Crazy Little Thing Called Bread

It's whole wheat, nutty and delicious. It's made with olive oil, honey and oatmeal. It's also a little, just a scotch, practically not at all...flat. Yes, you read right, my bread did not rise. Does that mean I'm giving up on it? Not on your life! What kind of self-respecting amateur baker and lover-of-all-things-baked would I be if I threw the dough out? No, right now it's sitting in the oven thinking about how tasty it's going to be for lunch tomorrow. I, myself, have learned a valuable lesson about making substitutions in a new recipe.

A couple months ago I went to New Jersey to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday (hi Grandpa!), and while I was there enjoying my family (and the Cape May County Zoo - small but might) I learned that I had been offered a job in DC. With benefits! There was much joy and celebrating that week, and a little premature thanksgiving, and so when I hopped of the train at Dupont Circle I walked straight into Kramer Books and bought myself a cookbook I've been dying to have - Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights. Yes, that is seriously the title. This book is packed with delectable recipes and lovely photos of the food and Miss Sophie Dahl herself, in all her glory. She divides the book into seasons and meals, intermingled with stories of her childhood and young adult life. It's a book that really makes use of seasonal, whole vegetables. Part of my food philosophy (not my dessert philosophy) is to get delicious whole foods and do almost nothing to them - this book embraces that idea (grilled vegetables with halloumi cheese, cinnamon roast peaches with vanilla yogurt) , as well as urging me to get a little more creative (brown rice risotto with pumpkin, marscapone, sage and almonds, chicken stew with green olives). This book is, for the moment, all alone on my bookshelf, but it's so lovely that it needs no company at all.

One of the recipes that caught my today was Musician's Bread, an ostensibly quick and easy whole wheat recipe that only rises for 40 minutes (!!) and only cooks for an hour (!!). It's a perfect week night recipe if you're dying to bake (and with the weather turning colder, I'm absolutely dying to bake). Unfortunately, all did not go as perfectly as I had hoped it would. First of all, Safeway doesn't have instant yeast, rolled oats, or sunflower oil. I substituted: active dry yeast, steel-cut oatmeal and olive oil. I also added (hubris, my friends, hubris) sunflower and pumpkin seeds, because there is almost nothing I love better than whole wheat bread stuffed with nutty, protein-rich seeds. It is an extremely easy recipe, you don't have to let the yeast sit, you don't have to mix much. Just add the wet ingredients to the dry, and let it rise. Well, ladies and gents, the rising bit didn't happen. It's been sitting in the oven for an hour and ten minutes and I have no idea -- ok, now it's out of the oven. This blogging in real-time is fun, right? OK! The bread is heavy, really thick and a little gummy, but also rich, cooked through and delicious. This is really a peasant bread, the crust is thick and hearty. So delicious with raspberry jam! I'm looking forward to eating it for breakfast with peanut butter and honey, and for lunch with turkey, cheese, sprouts and mustard :)

Nutty, Chewy, Whole Wheat Bread
(Modified from Musician's bread found in Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights by Miss Sophie Dahl)

4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup Steel Cut Oats
1 Packet Active Dry Yeast
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1/3 to 1/2 Cups Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds 
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 1/2 Cups Warm Water

Oil a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with olive oil.

In a medium bowl stir together the dry ingredients and the seeds. In a small bowl mix together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the flour has been all soaked up.

Place in a warm spot covered with a towel for 20 minutes, then mix thoroughly again with the wooden spoon. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drop the dough into the loaf pan and press gently into the corners (also with the spoon). Let it rest under the towel for another 20 minutes. Pop it into the oven for about an hour (but maybe more like an hour and 10, which is how long mine took), then dump it onto a cutting board and cover with a towel. Slice, slather with jam, eat. Repeat.

