury</a> worth over £100 each! And if you thought last year's goodie bags were awesome, just wait until you see the goodies this time around...</div><br />
<div style="color: black;">Spreading <span class="il">FBC</span> out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday allows everyone the chance to actively participate in ways we couldn't last year - not only hands-on workshops, but Q & A during and after each discussion. We will all have loads of time over the three days to meet, get to know each other, exchange, share, network. For everyone's convenience we have been able to break down the event into three days so you can attend what and when you like - just one day or two or the whole weekend.<br />
Of course, if you come on Saturday, there is a possibility that you'll meet Baby Saffron who will probably make a short appearance to wave Hello. </div><br />
<div style="color: black;">For some of you who attended <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-blogger-connect-when-food-bloggers.html">last year's event</a>, you'll know first hand how, even in one short day, we all learned so much and how much fun we had meeting and getting to know each other. Now just think of that but times three! You don't need to look twice at the itinerary to know that you are going to come out more prepared and inspired than ever to turn your <span class="il">blog</span> into an even bigger success, whatever your vision!</div><div style="color: black;">You'll need to hurry as registration is open and tickets are selling fast! Space is limited (we want to keep it intimate) so make that decision quick! Got a question? Drop us a line on the <span class="il">FBC</span> <span class="il">blog</span> or email <a href="mailto:info@foodbloggerconnect.com" target="_blank">info@foodbloggerconnect.com</a>.</div><br />
For a preview of the weekend's fun, watch this video (put together by yours truly):<br />
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We hope to see you there!Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-77788719813757331192010-03-22T12:08:00.000+01:002010-03-23T00:18:46.668+01:00A Last Hurrah for WinterIt's not like I'm going to miss winter -actually I can't be missing it yet because though we've seen hints of spring it's not spring here yet- but there's been so much response to my <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/02/bread-pudding-when-i-dream-of-snow.html">bread pudding</a> (which I think was visceral half to the bread pudding itself and half to the snowy picture I included) that as I'm extremely busy right now and can only work on the post about my grandfather (see previous post) incrementally, I thought I'd post a little last hurrah for winter and snow, since everyone else has the beginning of spring covered right now.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455729814/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2694/4455729814_e4bc35091f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
We haven't really seen any proper snow here this year, so these are pictures from that one day last year I mentioned in the bread pudding post where we woke up to six inches of snow and I locked myself out of the house while walking the younger spazzy dog...and somewhat inappropriately dressed...and heavily pregnant. No, I didn't take these pictures while I was locked out, I took them after A. came home to let me in and we went back out because he knew I would want to take pictures, even if I was lumbering around like a beached whale trying to get back to water by then. I hope you enjoy them.<br />
By the way, does anyone out there struggle as much as I do with choosing pictures for diptychs and then placing them within your post? I'm giving up after some reshuffling now because trying to look at my whole post in the Blogger window is making me cross-eyed. <br />
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It was Baby Saffron's 1st birthday yesterday! Crazy talk. <br />
I will be back shortly with food.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454949721/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="335" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4454949721_dd85532431_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454950611/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4454950611_dd116efc29_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454950779/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4454950779_cb0376a618_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455730710/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4455730710_c25e690f57_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454951321/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4454951321_3fc344ee37_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454951137/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4454951137_7d5ae53ca2_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455731354/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/4455731354_5c6e8d6251_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455729968/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="335" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4455729968_72859233c2_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455731662/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4455731662_1b940e361c_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454951489/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4454951489_80c3fa62f5_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455731508/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/4455731508_35a7294060_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4455731814/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="372" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4455731814_2c7c74563f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4454950449/" title="Snow Day 2009 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow Day 2009" height="335" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4454950449_b12f6a94d7_o.jpg" width="500" /></a>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-203252309179623182010-03-09T14:32:00.001+01:002010-03-09T22:44:47.614+01:00When a post is hard to write...My profoundest apologies to you all if you've been checking here over the last couple of weeks only to find nothing new. Some of you have even written me asking me if everything was all right, and I can assure you all that it is.<br />
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I just set about writing a post about madeleines and my grandfather which I meant to post last week, and wouldn't you know, it's the hardest damn post I've ever had to write. I have so many things to say about him, though I don't mean to say them all, but just the few of so many things I could say have to be exactly right, and I'm finding it terribly difficult to strike the right tone, turn out the right prose, and the thing is that I'm incredibly stubborn...and not in a good way. So instead of writing an interim post until I got it right, I just kept thinking to myself, tomorrow, tomorrow is the day I will get it right. And many tomorrows have come since then.<br />
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So, while I don't know which day exactly it is going to be, I can promise that it is going to be very soon, and in the meantime please take a look at what happens when I procrastinate (aka here as avoision or the cohesion of avoidance and aversion) and mess around with photos and settings in Aperture. I don't have time to be playing these games people, and yet here I am playing them. <br />
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What do you do when you procrastinate/have avoision?<br />
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P.S.: Is it that obvious that I covet a medium format camera? <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4419208433/" title="Sepia Kensington Gardens by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Sepia Kensington Gardens" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4419208433_47cef558b3_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4420244331/" title="Seagulls B&W by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4420244331_cf2e2c1d08_o.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="Seagulls B&W" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4421011172/" title="Seagulls B&W by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2756/4421011172_07442c68ea_o.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="Seagulls B&W" /></a>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-31124302375691070492010-02-24T22:16:00.208+01:002010-02-25T03:31:23.929+01:00On birthdays and crazy squirrelsWarning: This is a long post so I'd get some snacks before you start reading if I were you. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4384679980/" title="Birthday Chocolate Charlotte by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Birthday Chocolate Charlotte" height="334" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4384679980_756f5be391_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
So, think the picture above and the one below have nothing to do with each other? Well you'd be right, and you'd be wrong, let me explain. <b> </b><br />
<b>Today is A.'s birthday</b> and though this isn't "the" cake I made for him for today, it gives you a good idea of the ones I did make that you will see a bit later on this blog. This cake is a birthday cake too, so I thought I'd show it to you. I made it a while ago for a friend's birthday party and was given free rein to choose the recipe as long as it included chocolate; I chose a Charlotte Cecile because that is one of my favorite cakes ever and there's nothing I like better than to make a cake I love to eat for someone else. <br />
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But what does this have to do with squirrels? The thing is that this little guy would only have his picture taken in this way when A. was with me in the park. Without A. well... that's the crazy squirrel story.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4353938747/" title="Please sir, may I have some more--- by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Please sir, may I have some more---" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4353938747_f69f766196_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
In fact the whole squirrel thing is due to A., from beginning to end, and coincides with this birthday cake "thing". <br />
The day I started making this cake, A. decided to take Baby Saffron out to the park for a walk and, being in and out of the kitchen and quite tired, he took her without me. A short while later, he called me from the park so I could hear my little girl giggle to no end. Apparently, he'd chanced upon a French couple giving nuts to a bunch of very enterprising (read crazily comfortable with humans) squirrels who were climbing up on them to take the nuts, and these charming people had given him some nuts to lure the squirrels, thus causing my little girl's giggle fit. Well, needless to say, I immediately regretted not having gone with them but it was too late, so I resolved to take her back to that same area of the park as soon as the weather would allow it. <br />