Chocolate Bread

A while back (last June? July?) I made this bread, from David Lebovitz at The Sweet Life in Paris, one of my favorite bloggers (and tweeters. Seriously, this guy is funny). It was another of my summer "firsts," which also included pie, and a layer cake. Those turned out pretty well, and so did this. Well...I have to be honest, this wasn't my favorite recipe. While I love chocolate (and I do love chocolate) this bread wasn't dense enough; it was too crumbly, and the crust wasn't substantial. It wasn't quite bread, and it wasn't quite cake...oh, and it wasn't very good after the first day. Maybe I did it wrong? Anyway, I ate it right out of the oven with my partner in crime (I'm looking at you M.C.!) and it positively crumbled into bits as I tried to slice it. Right out of the oven it was pretty divine (with a bit of butter....) but it didn't improve from there. I'm willing to believe this was my error though, as David Lebovitz is a fabulous baker and surely knows things I do not :)

Here's the recipe, straight from the horse's kitchen: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/04/chocolate-bread-recipe/

And my version:

Strawberry-Blueberry Liberty Bell mini-Pies

So waaaay a long time ago, in July, I made my first pie. I had a bit of leftover dough for the crust, so I decided to make festive little Fourth of July Liberty Bell Pielettes. Are they adorable!? I cut the little cracks into the bells myself. A little note though - the leftover pie dough has been handled (a lot) and can get a little tough. Still tasty? Yes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A while back I was getting bored with my old standby chocolate chip cookie recipe. It just seemed so boring. While poking around the interwebs I found this gem of an article from the New York Times, provocatively called Perfection? Hint: It's Warm and Has A Secret. I will be the first to admit that it's a little ridiculous (bittersweet chocolate feves? Yeah, I'll just get regular chips, thanks) and you do get the very intense and exact measuring (1 cup minus two tablespoons) and it's not like you're always planning cookies in advance (24 hours of chilling? come on!), but. BUT. These are seriously, above-and-beyond, mind-blowingly tasty cookies. The only problem I have is that I tend to overcook them just a bit, which is fine when they're right out of the oven and gooey, but not so good when you're trying to chomp on one the next day and it's like a Frisbee. The originally recipe called for cake flour and bread flour, which I choose to ignore. Cake flour creates a lighter crumb, bread flour a heavier crumb, so in equal parts they make all-purpose flour. The only real key to this recipe is simple: chill the batter for at least 24 hours. Trust me, it's worth it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Originally published in the New York Times, 9 July 2008)

• 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
• 2 1/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
• Chocolate Chips 
• Sea salt.

Whisk the flour, the baking soda and powder, and the salt.

In another bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar together until they are light, fluffy and smooth. Add the eggs one by one, then the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the flour in in two parts, making sure not to over-mix. Add the chocolate chips, cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. I know you want to make them now, but resist that urge.

After you've waited the full 24 hours (I know it's hard, but do it anyway) preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Form roughly golf-ball sized spheres of dough without touching them too much (you want them to still be cold when they get in the oven) and sprinkle a touch of sea salt on the top. Bake them in the oven for 18-20 minutes (feel this out on your own, it might take a couple tries to get the perfect time) and cool them for as long as you can stand. If you make it three seconds I will be impressed.

Step 3: DIG IN.

Dark Chocolate Cookies

This is one of my very favorite recipes, and, now that I think about it, it might be one of the recipes that prompted me to love baking. Why? Because everyone (excluding Sarah who hates chocolate) loves these cookies. Everyone. They are cakey and delicious and they hit that chocolate spot without being too sweet. Yum! A note: a tasty, optional addition is something called "nibs" which are the roasted and finely chopped hull of the cocoa bean. It adds a little crunch (not too much of a crunch, you won't break a tooth) that some people like. I like them both ways; my family prefers the crunch. Scharffen Berger has great nibs, but they're expensive...so you're better off investing in really high quality cocoa powder (I use natural and not dutch process in this recipe). The last time I made this recipe I fiddled a little bit and they came out even cakier and more delicious than usual. Sadly, I didn't write down my changes (I seem to recall extra flour and baking soda, but now I can't remember why that was necessary...).


Dark Chocolate Cookies (Originally published in Gourmet, February 2003)

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened, natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk together the flour, natural cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla. In three parts add the dry ingredients, mixing only until incorporated. Drop tablespoon-sized spoonfuls of batter on a cookie sheet and place in the center of the oven for 11 minutes. Let them cool before digging in!