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Now, the pictures below presumably portray what happened on that day, taken when I made A. come with me the <i>second</i> time I went to the park to show Baby Saffron the squirrels. <br />
They *look* harmless, don't they....<br />
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Oh yes, the cute little squirrel on the ground. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4361815361/" title="Get the peanut and run by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Get the peanut and run" height="250" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4361815361_cb6d69891c_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Uh-huh, the cute little squirrel on A.'s leg. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4362558832/" title="Fearless squirrel by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Fearless squirrel" height="373" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4362558832_6621827f78_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Umm, the really big (but ok cute) squirrel on A.'s coat!<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4361815483/" title="Squirrel Loot by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Squirrel Loot " height="373" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4361815483_6d481794a4_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Let me tell you what happened the <i>first</i> time I went on the squirrel adventure.<br />
Oh yes, I was young and naive then, and they knew it.<br />
A. had purchased a big bag of peanuts in their shell specifically for the squirrels, but when the weather wasn't quite so miserable again a few days later, he couldn't go out and Baby Saffron and I ventured forth by ourselves with aforementioned bag.<br />
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Once in the right area of the park, I started taking out shells and crunching them softly in my hands to draw the squirrels out. They came, shyly at first, pretending that the peanuts would be a nice treat, a little afternoon snack to keep their bellies happy until a dinner of nut medley and fine nut liqueur no doubt. One, two, four, six, they seemed to multiply like rabbits. Very cute and funny. Baby Saffron was amused, but I think it wasn't quite the spectacle it had been the first time, so there was no extreme giggling going on. They came from all directions and I wasn't afraid to have them climb onto my feet and shins to grab peanuts from me, but then it started. The squabbling for the peanuts, the pigeons gathering and flapping right in front of me or above Baby Saffron as I tried to wave them off, and finally the jumping and the attempts to climb onto the stroller. Yes, you see, when they've got a full bag of peanuts within their reach, all bets are off. That's when the comfort of being known as "such a nice squirrel" are thrown to the side and the most brazen wins.<br />
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Suddenly, I was being accosted on all sides at the same time by at least three or four squirrels. They were on the backs of my legs, climbing up on my shins up to my coat and hand, jumping up on the stroller, trying to shove their heads into the bag to grasp the peanut bounty. I think my burgeoning shrieks were probably causing Baby Saffron to giggle more than the actual squirrels by that stage. I could see it already: "Attacked by the Hyde Park Killer Squirrels" would be listed as the cause of death on the coroner's report. Baby Saffron would grow up to recount that terrible day in the park when she watched Mama run off in a shower of peanut shells and flying squirrels, drawing them away from her so that she could live to tell the tale. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4362558410/" title="The squirrel and the bird by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="The squirrel and the bird" height="1005" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4362558410_9c13344732_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
So, I did what any reasonable person who is being attacked by peanut-psychotic-squirrels would do, I ran.<br />
OK I didn't leave Baby Saffron behind, I actually ran off pushing the stroller, but wouldn't you know it, that wasn't sufficient; some of them followed me a full twenty or thirty yards (~meters) before I realized that the only way to lose them would be to throw peanuts on the ground behind me and skedaddle (<i>prendre mes jambes à mon cou</i> as we say in French - run like a bat out of hell), which is what I did.<br />
I consider this to probably be one of the better episodes of <i>how to look ridiculous with/to a small child</i> in this first year of my little girl's life. I hope you're laughing as much as A. was when I told him about my narrow escape. To be honest, I laugh about it too so, you know, feel free to indulge.<br />
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All this to say that I love my A., he who braves crazy squirrels for me so I can take pictures, he who surprises me with gorgeous flowers and chocolate cake on Valentine's Day, he whose features I see in our little Baby Saffron, particularly in her sparkling eyes, he whose birthday it is today, just short of a month from our little Baby Saffron's birthday. And as for the cake, you'll get a recipe but not in this post. For now if you please, I'd just like to share a little bit of the color we experience in this house thanks to A. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4385319330/" title="I love my family by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="I love my family" height="746" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4385319330_46357f062f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Oh and while we're celebrating birthdays, it's Meeta's fourth blog anniversary tomorrow, so go on over and wish <a href="http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/">What's For Lunch, Honey?</a> a happy birthday while you're at it. <br />
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And now we wait for spring, which will be kindly brought to you by little Baby Saffron's birthday on the 21st of March. Can't wait. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4386382660/" title="Waiting for spring by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Waiting for spring" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4386382660_81fb248920_o.jpg" width="500" /></a>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-5637334841490846262010-02-18T01:30:00.186+01:002010-02-19T20:52:45.738+01:00Gluten-Free Pear Chocolate Muffins with Maple or Chocolate Mascarpone Icing<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4367679157/" title="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins with Maple or Chocolate Mascarpone Icing by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins with Maple or Chocolate Mascarpone Icing" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4367679157_4e32cb36f0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
So I know this post was supposed to be about peanuts and squirrels and life and was actually meant to go up on Valentine's Day, but stuff happens (like a broken in two places toe), so it will be the next post. Instead, I have to tell you about some gluten-free chocolate muffins I made a while back; I meant to post these before now because I wanted Béa of <a href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/">La Tartine Gourmande</a> to see what she'd started in this house, and the Monthly Mingle deadline is today too so bombs away.<br />
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Before I say anything else, let me state a couple of things: 1) No I'm not turning into a gluten-free baker, if there's anything I love in life besides my family, it's gluten; I just haven't posted many gluten-free recipes here but 2) I do have gluten-intolerant friends and friends with food allergies (this is for you Chlōe) so I do like to keep some recipes on hand to bake for them when I need to, plus if the flavor and texture you're trying to recreate is not incredibly complex, it's not difficult to substitute in gluten-free flours without noticing the difference. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4367719793/" title="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins" height="746" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2723/4367719793_9c956980a0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Anyway, we're constantly in boxes here, packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking; so if you can believe it, I found a 1Kg bar of Varhona chocolate in one of the boxes a few weeks ago which I had purchased at <a href="http://www.lagrandeepicerie.fr/#en-GB/home">La Grande Epicerie</a> in Paris back when I was pregnant, and though it hadn't actually gotten old even though the use by date was October 2009, I felt I owed it to our bellies and general well-being to use it as quickly as possible; also, it's cold which everyone knows is perfect chocolate weather. You will be seeing more results of this massive chocolate usage in forthcoming posts, but let's stick to the muffins for now.<br />
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Although I could have, say, with a cake like <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2007/10/wedding-cake-un-gteau-de-mariage.html">this one</a>, I didn't want to use a huge amount of the bar for only one recipe. Really, I wanted to <i>faire</i> <i>durer le plaisir</i> as we say in French, which means to make the pleasure last (somehow in its Gallic form it's a little more expressive of that wish), so I went hunting for chocolate-loaded (but not too much) recipes and remembered that Béa had written a post about <a href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2010/01/11/banana-hazelnut-cocoa-muffins/">chocolate muffins</a> not long before and that there was another chocolate muffin recipe lurking somewhere in her archives. The <a href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2009/04/11/hazelnut-chocolate-muffins-gluten-free/">older muffin recipe</a>, having melted chocolate rather than cocoa in it, won out.<br />
And oooh, how it won out, let me tell you...I made them plain, I made them with bananas, I made them with apples, I made them with pears which were my favorite. And since I didn't have flours like quinoa or amaranth readily available, I thought I'd try a <a href="http://www.linwoods.co.uk/en/super_food.php?cat=7">milled organic seed mix</a> from Linwoods which we'd all received in our <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-blogger-connect-when-food-bloggers.html">FBC goodie bags</a>, having seen Deeba use it successfully for <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/01/milled-nut-flour-macarons-with-dark.html">macarons</a>. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4367719493/" title="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gluten Free Pear Chocolate Muffins" height="746" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4367719493_a94921dd7b_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
They were so incredibly delicious, I made batch after batch after batch; so many in fact, that I had to start giving them away almost as fast as I was making them, causing us to go calling on everyone we remotely knew, lest we ate them all and A. turned into a Punjabi chocolate bar with all of the other chocolate things coming out of the kitchen as well.<br />
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They're perfect for an afternoon snack, practical to take with you on a picnic or just around the corner to a friend's for tea. If you get a chance, try making them with milled seeds or nut meal instead of regular flour, I guarantee it gives them a lovely nutty sort of flavor (even if you don't use nuts) and it gives you the impression that you're really doing your health a favor (just don't think about the butter, sugar, etc...). As I've said, they already caused us to mingle, but just because they do have chocolate and are sort of like bread -muffins are a bread product, right? right?- I'm sending them over to my friend <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/">Jamie</a> who is hosting this edition of the <a href="http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-monthly-mingle.html">Monthly Mingle</a> with a theme of <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/2010/01/bread-chocolate.html">bread and chocolate</a>.<br />
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Next post I promise to tell you about the park with the crazy squirrels, and since I never do anything in chronological order it seems, I'll talk about Valentine's Day too, but for a special reason. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4362558120/" title="Benches in winter light by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Benches in winter light" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4362558120_b4bce1e140_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<b>Gluten-free Pear Chocolate Muffins with Maple or Chocolate Mascarpone Icing</b><br />
adapted from Béatrice Peltre's <a href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2009/04/11/hazelnut-chocolate-muffins-gluten-free/">recipe at La Tartine Gourmande </a><br />
Makes about 9-10 muffins<br />
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For the muffins:<br />
110g (1 cup) milled flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (<a href="http://www.linwoods.co.uk/en/super_food.php?cat=7">Linwoods</a>) or nut meal<br />
1/2 tsp salt (I use Maldon salt)<br />
1/2 tsp baking powder<br />
100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, chopped<br />
100g (7 Tbsp) unsalted butter, chopped into chunks (as in preferably not left as one stick)<br />
3 large eggs<br />
100g (1/2 cup) unrefined sugar (sometimes I used light brown, sometimes dark brown, sometimes blond)<br />
2 pears, peeled and chopped into small cubes<br />
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For the mascarpone icing:<br />
100g mascarpone cheese at room temperature<br />
25g dark chocolate<br />
2 Tbsp maple syrup<br />
The decorations are chocolate sprinkle on the maple icing and shaved white chocolate on the dark chocolate icing<br />
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For the muffins:<br />
- Heat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F) and fill a muffin pan with muffin cases.<br />
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, nut meal or milled seeds you're using with the salt and baking powder. Set aside.<br />
- In a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, or a double-boiler, or in the microwave if that's what you're used to, melt the chocolate and the butter, mixing them to be homogeneous. <br />
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until light and double in volume (easiest way is to do it with a stand or hand mixer).<br />
- Add the melted chocolate and butter gently, either mixing on low speed, whisking slowly, or with a spatula taking care not to beat the batter too much (so as not to lose too much air).<br />
- Fold the dry mix in, using a spatula or wooden spoon, until just combined. <br />
- Fill the muffin cases 3/4 full and add a few pieces (~3) of pear into each case.<br />
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.<br />
- Let cool on a wire rack. <br />
<br />
For the icing:<br />
- Melt the chocolate over simmering water, or a double-boiler or the microwave as described above.<br />
- Whip the mascarpone cheese until creamy. Divide into two small bowls.<br />
- Mix the chocolate with one half of the mascarpone quickly (it will thicken because the chocolate is seizing) and the maple syrup with the other half of the mascarpone.<br />
- Spread immediately on the cooled muffins.<br />
Decorate, or not, and eat until you drop.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-79446473729998311712010-02-09T15:36:00.002+01:002010-02-11T17:27:29.065+01:00Bread Pudding when I dream of snow...<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4344130557/" title="I dream of snow 1-1 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="I dream of snow 1-1" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4344130557_962f18154f_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Although I'd agree with anyone that there are just some kinds of cold days that are beyond miserable, I have to say I'm a cold weather kind of gal at heart. I love winter clothing, wrapping up in thick sweaters, trying different kinds of knots in my scarves every day (I wouldn't be a real French girl if I didn't have a drawer full of scarves and at least five different ways of putting them on), cradling a cup of hot chocolate or a steaming bowl of soup in my cold hands and then savoring them slowly, letting the warmth seep through me, all things I am happy for every time the calendar hits December.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, my ideal winter and the one I actually get here are two rather different things. I suppose I should be thankful that we don't get three feet of snow at a time the way my sister and her family do in Chicago, but a little snow once in a while would be nice, and by that I don't mean snow that I might see if I were up between 6:00 and 6:17am before it has essentially vanished, making one doubt it was ever here to begin with.<br />
Last year there was one such day, unexpectedly. Granted, it caused the whole nation to grind to a halt and I did lock myself out of the house that morning while walking the "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/3977032280/">one who brings the crazy</a>." But even while heavily pregnant, somewhat inappropriately dressed, trying to control one very spazzy dog reconnecting with something in her Dutch, barge-pulling, canine DNA, and walking over to the hotel nearby to call A. to come home and let me in, I was still thoroughly charmed by the six inches of snow through which I was trudging. Call me crazy.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4344121951/" title="Bread Pudding on Cold Days by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Bread Pudding on Cold Days" height="752" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4344121951_f3781e1074_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a name='more'></a>So, when it turns out we probably aren't going to get snow like that again any time soon, but the weather is cold enough and gray enough and soggy enough to make you want to stick your head in the sand of your couch and wish for naptime, springtime, Hammertime, any other time really, I turn to food to feed my <strike>emotions</strike> longings. So what if the only remains of the snow that fell an hour ago is the ice trapped in the grooves of the horse track in Hyde Park? Get thee to the kitchen and make some <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/02/norwegian-coffee-cake-yeast-averse.html">Norwegian Coffee Cake</a> I say. Or, if you already did that, you know, that other cold, gray and generally unpalatable day, slice up what's left of it and make some bread pudding. Come on, you know you want to, even if it's not that cold or gray. Well, I did anyway. <br />
<br />
Full disclosure: I had been having a bread pudding sort of obsession for a while, as if the only possible thing one could make with slightly dry bread is bread pudding. Luckily for me, in this particular instance I had plenty of internet support with <a href="http://mykugelhopf.ch/">Kerrin</a> and <a href="http://blog.lemonpi.net/">Y</a> both suitably impressed by the gargantuan size of above-mentioned coffee cake, and Kerrin suggesting I get A. to make his specialty of pain perdu (French toast) with what was left, while Y suggested bread pudding. What? What was that? Bread pudding?? I'm <i>so</i> glad you said that, that would <i>never</i> have occurred to me.<br />
Of course, not being one to waste a good opportunity, I did ask A. to make thin slices of French toast for our afternoon snack the next day which I garnished with some salted butter caramel. And then there was enough left to make six ramekins of bread pudding. That coffee cake was colossal, true story. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4344857878/" title="Norwegian Coffee Cake Bread Pudding by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Norwegian Coffee Cake Bread Pudding" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4344857878_b4fcbe4a1c_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I know you want me to give you a really detailed recipe and everything, but I'm only going to tell you how you make the simplest bread pudding ever, people. And no, this isn't make crème anglaise or crème pâtissière and then add it to the bread kind of bread pudding, this is even simpler than that. (A. doesn't really like custardy bread pudding; I make the constraints work for me, if you want to make something more complicated, knock yourself out).<br />
<br />
Sneak peek of the next edition of my random adventures through food and life: On Peanuts and the Hyde Park Squirrels of Doom.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4344858140/" title="Feeding the Squirrels by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Feeding the Squirrels" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/4344858140_49348c11d5_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Laziest Bread Pudding Ever </b><br />
inspired by the interwebs<br />
<br />
- You heat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F). <br />
- You cut up the bread into slices or sliced chunks, not too thick about 1cm (half an inch) is good. 4 slices will probably be enough for 6 ramekins.<br />