A side note: it is absolutely imperative that you eat lots and lots of this batter before it goes in the oven. It's the best, most delicious, most incredible batter on the planet.

A second side note: I've never tried this, but these cookies would make fabulous (if delicate) ice cream sandwiches. Some peppermint or vanilla would be yum!

Natural v. Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder/Baking Soda v. Baking Powder

This was originally going to be squeezed into another post, but I realize this information is crucial enough that it deserves its own. The differences between these substances can mean a lot when you're baking! It's important to understand what effect they will have on whatever you're cooking. If you are very adventurous you could start to write your own recipes using this information, but it's also important if you ever need to make a substitution.

First, natural v. dutch-process cocoa powder. This is interesting and may save you a baking snafu in the future. Sometimes you'll see a box of cocoa powder that says "dutch-process/ed" on it. What does this mean? Cocoa powder is made from pressing the majority of the cocoa butter out of chocolate liquor (pure chocolate). The cocoa butter is the high-fat component of chocolate, so when it is mostly eliminated you are left with a block which is then grated into a powder. This untreated powder has a natural acidity which can affect the taste and leavening of your baked good. It is a more red/brown color and will react with baking soda, causing your cake, cookie or whatever to rise (it can also interfere with other leavening agents, such as yeast). Dutch-processed cocoa powder is a more true brown color associated with chocolate. It has been treated with an alkali to neutralize the acidity, and should be used in recipes with baking powder. Dutch-processed cocoa will not cause a reaction and provides a deep chocolate taste even in delicate recipes (such as souffle!). Most European treats call for dutch-process, whereas good old fashioned American delights such as brownies can be made with natural cocoa. Be warned: if a recipe calls for one or the other, be sure you're using the right one! If you have natural cocoa powder and you need dutch-process: for every 3 Tablespoons of natural cocoa powder, add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda (an alkali that will neutralize the acid). If you have dutch-process and you need natural: for every 3 Tablespoons of dutch-process add 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar (an acidic salt). A NOTE: this will work better going from natural to dutch-process than vice versa.


And now, baking soda v. baking powder. This is a little complicated. I've read a lot about it, but I don't fully understand all the differences, but I'll give a little general information that should give you an idea of what they will do in a recipe. Basically, baking soda and baking powder are both sodium bicarbonate, an acidic salt. They both act as leavening agents in a recipe, reacting with the other ingredients to create tiny air bubbles of carbon dioxide, which make your baked good rise and be light and fluffy. Baking soda is much stronger than baking powder, and is used in recipes with other acidic ingredients, such as vinegar, buttermilk, natural cocoa, or sour cream. If it is not exposed to another acid, the final product will have an odd, bitter taste. It reacts very quickly, so recipes that include baking soda should be put in the oven as soon as possible. Baking powder was designed to slow the reaction of the ingredients. In addition to sodium bicarbonate, baking powder includes one or more acidic salts (such as cream of tartar or sodium aluminum sulfate) and cornstarch. Most baking powders you will find in the grocery store are double-acting, meaning one of the acids will react immediately when added to liquid and the other when it is exposed to heat in the oven. The double-acting powder makes the leavening more reliable, as time is no longer as pressing a factor. Theoretically if you got your hands on single-acting baking powder you would have to put the batter in the oven asap. Again, if you are baking it is important to try to follow the ingredients exactly! If you can't, here is the substitution: if you have baking soda and need baking powder: for 1 teaspoon of baking powder, mix 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch. If you have baking powder and need baking soda, it's really not ideal! You will have to triple the amount of baking powder the recipe calls for (1 teaspon --> 3 teaspoons) and it will effect the taste, and potentially other things. 

Oops...

I'm so, so sorry blog-readers! I haven't posted in ages. It has been, shall we say, a wee turbulent these days in the life of me. I left Switzerland. Did I mention this? It just wasn't for me. Aaaand moving on -

I'm in Washington, D.C. now! For those of you thinking, "wait, what?": I know. It's seems really sudden, but I've thought a lot about where I would want to live, given the chance, and decided that if I had the chance to live there right in front of me I'd be a fool not to take it. I feel mobile; I feel like I could live anywhere. I feel like I only need a suitcase and I like it. 'Course I'll be here at least for a while, but I like that too. For the next while my motto will be "why not?"