- You take some dairy: Whole Jersey Milk for me, about 300ml (1 cup + 3Tbsp), but it could be half-fat milk, single or double cream, creme fraiche, any combination of these and more, etc...<br />
- You take some eggs: about 1 egg for every 100ml (1/3 cup + 1Tbsp) of dairy product.<br />
- You add anywhere from 1-3 Tbsp of sugar, whatever kind you want: I used brown sugar because the coffee cake was slightly sweetened with brown sugar already and I was adding...<br />
- Some stuff to tie the layers together somehow like raisins or nuts or in my case more chunks of Valrhona orange chocolate. <br />
- Some spice you might want to infuse the whole thing like cardamom for me because the coffee cake was already cardamom-flavored.<br />
- You layer the bread, the additional stuff (raisins, nuts, chocolate, whatever) alternately almost up to the top of the dish.<br />
- You mix the dairy, eggs and sugar, you throw a pinch of the spice in there or alternately on top of the whole thing before you stick it in the oven (kinda depends on the spice).<br />
- You pour the liquid mixture over the bread, filling the dish up to reach the top layer of bread if not soaking it.<br />
- And you can either do this or not, I put the ramekins in a big baking dish which I filled halfway up with hot water, and bake between 20-30mn depending on the consistency you want. A. likes it just soft, not liquidy or custardy, so it was 30mn for me. <br />
- Serve with cream, whipped cream, ice cream, or any other sort of indulgent thing you want, or just eat them plain and warm.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-80769395369645351532010-02-01T18:17:00.059+01:002010-02-11T16:02:39.899+01:00Norwegian Coffee Cake: A Yeast-Averse StoryIf you've read some of my posts before, you've noticed that I don't make a lot of bread, and that on the rare occasions when I do, I mention my aversion to yeast. Well, maybe it's time I admitted that this aversion I have to yeast is mostly due to my often having a packet of yeast in the cupboard that, logically, hardly ever gets used resulting in the yeast becoming so old and ineffective that, when I finally get around to using it, a fair amount of cursing and imprecations is directed at said yeast when my dough still hasn't risen after 3 hours of pilot-lighting, oven-front sitting, steam bathing, etc... <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4322803249/" title="Norwegian Coffee Cake by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Norwegian Coffee Cake" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4322803249_6b684149b1_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
So imagine my utter delight when, having purchased a brand new shiny packet of yeast a couple of months ago, all my bread endeavors now promptly ferment, bubble and rise and I obtain the bread I was trying to make, my kneading inability notwithstanding.<br />
Really, there are two culprits in this newfound desire I have to actually make bread and brave yeast: their names are<a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/"> Jamie</a> and <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/">Deeba</a>. I mentioned both of them in the <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/back-to-regularly-scheduled-programming.html">last post</a>.<br />
<br />
What you may not know about them is that Jamie has this fabulous recipe for a <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/2009/11/one-day-one-cake-at-time.html">chocolate meringue coffee cake</a> on her blog which was the catalyst of my old yeast/new yeast debacle, and Deeba pulls baked goods out of her oven like Mary Poppins pulls whatever she might need out of her bag. So when Jamie declared that she was <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/2010/01/focaccia-farcita-stuffed-focaccia.html">hosting</a> this month's <a href="http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/4124192/">Bread Baking Day</a> and that the theme of it would be her birthday which was the 28th of January, I felt I really should participate both because she is a dear friend and because she got me to start baking bread. Deeba's contribution was to insist on posting <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/01/ottolenghis-dried-cranberry-walnut.html">bread</a> after <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/02/nutella-walnut-orange-rolls-chocolat-et.html">bread</a> after bread, some from the Ottolenghi book which I gave her when she was here for <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-blogger-connect-when-food-bloggers.html">FBC</a>, which heightened my desperation for bread-baking success. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4322873387/" title="Norwegian Coffee Cake by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2716/4322873387_6342b5469d_o.jpg" width="500" height="746" alt="Norwegian Coffee Cake" /></a><br />
So out came the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tassajara-Bread-Book-Edward-Brown/dp/157062089X">Tassajara Bread Book</a> which I purchased last summer with every intention of making a ton of bread, and which went unused until yesterday when I leafed through it looking purposely for a yeasted recipe (yes there is a whole un-yeasted bread section in there) and came upon this Norwegian coffee cake. Flavored with cardamom, which I love, at its simplest, it seemed just the thing to bake on a chilly Sunday.<br />
I had a bar of Valrhona orange chocolate I needed to use and orange and chocolate being two flavors that marry well with cardamom, half of it went into the bread. I could choose any shape and having never baked challah or any other braided bread before, I decided to try a four-stranded braid. Though I knew I'd gone wrong about halfway through the loaf (past the point where the diagrams ended), it wasn't until after I'd put the bread in the oven that I suddenly understood how the weave worked.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>It was (and still is because it's huge*) delicious, with an airy, challah-like consistency to the crumb. I haven't been able to stop eating it since I first tore into it, and what remains of it will go into some bread pudding tomorrow.<br />
The most satisfying part of the whole experience was when I gave the tiniest piece of just cardamom-flavored crumb (no chocolate chunks) to Baby Saffron, who hadn't had anything cardamom-flavored yet, to taste and she made this little high-pitched <i>mmmm</i> sound she's just started making recently when she likes food. My heart grew three sizes at that moment. <br />
<br />
* The quantities in this recipe make an enormous amount of bread; for human-sized portions you should probably halve it or make two loaves. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4323765010/" title="Norwegian Coffee Cake End by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Norwegian Coffee Cake End" height="713" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2767/4323765010_71cdc2a7c0_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Norwegian Coffee Cake</b><br />
adapted from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tassajara-Bread-Book-Edward-Brown/dp/157062089X">Tassajara Bread Book</a> by Edward Espe Brown<br />
<br />
Yeast Sponge: <br />
1 1/2 Tbsp dry active yeast<br />
1 1/4 cup (315ml) half-fat milk (or water) slightly warmed (not hot)<br />
1 1/2 cup (190g) all purpose flour<br />
2 Tbsp (26g) brown sugar<br />
<br />
Bread: <br />
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp (136g) brown sugar<br />
1/2 cup (110g) butter <br />
3 eggs<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
1/2 tsp ground cardamom<br />
100g (3.5 oz) chocolate roughly chopped into chunks <br />
3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour + more for kneading<br />
vegetable oil for the bowl in which it will rise<br />
<br />
Egg Wash (optional):<br />
1 egg<br />
2 Tbsp water or milk <br />
<br />
For the yeast sponge:<br />
- Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. Add the flour and the 2 Tbsp of sugar and mix well. Cover with a damp towel and leave to rise. The book implies that you can do this while you are preparing the rest, but I actually left my sponge the whole night in my cold kitchen.<br />
<br />
For the bread: <br />
- Preferably using a mixer of some sort for ease, cream the butter (in a stand mixer use the paddle attachment). Cream the sugar into the butter.<br />
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well before adding the next.<br />
- Mix the salt and the cardamom.<br />
- Fold the butter/sugar mixture and the salt/cardamom mixture into the yeast sponge.<br />
- Fold any extras such as the chocolate chunks into the mixture (I actually forgot to do this and had to add the chocolate right before the bread went into the oven...oops).<br />
- Fold the flour in until you form a soft dough. I needed all 3 1/2 cups but you might only need 3.<br />
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and adding flour as needed, knead it into a smooth dough (it took me about 10mn).<br />
- Using the vegetable oil, lightly grease a large bowl. Put your kneaded dough into it, making sure to coat it lightly with oil (I do this by rolling it around in the bowl a couple of times), then cover with a damp kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm place for at least 30-40mn or until it has doubled in size.<br />
- Shape your bread as desired. If you make the whole quantity, you might want to divide the dough in half and make two loaves.<br />
- Preheat your oven to 350-375˚F (180-190˚C).<br />
- Place the loaf on a sheet of baking paper or on a greased baking pan. Cover with the damp kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm place for at least 20-30mn or until it has doubled in size again.<br />
- For a golden crust, make an eggwash: beat the egg and milk together and using a pastry brush, brush onto your loaf right before it goes into the oven.<br />
- Bake for 45-50mn or until the crust is golden brown.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-75603485860107223082010-01-28T12:08:00.009+01:002010-02-13T02:18:03.989+01:00Back to Regularly Scheduled Programming with A Gâteau à l'OrangeIt's been a bit of a whirlwind around here these last few days. I feel like I'm doing eight things at once all online. It's a good feeling even though I don't think I have enough of a sleep reserve for it; this manifests itself in the fact that usually the more things I have to do, the more efficient I become, and right now I'm not being as efficient as I could be.<br />
I want to thank everyone who's contributed to the Haiti Relief Effort so far both on <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/haitian-relief-effort-comment-to-raise.html">this blog</a> and through the <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-relief-effort-does-twitter.html">Twitter campaign</a>. Every comment helps more than you can imagine so <b>thank you</b> to everyone who left at least one comment here to help us out. So far, nearly $14K have been raised here and almost $5K on Twitter so I'm very pleased. Remember that every comment you leave until January 31st counts toward the total.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4309457767/" title="Gâteau à l'Orange by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Gâteau à l'Orange" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2763/4309457767_54336e6432_o.jpg" width="497" /></a><br />
And for those of you who have been patient enough to wait for me to get back to the more regular pursuits of this blog, here's a cake for you. This cake has been blogged about elsewhere already as a result of my disseminating the recipe I'd found, but if you've seen this cake on another blog, probably <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/">Deeba's</a>, you can see that my version of it is Cinderella at her stepmother's house, and her version is <a href="http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/01/gateau-lorange-orange-you-glad-i-made.html">Cinderella at the ball</a>. Either way, it's delicious and if you love citrus a fraction as much as I do, you should definitely try it. <br />
<br />
It's winter and with winter comes revelry (and its remains), snow (sometimes), and above all citrus. <br />
Let me be perfectly clear about this: I'm ethnically Iranian folks, and if any of you know any Persian people, you know we love our citrus. As I said to Deeba and she quoted me back on her blog: We're a bit obsessive and weird about our citrus fruit. We hoard it, display it, eat it, drink it, preserve it, dry it, cook it, and I'm sure we'd bake it too if there were a tradition like that of Western baking in Iran, heck we'd probably wear oranges and lemons if we could find a way to. When my father was a three year-old boy in Tehran, he would sneak into the pantry to drink the freshly squeezed and bottled lemon juice. Did you catch the part about his being three years old?<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4310255802/" title="gateau a l'orange & snow by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="gateau a l'orange & snow" height="750" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4310255802_184df51592_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Nowadays, he will eat a whole 2Kg (4lb) bag of oranges at one sitting while reading the newspaper or working at his computer. And while my obsession at the age of seven lay with sipping red wine vinegar I'd have snuck in a cup back to my bedroom rather than lemon juice, I think you get the point that my family and tart and acidic foods, citrus being a prime group of these, are a tight-knit bunch. So the first time I had an orange cake that really tasted like it had orange in it, albeit not that much, but more than an orange pound cake, I became obsessed with finding a truly orange-tasting recipe.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>You'd be surprised at how few there are. In fact, I don't really know of any other orange cake recipes that are so rich with real orange flavor. It took a lot of traipsing across the internet to find this recipe and, of all places, I found it on a <a href="http://www.haiticulture.ch/Gateau_orange.html%20">Swiss site about Haiti</a>. Ah now you see it, how I should have posted this recipe earlier, but somehow posting it now makes everything come full circle since I've been using this space to raise funds for Haiti instead. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4309519547/" title="sub with clementines by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="sub with clementines" height="373" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2684/4309519547_6840dc85ff_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
The difference is in all the orange juice that goes into this cake. 4 oranges' worth, and how half of that goes in right after the cake is baked, rather than pouring some sort of glaze over it. As I said to Deeba, this cake is like a very light cheesecake in its consistency; the egg whites don't give it volume, they just prevent it from becoming a flat puck.<br />
<br />
You could always try to make it with clementines instead of oranges or whatever other kind of citrus you want to try. I've been meaning to make a lemon version of this cake, but what I really want to try is a yuzu version. Alas, where is one to find fresh yuzu anywhere in Europe? Perhaps one of you wants to send me yuzu for my citrus gateau experiments, until then I guess I'll just have to be patient...<br />
I want to take this opportunity to wish my dear friend <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/">Jamie</a> a very happy birthday. If you don't know her blog, it's <a href="http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/">Life's a Feast</a> and she is a brilliant writer, so run over there, don't walk, and wish her a happy birthday while you're at it. <br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4309524313/" title="Reading in the park by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Reading in the park" height="747" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4309524313_bce0355b3b_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Gâteau à l'Orange</b><br />
translated and adapted from <a href="http://www.haiticulture.ch/Gateau_orange.html%20">here </a><br />
Serves 8<br />
<br />
4 oranges<br />
100g (1/2 cup - 2 tsp) of softened butter<br />
100g (1/2 cup) sugar <br />
150g (1 1/4 cup) flour <br />
3 eggs<br />
1 packet (1 1/2 tsp) of baking powder (= 7 or 11g depending on which label so ~8 is usually enough)<br />
1 Tbsp Rhum<br />
1 Tbsp Cointreau<br />
1 pinch of salt<br />
10g (2 tsp) of butter (to grease the pan) <br />
<br />
Preparation: 1h30<br />
<br />
For the cake:<br />
- Heat the oven to 170C (325F).<br />
- Grease a cake pan (I used an 8" springform which I greased and then covered with baking parchment, the butter makes it adhere and it's easier to remove the cake when it's done)<br />
- In a bowl, beat the sugar and softened butter together.<br />
- Separate the whites from the yolks and set the whites aside for now. Add the yolks one by one to the butter and sugar mixture, taking care to mix each one thoroughly before adding the next one and beat until you obtain a smooth batter.<br />
- Add the Rhum and the Cointreau and mix again.<br />
- Mix the flour and baking powder together and add it to the batter by "raining it in". Mix well.<br />
- Zest 1 orange to obtain a tsp of orange zest (I actually get a lot more out of one orange and use it all in the batter). Cut in half and juice the oranges. Pour half of the resulting juice in the batter, add the zest and mix.<br />
- Beat the whites until firm with the pinch of salt. Add them delicately to the batter.<br />
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for an hour, checking the coloration from time to time. It will be dark orange when done.<br />
- Pour the other half of the juice into the cake while it's still warm. Take care not to pour it too fast and not to let the cake cool too much before you do so. You may find, as I did on my first attempt, that if you don't get the timing right, your whole cake will not have juice in it (as in it may have two different textures and have a visible line halfway down where the juice stopped penetrating).Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-36450821037096651332010-01-22T19:36:00.008+01:002010-02-01T18:00:12.515+01:00Haiti Relief Effort Does Twitter<div class="image"><img alt="Haiti quake aid: boy receiving treatment at a UN clinic" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/contributor/2010/1/14/1263488479383/Haiti-quake-aid-boy-recei-001.jpg" width="460" /> <br />
<div class="caption" style="text-align: center;">A young boy receives treatment at a makeshift medical clinic at the UN logistics base in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Logan Abassi/AFP/Getty Images</div></div><br />
<b>FINAL TALLY, February 1st, 2009</b>: 428 mentions were obtained through the Twitter effort resulting in a donation of $4,280 to Haiti Relief. Thank you to everyone who participated with a mention and/or helped to spread the word out about our efforts. Thank you especially to Todd and Donnette for coming up with this idea. <br />
As soon as they are made available to me, I will post the donation receipts. Thank you again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE: If you have further questions about this Twitter fundraising effort, please read the FAQ at the end of this post. It should answer any questions you may have. </b><br />
<br />
So, it's Friday the 22nd of January and if you didn't read <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/haitian-relief-effort-comment-to-raise.html">my last post</a> and have no idea what the <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/haitian-relief-effort-comment-to-raise.html">Haiti Relief Effort</a> is, please read it either before or after you read this.<br />
My efforts to channel a very generous sponsor's money to Haiti Relief have been noticed and acted upon by two very kind souls, <a href="http://twitter.com/sbtodd/">Todd</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/Donnette">Donnette</a>, who emailed me a couple of days ago with the idea of spreading the fundraiser to Twitter, which the sponsor agreed to with certain limitations. <br />
<br />
So here's what you essentially need to know:<br />
<ul><li>A Twitter account named <a href="http://twitter.com/MentionHaiti"><b>@MentionHaiti</b></a> has been created to raise more funds for Haiti.</li>
<li>If you <b>mention this account once</b> (<a href="http://twitter.com/MentionHaiti">@MentionHaiti</a>) in your twitter feed, 2 things will happen: </li>
</ul> 1) Your<b> name will be added to a list </b>in @MentionHaiti's account.<br />
2) For each name that is added to the list, <b>$10 will be raised</b> toward Haiti Relief.<br />
<ul><li>The cap on the amount that can be raised in this way is $50,000, so to participate you must be one of the <b>first 5,000 people</b> to include <a href="http://twitter.com/MentionHaiti">@MentionHaiti</a> in a tweet. </li>
<li>Once the cap of 5,000 people has been reached, the account <span style="font-family: Century Gothic;">will continue operating and posting new links on ways to help Haiti and the only request is that the listed people mention these posts from time to time.</span></li>
</ul><b>The comment program from <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2010/01/haitian-relief-effort-comment-to-raise.html">the last post </a>is still active</b>, let me remind you of the basic points:<br />
<ul><li>For each comment you leave on this blog until January 31st, $10 will be donated to Haiti Relief by my sponsor, a Gulf State Embassy here in London. </li>
</ul><ul><li>You may leave <b>one comment per post on as many posts as you like</b>, <b>each one raising $10</b> toward relief. A few people have raised nearly $1000 by just leaving a comment on nearly every post in the blog. The only restriction is that you may not leave multiple comments on the same post.</li>