Meanwhile all the recipes I've been cooking up have been on the back burner! I'm sorry, really, because I've worked on some whoppers. Coming up: ollalieberry pie, chocolate bread, lemon tart and more! For now, a tip: most recipes are off because you're adding too much flour! Did you know when you scoop the flour with the measuring cup and shake it, you're actually packing the flour in, adding more than the recipe calls for? If you can't weigh your flour when baking (and honestly, most people don't have the patience to do so, including me) then you can try this instead: spoon the flour into the measuring cup without tapping or shaking the cup to level it and take a knife to level off the excess. This really makes a difference! I've always had cakes and cupcakes that dome, which is caused by an excess of flour in the batter. This should take care of that problem.

In closing, a little of my life philosophy: I think life should be a little uncomfortable. I think it should be busy and crowded with people, and you shouldn't be able to sleep through it. In fact, it should require your attention at (almost) all times. In short, it should be messy and need tending. Was my life a little too neat? I think it was. I think it was too soon for all my ends to be tied up, and it was definitely too soon to feel like the long path of my future was stretching on forever in a perfectly straight line. I'm going to enjoy the loops, curves, blind spots and Lombard Streets that are in my near future. Cheesy? Yes. Have we met? I cry at pet food commercials and lifetime movies. Get psyched folks.

An old-fashioned kind of girl

A few weeks ago Lena Horne died. Aside from being a lovely woman and a marvelous screen actress, she was responsible for popularizing the song Stormy Weather. I'm particularly attached to this song, because when I was a young thing of 16, I auditioned to sing this song with my high school jazz band. Actually singing with them on stage was like a dream - a huge audience, a full band, and I was singing by myself with a mic, in a pretty dress. It was magical. Did I know anything about stormy weather? Well, not really. But doesn't every sixteen-year-old think she's intimately acquainted with tragedy?

Enjoy this video of Miss Horne, and when you're done check out her bio on wikipedia here.

Sue me for neglect

Here are the recipes I've made and haven't told you about in the past month:

1. Chocolate Bundt Cake
2. Little Pear Friands
3. Lemon Lavender Tea Cakes

I'm sorry. I'm also super sick in bed, which is either the best excuse not to blog ever, or a terrible excuse since I have all this time...if it makes you feel better, staring at the computer screen is giving me a terrible headache. Also I can't get my photos on my computer without plugging my phone in, which I'm much too lazy to do right now. It's terrible, I know.

What is everyone up to this summer? Other than work I've been dashing all around town with my family and friends (although Mom was out of town this whole week). Last weekend I went to San Francisco for a friend's birthday and hung out in the park and on the Castro during pride celebrations. It was so epic! The park was jammed with people, mostly lesbians, who were waiting for the dyke march to begin. A girl right in front of us was wearing knit lederhosen and nothing else! Pride weekend is so wonderful here in San Francisco, there's a feeling of freedom with an edge of crazy and a big helping of positive energy. Participants are energetically reaching out and celebrating people's differences. There's nothing passive about this festival in San Francisco; it's loud and pushy and fabulous. Also, the costumes? Yeah, Epic.  I'm just sorry I missed the parade this year, especially since I heard the Backstreet Boys showed up!

What else have I done? Well my loyal partners-in-crime Mountaineer and Boy Scout bought us all tickets to see the Giants play the Dodgers in AT&T park in the city. My response when I opened my present was "awesome! I hate the Dodgers!!" We had a great time eating junk food and beer, and booing the Dodgers and their creepy fans. On the train home we had the misfortune to sit behind these "thugs" who were from our hometown (largely white, rich, upper-middle class). I am not joking when I tell you they were bragging about getting caught drinking in an elementary school playground and running from the cops. It was the most ridiculous piece of theatre I've ever witnessed in public.

There is always so much to do here! Even when I'm just watching TV or hanging around, there are things to look forward to and people to see, and an energy to life that was completely missing in Switzerland. Right now I'm a little too tired to look forward to the future, but when I'm not sick any more I'm looking forward to looking forward.