</ul>And in case any of you are wondering if I'll get back to posting regularly soon, I'm writing a post right now, just haven't had time to finish it.<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><b>FAQ </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<b>What is the purpose of @MentionHaiti?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">We are trying to create an easy way for people to demonstrate their support for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti and reward this demonstration of support by having our sponsors donate money to disaster relief for Haiti. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Who is the sponsor donating the money to?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Doctors Without Borders.<br />
<br />
<b>Why did you choose Doctors Without Borders?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Doctors Without Borders has been working in Haiti since 1991, and has a well established presence with 813 full-time staff permanently on site. At the moment this number is augmented by whatever additional relief staff can make it to Haiti. Doctors Without Borders provides comprehensive trauma care at the Trinité Trauma Centre and Pacot Rehabilitation Center in Port-au-Prince. In 2008, 17,950 patients were treated in the emergency room, and 6,196 underwent surgery. Trinité is the only functioning trauma centre in Port-au-Prince. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br />
Doctors Without Borders strives to operate efficiently and to minimize fundraising and administrative costs. Between 1995 and 2006, more than 85 percent of expenditure to MSF's social mission was allocated to programs and public education activities. Maintaining this standard is a high priority for them. You can see their annual financial statements here: </span><a href="http://www.msf.org.uk/annualaccounts.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>http://www.msf.org.uk/<wbr></wbr>annualaccounts.aspx</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<b>Who are the sponsors of the @MentionHaiti campaign?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">The sponsor is a Gulf State embassy in London that wishes to remain anonymous.<br />
<br />
<b>What countries are considered to be Gulf States?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">The following countries are in the the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperation_Council_for_the_Arab_States_of_the_Gulf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf </u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Bahrain</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Saudi Arabia</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">, the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>sultanate</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Oman</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Kuwait</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Qatar</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">, and the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>United Arab Emirates</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">.<br />
<b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Why does the Gulf State embassy in London want their sponsorship to remain anonymous?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">It is part of their culture to not be boastful about giving. Publicizing charitable activities is considered improper.<br />
<br />
<b>What assurances do I have that the sponsor will actually donate the money if I @MentionHaiti?</b><br />
Right now you have to trust that money will be donated. When the donation is made<br />
receipts of the donation will be posted on the blog.<br />
<br />
<b>I want to help Haiti. How can I help?</b><br />
If you add @MentionHaiti in any Tweet you will be added to one of our Twitter lists and $10 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. This includes simply replying to @MentionHaiti so you do not have to make it a tweet all of your followers will see, although that would obviously help get the word out.<br />
<br />
We also want to inform people about the current conditions in Haiti, the progress being made with disaster relief in Haiti and how social media and the Internet is being used to raise funds and organize relief efforts. If you find great articles related to these subjects please include (cc @MentionHaiti) with your updates that link to these and we will RT your update.<br />
<b><br />
Is there a limit to how much can be raised via the @MentionHaiti Twitter campaign?</b><br />
Yes. Our sponsor, a Gulf State embassy in London, will donate up to $50,000. Which means that the first 5000 people to @MentionHaiti will be put in one of our @MentionHaiti lists and $10 donated for each list member.<br />
<br />
<b>Can I @MentionHaiti in Tweets more than once?</b><br />
Yes. Your first Tweet with @MentionHaiti raises $10 for Haiti, all subsequent Tweets after the first one will not raise additional funds for Haiti, but helps us get more people to @MentionHaiti. We appreciate that.<br />
<br />
<b>I want to help raise more than $10 how can I do that?</b><br />
You can comment on every blog post at </span><a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>http://saffronandblueberry.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"> and $10 will be donated for every single comment in the blog (with a limitation of one comment per post) which means by taking less than 2 hours of your time volunteered will raise over $1000.<br />
<br />
<b>Is there any limit to the amount of money that can be raised by commenting on the blog?</b><br />
Per person, the limitation is $1090 because there are 109 posts on the blog. Overall, there is no limit however. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<b>Millions of people could comment on the blog. Isn't it risky to not have a limit on what could be contributed?</b><br />
We would like to have the problem of too many people commenting on the blog. If it comes to that, the sponsor can declare a cap to the amount that can be raised on the blog. Please comment on as many posts as you can to raise money for Haiti.<br />
<br />
<b>Does the blog benefit from the comments in any way?<br />
</b>No, the blog has no ads or corporate sponsors and thus derives no revenue from traffic. Of course, if you find the food articlesinteresting please come back and visit the blog or subscribe to it.<br />
<br />
<b>I'd like to be a sponsor is that possible?</b><br />
Yes. Please contact us.<br />
<br />
<b>What do I have to lose from doing this?</b><br />
The only effort that is required is to click Reply & Update to any update found at <a href="http://twitter.com/MentionHaiti" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/<wbr></wbr>MentionHaiti</a>. That is it.<br />
Try it. Spreading the message and raising money for Haiti is a great thing that you can do to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti.<br />
<br />
</span>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-47458303039204331862010-01-14T23:57:00.020+01:002010-02-01T17:55:28.151+01:00Haitian Relief Effort - Comment to Raise Funds<ul><li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4275310986/" title="No man is an island by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="No man is an island" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/4275310986_8817afd59d_o.jpg" width="500" /></a></li>
</ul><br />
No man is an island, entire of itself<br />
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main<br />
if a clod be washed away by the sea, <br />
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, <br />
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were<br />
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind<br />
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls<br />
it tolls for thee.<br />
-- John Donne<br />
<br />
<b>FINAL TALLY: February 1st, 2009</b>: You left 1750 comments on this blog in the last 18 days, raising a total of $17,500 for Haiti Relief. Thank you so much to everyone who participated by commenting, linking, tweeting, retweeting and getting the word out.<br />
As soon as they are made available to me, I will post the donation receipts. Thank you again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE Days 1-15:</b> 12am GMT 1/29 - 1466 comments = $14,660. Thank you! 3 days left. <br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE Days 1-12</b>: 10:30pm GMT 1/25 - 1365 comments = $13,650. Thank you.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE Days 1-9</b>: 12am GMT 1/23 - 1155 comments = $11,550. Thank you. <br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE Days 1-6</b>: 12am GMT 1/20 - 1075 comments = $10,750. Thank you. <br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE Days 1-3</b>: 12am GMT 1/17 - So far you have left 691 comments = $6910 raised. Thank you. <br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE:</b> I'm getting a lot of questions via email about the legitimacy of this effort, so let me say a few things:<br />
<ul><li>After checking with the sponsor to be sure, I can say that the sponsor is a Gulf State embassy here in London. They do not wish to be named as they do not want any further solicitations from unknown parties.</li>
<li>They are already donating money to Haiti but on a scale that has nothing to do with this small effort. This, even if I had the kind of traffic that The Pioneer Woman has, represents pocket change to them and it is for a good cause so they are happy to do it.</li>
<li>You do not need to thank me, it's not my money, it's theirs. You are welcome to leave a comment with anything else in it other than a thank you to me. <br />
</li>
<li>If you have something nasty to say, I'd rather you left it in a comment than emailed me with it as your comment will still raise $10.<br />
</li>
</ul>This is not the most auspicious way to get back to blogging after a mini-hiatus, but unless you live under a rock (and obviously you don't because you're reading this), you know the eyes of the world are turned toward Haiti at this very moment and the right thing to do is not to just post about something delicious I made or ate, but to use whatever opportunity I might have to help in some way. So here goes my way of helping:<br />
If you are a food blog reader, you already know what Menu for Hope is and perhaps saw my participating bid item, or even bid on it, a few weeks ago. While it is a condition of my agreement with the organization that graciously donated the Kenwood Mixer (on very short notice and which would actually have been happy to donate something bigger if they'd had more notice) that I not name it, this same organization has very generously agreed to make a donation to Haiti Relief through this blog. So, while I unfortunately cannot name this organization other than to say that it is a government mission, I can extend their very generous offer for you folks to help me help the Haiti Relief effort. <br />
<br />