It's a warm, buttery Summer

A couple weeks ago I wanted buttermilk biscuits. Why? I don't remember. Besides, since when do my food cravings have to be tied to rational thought? It's a well known fact that everything makes me hungry, including and especially the phrase "I wish I were hungry." Good thing I just ate lunch. Now where were we?

Ah yes, Buttermilk Biscuits. This recipe is courtesy Joy the Baker. I could say things about it, but I won't. Just make them. You will understand.

Buttermilk Biscuits
(slightly modified from Joy the Baker, posted March 26, 2009)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt. Add in all the butter, and using either a pastry blender, a fork or your fingers, cut the butter in to the dry ingredients until it looks sandy/grainy. Mix the egg and the buttermilk separately and pour them into the dry ingredients, mixing them at first and then using your hands to press it all together. Knead the dough a few times on a very well-floured cutting board (I recommend flouring the board each time you press the dough on itself again - it gets sticky), then press it out until it is about one inch high. At this point you can use a cookie cutter to cut the biscuits out, or you can cut them into roughly even pieces with a very large, sharp knife. Either way, press straight down and do not saw or twist in the process. It will make the sides of your biscuit all flaky and delish.

Arrange the biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake them for 12 - 15 minutes, until they are slightly golden and fluffy. Enjoy with jam, butter, or anything else you fancy (I've heard mustard and ham is good).

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You!

Last week was my birthday! I spent a wonderful, lovely, quiet day baking my extravagant birthday cake. The best birthday present I could have asked for was flying back to California the day before. See, I never did get a work permit in Switzerland. After three months I had to leave, and now I'm on the hunt for a new job in a new city. Don't we all dream about what we would do if? It's as if someone has freed me from every responsibility or concern and said "Martha, go out there and make your life look exactly the way you want." I had a glorious moment contemplating my wildest dreams as potential realities, discovering that my wildest dreams really aren't very wild at all. Problem?

If you could have or be or do anything you want, what would it be? Last week this cake was all I could want out of life:

It's dreamily called Buttermilk Yellow cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting. Shall we rename it? How about Heavenly Cake, Scrumptious Cake, or Brown Sugar Dream Cake? Any ideas? The reason I chose this cake is because a) we had a bit of extra buttermilk in the fridge and buttermilk makes everything taste better and b) how good does brown sugar buttercream sound? I mean really now. I thought it would be a bit more tan, but as it turns out the egg whites really dominate this frosting. My only modification would be to add a little less salt to the frosting. On the other hand it gives it this intriguing salty-sweet caramel taste and prevents the whole cake from being too sweet.

As you can see the cake was almost purely white, which meant that after being assembled and frosted it looked like a wedding cake. To tell you the truth I hadn't thought past the baking stage so I really had nothing in mind for the decoration. Fortunately my sister and mom gave my dad a bunch of French lavender plants for the garden, which are beautifully in bloom right at this very moment. It only took a few minutes to pluck a few stems and arrange them artfully on the cake! (side note: it may still have looked like a fancy wedding cake. I do not care.)

Let's get into how I made it...and I want to remind you that it took all day. Still, you should try it sometime, there's nothing more satisfying than a perfectly iced three-layer cake.

Buttermilk Yellow Cake 
(originally Moist Yellow Cake published in Bon Appetit, August 2004)

• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two (or three, if you'd like) 8-in (20 cm) cake pans.

I had to make my own cake flour this time because I ran out...Fortunately making cake flour is quite easy! You will need cornstarch and all-purpose flour. For every cup of flour take out two tablespoons. Replace the two tablespoons of flour you took out with two tablespoons of cornstarch. For three cups of cake flour, you would take out six tablespoons of flour and replace them with six tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift the mixture together about five or six times and you're ready to go.

After you've made your cake flour add in the baking powder and salt and sift it together again. Sifting will keep the flour very light and will allow the wet ingredients to permeate better. It will also lighten the crumb and prevent the cake from getting too heavy.

Spend a little time with the mixer on medium high creaming the butter. It should be fluffy and light-colored after a couple minutes. Now you want to add the sugar a quarter cup at a time continuing to beat the butter. This will allow the sugar crystals to break through the butter fat, keeping the cake light. One by one add the eggs, beating well after each one.

Mix the vanilla extract with the buttermilk. Now you're ready to mix it all together! Start with the flour, mixing in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the flour. It's very important that you not over mix! Keep the mixer on medium speed and mix only until the ingredients are combined. After you've added everything scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix briefly.

Add the batter to the pans, filling each equally and smoothing the tops (this will help the cake avoid doming). Place in the center of the oven and cook until the top is golden and it starts to pull away from the side of the pan (about 35 minutes for me with three pans). A knife in the center should come out clean. Don't worry if they get a teensy bit overcooked, as it will actually make it easier to assemble and frost.

Now that the cake is in the oven, let's move on to the hard part!

Brown Sugar Buttercream
(originally seen in Gourmet, January 2001)

• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Special equipment: candy thermometer

This is apparently a bit of a tricky recipe...you have to make simple syrup and meringue, successfully combine them and add butter. Make sure all your ingredients are at the proper temperature, this will be the key to success with a buttercream.

First things first. Add the salt to your room temp egg whites. The salt will help make sure the whites fluff enough, but it will also make the frosting a wee bit salty, not in a gross way but noticeably. I would add only half a teaspoon next time, and see what happens. Once your egg whites and salt are combined (in a very clean, dry, room temperature stainless steel or copper bowl) set them aside.

Take out a small saucepan and mix the brown sugar and water in it. Put them over the stove on medium high and bring to a boil. Make sure it doesn't burn by stirring occasionally. While it's boiling, occasionally brush down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush soaked in water.  Right when the simple syrup starts to boil, start mixing your egg whites. Once they get to a frothy stage, add the lemon juice and continue beat until it forms soft peaks.

I didn't have a candy thermometer so I used a meat thermometer, but you want to let the sugar boil until it gets to about 240 degrees F. Just eye-balling it I would say this is the point where there are lots of bubbles coming up and it looks a little frothy. As soon as it reaches this point, pour it out into a heat-proof container.

Now you are going to slowly add the simple syrup to the egg whites while beating with a mixer. In a slow, thin stream add the syrup to one side of the bowl, beating at a high speed. Continue beating the egg whites for 6 minutes, scraping down the pan. It should be cool to the touch when you are done. It should also be shiny and look really pretty and fancy.

Now you need your butter. It's in pieces (about 1-inch should do the trick) and it's softened (but not melty). Adding one piece at a time, mix the butter into the meringue. Make sure each piece is thoroughly mixed in before adding another. This part is a little freaky, because your formerly pretty meringue is going to start looking a little icky and curdled. That's ok! It will come together again (I promise). If it starts to get too soupy (mine did) place the bowl in some ice water for a few minutes. By the time you've added all the butter the buttercream should have come together again and look like fluffy yummy frosting. Don't forget to add the vanilla at the very end. Nicely done!

Assembling the layers

You didn't forget the cake in the oven, did you? The cake should be out of the oven and cooling on a rack. When it's about room temperature take a bread knife and smooth out the top of it a bit, if it's domed. Don't worry about making it too perfect, the frosting should be able to help you out. After it's smoothed out and completely cooled, wrap each layer in saran wrap and tinfoil, and place it in the fridge for an hour or so. Trust me, it'll help you frost.

Make sure the frosting is room temperature and don't chill it, or it will make it more difficult to spread. Now let's assume the layers are cool and you're all ready to assemble the cake. Start off by putting the first layer down on the cake plate. A helpful tip I once read said to smear a little frosting underneath it so it doesn't scoot around too much. now you want to layer a thick amount of the buttercream on the top of the cake, ignoring the sides. Place layer two upside-down on layer one. If the frosting layer is thick enough, you can press the cake down where it's uneven to straighten it out. Repeat the same thing with layer three, placing it upside-down on layer two and generously frosting the top. Now you're gonna move on to frosting the sides of the cake. This is a little tricky but you can do it! Take a spatula with a flat edge and start spreading the frosting on pretty thick. The first round will look globby and kinda bad. That's ok! After you have plenty of frosting on the side of the cake, clean the spatula off and start smoothing it down. Try to use long strokes, going around the cake and not pressing down too much. Clean off the spatula frequently. When the sides look smooth you can smooth off the top. Here are a few photos (also proof that I did not buy this cake as some suggested!):