<b>For every comment that is left on my blog between now and January 31st, $10 will be donated to the purchase of essential supplies</b> such as blankets, food, water, medical supplies etc... I am fortunate that as the donating party is a government mission, they can organize the prompt purchase and, more importantly, the actual dispatch and arrival of these goods to Haiti.<br />
The number of comments you leave will be added up every 3 days and the corresponding amount will be put toward the purchase of the goods. In case you're wondering, look around, I don't have any kind of advertising on this blog so I don't benefit from any traffic this site gets.<br />
<br />
<b>It doesn't matter where you leave the comment, it can be on the first post I ever wrote</b>, I will simply add up the comments I get in my email and tally those up. Just to clarify since I've been asked this a few times already, <b>YOU MAY LEAVE ONE COMMENT PER POST and YOU MAY COMMENT ON AS MANY POSTS AS YOU LIKE ON THIS BLOG</b>, but you may not make several comments on the same post, otherwise they regard that as the same thing as if I commented on my own posts a bunch of times. And to answer someone's question in the comments, as a government mission they are already making their own donation to the effort on a governmental level, this is just a cherry on the proverbial cake because I have a good relationship with them thanks to my husband.<br />
<br />
So again, to be clear: You do not have to comment only on the most recent post - the sponsor will take into account <b>new comments left on ANY of my posts before January 31st</b>. In fact, the only restriction is that you <b>may not leave multiple comments on the same post</b> (as these will be disregarded for donation purposes). <br />
<br />
If you don't want to participate here, you can always make a donation to a charitable organization such as <a href="http://doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a> or a less well-known organization called <a href="https://donate.pih.org/page/contribute/haiti_earthquake?source=earthquake&subsource=homepage">Partners in Health</a> which has been working in Haiti for over 20 years.<br />
Or you can pick another organization (US readers) from <a href="http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/Haiti.html">this list</a> put together by CharityWatch.org of the top legitimate charitable organizations involved in the Haitian Relief Effort. <br />
<br />
For similar efforts, please visit these other blogs if you haven't already and leave a comment: it's so easy and will help someone over there, and if you can, please spread the word:<br />
<br />
Ree of <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/blog/2010/01/a_different_kind_of_giveaway/">The Pioneer Woman</a><br />
<br />
Alice of <a href="http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/01/haiti-relief-support-a-call-to-compassion-giveaway/">Savory Sweet Life</a> <br />
<br />
Michelle of <a href="http://thursdaynightsmackdown.com/2010/01/14/thursday-night-giveback/">Thursday Night Smackdown</a> <br />
<br />
Amy of <a href="http://amyleavittphotography.com/blog/">Amy Leavitt Photography</a><br />
<br />
Pam of <a href="http://www.cookingninja.com/240-Haiti-Relief-Suppport-Comment-to-help-raise-funds.html">The Cooking Ninja</a><br />
<br />
Erin at <a href="http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/01/haiti.html">$5 Dinners <br />
</a><br />
Karen of <a href="http://karenmakessense.wordpress.com/">Does that make sense?</a><br />
<br />
May of <a href="http://maykasahara.blogspot.com/">Mayk all day every day.</a><br />
<br />
Crystal of <a href="http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2010/01/help-for-haiti-everyone-can-do-something.html">Money Saving Mom</a><br />
<br />
Gaby of <a href="http://whatsgabycooking.com/help-for-haiti/">What's Gaby Cooking? </a><br />
<br />
A.C Parker of <a href="http://www.feedingthesaints.com/2010/open-hands-helping-haiti/">Feeding the Saints</a> <br />
<br />
<br />
Thank you.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com619tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-72852050059500620752010-01-01T22:00:00.000+01:002010-01-01T22:00:20.443+01:002010 - To a Happy New Year and DecadeBonne Année à tous! Happy New Year everyone! <br />
May it be a more peaceful decade than the previous one.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4234915444/" title="May it be a peaceful New Year by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="May it be a peaceful New Year" height="747" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2630/4234915444_c10f396b20_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Thank you for visiting, reading, commenting, emailing, or just passing by. I know I drift in and out and I appreciate your taking the time to stop here of all the myriad places you can stop on the web.<br />
We are all recovering from a relatively rough holiday period filled with strife and sickness, so I'd just like to say that I hope your holidays were wonderful and filled with love, laughter and health and that this new year will send great things your way. See you soon.Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-69827273971100937172009-12-14T02:53:00.009+01:002010-01-25T22:06:50.082+01:00Menu for Hope 6 - Need a Kenwood Chef Mixer?Update: THE WINNER OF THE MIXER IS ELIN DAVIES. Elin would you please send me an email using the link in the upper left hand corner of the blog so I can coordinate sending this mixer to you? I saw your comment at the bottom of the post but there is no link back to you nor an email address. <br />
<br />
If you're a food blogger or an avid reader of food blogs, you might already know what <a href="http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2009/12/mfh6main.html">Menu for Hope </a>is and how it works. If you're not, please read on and go to the link above as well to find out all about Menu for Hope from its founder, Pim of <a href="http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/">Chez Pim</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_aJQZ2bSgE8ugE3ZWrBwoCK4-GTKvl7gYG4tOG046TrrW9VuOpiTayvGm3SIFDqTYjtCAl0nPj8joKI3yS8OOvyAukJDZhn6lRN5Xy_s7AP-4VtKhsnZj9Nrfw81e2knvH8UO7f_uqg/s1600-h/menuforhope" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
</div><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_aJQZ2bSgE8ugE3ZWrBwoCK4-GTKvl7gYG4tOG046TrrW9VuOpiTayvGm3SIFDqTYjtCAl0nPj8joKI3yS8OOvyAukJDZhn6lRN5Xy_s7AP-4VtKhsnZj9Nrfw81e2knvH8UO7f_uqg/s1600-h/menuforhope" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_aJQZ2bSgE8ugE3ZWrBwoCK4-GTKvl7gYG4tOG046TrrW9VuOpiTayvGm3SIFDqTYjtCAl0nPj8joKI3yS8OOvyAukJDZhn6lRN5Xy_s7AP-4VtKhsnZj9Nrfw81e2knvH8UO7f_uqg/s640/menuforhope" /></a><br />
</div><br />
As a result of the catastrophic tsunami in Southeast Asia six years ago, Pim conceived and organized the Menu for Hope raffle; Each December, food bloggers gather resources to offer food-related items up for a charitable auction benefiting the <b>UN World Food Programme</b>.<br />
For every US$10 (approximately GBP6,20 or EU6,85) donated, you earn one virtual raffle ticket to bid on an item of your choice and the choice is astounding, with bid items coming from all over the world. You may purchase as many raffle tickets as you want, giving you that many opportunities to win. At the end of the two-week campaign, the raffle tickets are drawn and the results announced on Chez Pim. <br />
<br />
<b>This year's campaign starts today the 14th of December and ends on the 25th, Christmas Day.</b><br />
The winners will be announced on January 18th, 2010 on Pim's blog.<b><br />
</b><br />
And now to the meat of the matter, so here we go, I am offering the following item for auction:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.kenwoodworld.com/uk/Products/Kitchen-Machines/Chef-and-Major/Classic-White-Chef-Kitchen-Machine/">A Kenwood Chef Mixer Classic</a></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4184990430/" title="L_8357 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"></a><br />
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4184990430/" title="L_8357 by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="L_8357" height="400" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/4184990430_20305d32e3_o.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
</div><span style="display: inline;">A Kenwood food mixer with automatic electronic speed control with pulse, so it maintains speed and power regardless of the load. The Kenwood mixer has a 4.6L(4.8Qt) capacity, and is supplied with K-beater, whisk, and dough hook attachments for all your kneading, mixing and whisking needs. This item has a retail value of US$350.</span><br />
<span style="display: inline;"> </span>I will ship this item anywhere in the world (customs and other regulations permitting, so please check that I can ship this item to your country before bidding) but please note the power cord will be a British three-pin plug (220V) and you will be responsible for finding your own adapter and/or transformer.<br />
Having said that, if you do not live in a country that uses 220V outlets (for instance, the US) and want to bid on the mixer, please read <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/06/will_a_kitchenaid_from_america_w.html">this post</a> David Lebovitz wrote about using kitchen mixers in countries with differing voltages <b>first</b>, including the comments section which contains many readers' solutions to issues with their kitchen mixers.<br />
To be more specific, Europe uses 220V outlets, the US and I believe Canada do not and are on 110V outlets. If you live in a European country with 220V outlets, you will only need an adapter to make the appliance's plug fit into your country's standard plugs. If you live in the US or Canada, you would need a transformer to convert the voltage to 110V, but you shouldn't just assume that using a transformer will make the mixer work perfectly without any issues, so please go read the post linked above and come back with any further questions you might have; I will do my best to answer questions using my father (the electrical engineer) for reference. <br />
<a href="http://www.vinography.com/archives/2009/12/menu_for_hope_vi_win_some_wine.html"></a><br />
<b></b>Remember that all it takes for an opportunity to win this mixer is at least one donation of US$10.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">THE RAFFLE ITEM CODE FOR THIS MIXER IS EU36. </span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="color: black;">For the list of other European bid items available please visit Pastry Chef <b>David Lebovitz</b>'s <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/12/menu_for_hope_6.html">post and website</a>, as he is the European region organizer this year, and is being assisted by last year's European organizer, <b>Sara Rosso</b> of <a href="http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2009/12/12/made-in-italy-chocolate-basket-mega-mix-of-moleskine-my-menu-for-hope-vi-bid-items/">Ms. Adventures in Italy</a>.<br />
</div>For details as to how the money is collected and the specific use it will be put to within the UNWFP, as well as for the links to the other regional organizers worldwide and the list of items they are offering for auction, go to <a href="http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2009/12/mfh6main.html">Pim's post</a>. You can also go to the online fundraising company's page used by the Menu for Hope program <a href="http://firstgiving.com/menuforhope6">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Happy bidding and good luck!<br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;"> </span> </b><br />
<b>To Donate and Enter the Menu for Hope Raffle:</b><br />
Here's what you need to do:<br />
<b>1.</b> Choose a bid item or bid items of your choice from our <a href="http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2009/12/mfh6main.html%20">Menu for Hope main bid item list</a>.<br />
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<b>5.</b> Please <b>check the box to allow us to see your email address</b> so that we can contact you in case you win. <b>Your email address will not be shared with anyone.</b>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266872874974682049.post-19709262207532909412009-12-11T22:57:00.025+01:002009-12-12T01:17:46.264+01:00When my Stollen was Stolen<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4177651098/" title="Christmas Stollen by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Christmas Stollen" height="335" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2494/4177651098_8eab22047c_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
When someone suggested that I try making a German <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen">Christmas Stollen</a> bread, it occurred to me that while I knew I'd had Stollen when I was little, I couldn't for the life of me remember what it tasted like (other than that it was obviously sweet) or what the consistency of it should be. Was it a cakey bread? a bready bread? The suggestion was accompanied by a translated recipe for Stollen from <a href="http://www.oetker.com/oetker_com/html/default/home">Dr. Oetker</a> (specifically from an old Dr. Oetker recipe book) and, while yeast and I are not friends, the lack of yeast and the proportions of some ingredients in this particular recipe seemed a bit odd to me, so I decided to look up <a href="http://www.oetker.ca/en/history">Dr. Oetker</a> and see if there was an official "interwebs" version of the Dr. Oetker Stollen; <a href="http://www.oetker.ca/en/recipes/piescakes/Christmas-Stollen">indeed there was</a>. The two recipes were comparable except for a few of the measurements including those relating to baking soda and baking powder.<br />
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As I am skeptical of my bread-making abilities at the best of times and under the most auspicious circumstances, I decided to go with the official web version rather than the translated version. I made a few very minor changes here and there: I added cranberries instead of currants and no candied peels as A. is not fond of them and, while I like them in some instances (e.g. coated in chocolate), in baked breads they make me think of English fruit cake which, frankly, I loathe. I also didn't put the butter and icing sugar on at the end, as I traditionally should have done, mostly because as I didn't know how sweet it was going to be, I didn't want to oversweeten it to my and A.'s taste buds by adding the icing sugar coat on the exterior. For us this turned out to be a wise move.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4177651454/" title="Christmas Stollen by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Christmas Stollen" height="746" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2777/4177651454_7e01e596a3_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I don't know if you can picture me in my kitchen, Baby Saffron behind me in an entertainer which she now manages to scoot in around the floor, always trying to reach my legs so she can wrap her arms around them, so that while I was kneading this thing together and trying to incorporate these massive quantities of dried fruit, I was pushing the entertainer back with one leg, stretching it back as far as it could go to get my little girl back to her starting point. Did I mention that at the speed she attains and with the uncanny persistence we now have come to think as characteristic of her, I have to push her back to her point of origin about every two minutes?<br />
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So here I am, having made this Stollen, "slaved" over it, pushed back the little one over and over and over again. And then it's in the oven baking. And then I pull it out, it smells quite wonderful actually, and I leave it to cool without putting the butter and icing sugar coat on it. And then it's a bit later and I'm sitting on the stairs leading into the kitchen with Baby Saffron, speaking to A. about something while he organizes food on the counter to make dinner, his back to me. I look down briefly to fuss with some item of clothing on her, and when I look up, A. has turned around and is standing in front of me, stuffing a piece of Stollen in his mouth. When I say to him "did you cut the Stollen?" and he realizes in a split second that he has committed the cardinal sin for a food blogger's spouse, he hastily clamps his mouth shut, puts his hand behind his back, and shakes his head no. I laugh, go look at the cut (like it was a pie, people, rather than a loaf of bread) and just figure then that my Stollen had been stolen. It was sliced to control visual damage and pictures were taken accordingly.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffronandblueberry/4176892387/" title="Christmas Stollen by saffronandblueberry, on Flickr"><img alt="Christmas Stollen" height="372" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2636/4176892387_71600c6386_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Anyway, it was fairly easy to put together, but I have to make several points about my results:<br />
1) Ultimately, I underbaked it. After 60mn it looked golden enough to me but really should have been a darker, more bronze-ish, shade of golden. It was quite good but because it was underbaked you can see some of it had more of a cake consistency. My advice to you on this is be ye not so hasty and let it get a very rich and deep golden color. <br />
2) Because I'm not very gifted in the kneading-of-bread department it was also quite dense. I realized, upon tasting a proper Stollen brought to me by <a href="http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/">Meeta</a> when she came for <a href="http://saffronandblueberry.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-blogger-connect-when-food-bloggers.html">FBC</a>, that the density of mine was not far off, but that it should have been a bit lighter. Having said that, I don't know how one obtains this or not, I suspect it may have something to do with the addition of flour to make the dough non-sticky, but perhaps one of you out there who reads this will know better and could enlighten me.<br />
3) Theoretically, for those of us with a great deal of discipline, one is supposed to wrap the Stollen up and leave it to "mature" in the refrigerator or some other cool and dark place for about 3 weeks before eating it. Well, we all know how that went. So there you have it.<br />
4) I will be trying <a href="http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2005/12/25/merry-christmas-or-who-needs-raisins/">this recipe</a> the next time I make Stollen, since I firmly believe that while yeast and I are not very friendly, a Stollen really seems like it could benefit from some yeast in the texture department, and all the Stollen testing I could possibly ever want to do has already been done for me by using Nicky's favorite recipe. <br />
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<b>Christmas Stollen Recipe</b><br />
<div style="color: black;">adapted from the Dr. Oetker website <a href="http://www.oetker.ca/en/recipes/piescakes/Christmas-Stollen">here</a><br />
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For the Stollen: <br />
3 1/3 cups / 500g all-purpose flour <br />
1 pkg or 1/2 Tbsp / 8g baking powder <br />
3/4 cup / 180g sugar <br />
1 pkg or 1/2 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp / 9g Vanilla sugar <br />
4 drops Almond extract<br />
5 drops Lemon extract<br />
1 mini bottle Rum Flavoring (I had no rum or rum flavoring so omitted this)<br />
2 eggs<br />
2/3 cup / 120g cold butter <br />
1 1/4 cups / 250g Quark or Cream Cheese (quark is almost zero fat cheese, so you can easily use light cream cheese)<br />
1 1/2 cups / 200g raisins (I used sultanas) <br />
3/4 cup / 100g currants (I used dried cranberries instead)<br />
1 1/2 cups / 150g ground almonds<br />
1 cup / 100g chopped candied orange & lemon peel (I omitted this)<br />
<br />
For the icing:<br />
1/4 cup / 50g Melted Butter<br />
1/2 cup / 50g Sifted Icing Sugar <br />
<br />
</div><table class="ingredients" colspan="3" style="color: black;"><tbody>
<tr> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">For the Stollen:<br />
- Preheat oven to 325F (160C)<br />
- Grease a 15"x 10" jelly roll pan (any large cookie tray will do)<br />
- Sift flour and baking powder together.<br />
- Make a well in the center and put sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon extract, orange extract, rum and eggs in the well.<br />
- Bring flour into the well from the edges, working it into the liquids to make a thick paste. (do not panic if you do not get a paste yet, adding the quark or cream cheese will make your dough smooth).<br />
- Cut cold butter into small pieces over the flour/liquid paste and knead together lightly so as not to melt the butter too much. (Again same note as above, if you dough is not a paste or thick dough yet, it will turn into one once you've added the quark or cream cheese).<br />
- Add quark/cream cheese, fruit and nuts into the flour mixture and knead together to make a smooth dough. If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour until it "just" no longer sticks.<br />
- Shape the dough into a loaf and place on the pan.<br />
- Bake on the middle rack for 50-60mn or until golden (see above).<br />
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For the icing:<br />
- Melt the butter enough for it to be brushable.<br />
- Brush the bread with the melted butter immediately after it comes out of the ove.<br />
- Sprinkle icing sugar onto the bread right after the butter so that it will stick to the butter.<br />
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- Let the bread cool before serving if, like us, you're not going to wrap it in something and store it for three weeks. Does anyone really have that kind of willpower?<br />
</div>Hildahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13631513706872641622noreply@blogger.com51