These times they are a changin'

Oh my readers, I have been neglecting you. I'm sorry! Between a two-week trip to California and other things which shall go unmentioned, I have not been spending much time on this blog. I still have to update you on the new buttermilk biscuit recipe I tried out (and subsequently used three times in a single week) and the ginormous chocolate bundt cake which would make you cry with happiness. Here's a picture:

 

More updates soon, but let's just say that the blog isn't the only thing that's changed recently.

Paris, and a small dissertation on dissatisfaction

I'm going to start with Paris, because maybe by the time I'm done I'll be (mercifully for you) too tired to expound on the second point. We live and hope.

PARIS! I went there, I saw things, I visited friends. It was chilly, it was snooty, it was delightful. You would think that going to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou would be on my list of tasks, but oddly enough (and I know you'll all be surprised to hear this) I really just wanted to eat my favorite foods! I didn't feel like wading through tourists most of the time, so my trip consisted of walks, and walks, and long long walks. I went to Versailles as well (combining wading through tourists and long walks, whew!). Here are some pictures:

A Medici fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens. It's always shadowy and melancholy, in spring time or winter, but especially in the fall when all the leaves are falling in it. Also, there are ducks.

So, everyone knows what this picture is, right? Oh, you don't? Pshaw, guess you have to be a Parisienne...nah, just kidding. This picture (which my friend Jon helpfully pointed out would not turn out right) was taken from a cafe at the base of a staircase going up to Sacre Coeur. They have a large terrace with whimsically colorful tables and chairs, and the trees are strung with light bulbs. Even when it's a little chilly outside, it's pretty magical at sundown. This picture does not capture the magic, but you forgive me, right?

This is a view of the Petit Trianon, a little palace that was built for Madame de Pompadour and later given to Marie-Antoinette. It's a nice little house, but it's not the reason I love this area. Marie-Antoinette had a little village built next to the palace so she could play shepherdess. Now a lot of people ridicule good old M-A for being "crazy" or "irresponsible" but I feel a little differently. As we were walking into the village an older French woman was describing Marie-Antoinette to her grand-daughter, "imagine she was far from home, only 16 years old, she didn't have any friends or family around, she didn't know what to do or how to run a country." I have some sympathy for a young, innocent girl in a foreign country far from her friends and family, speaking in a foreign language, expected to handle more responsibility than she ever had before with almost no training. I visit her garden feeling a little like she did: escape! It's comforting to be surrounded by trees and fields and no people. And, you know, to have a box of pastries too. Comforting.

Which brings us to this picture:

If you walk off the beaten path into the long grasses at the far corners of the estate, you can pretend that you're all alone in a field of wildflowers. (All alone except for the person taking your picture, obviously :-) )

That's about it, I didn't take many photos from my trip but I'm pretty fond of the ones I got. I'll be happy when I finally have my camera charger from home. Oh, that's right, I'm flying back to California on Thursday afternoon! I'm pretty psyched to see my parents and friends, and to engage in a little food-ourism (gastro-tourism? that sounds gross). This means: in'n'out, cupcakes, frozen yogurt, mayfield, bistro elan, sushi, brown rice sushi, pancakes, scones, and cookies! Also: swimming, the dish, interval training, going to the movies, walking to California ave, dance classes and blissfully nothing at all. Too bad I'm not actually on vacation, I'll still have lots of work to do!

Well I guess it worked, I've finished telling you all about Paris and I'm no longer in the mood (exactly) to whine. I'm sure if I can even adequately explain in this platform, so maybe I'll just continue to pretend that I'm blissfully happy. Bliss! Bliss! Flower petals are falling from the sky at all times.

Asparagus, Pancetta, Shallots and Feta Pasta

Yesterday I made the most delicious pasta in the history of my pasta making. Seriously, Laura (S.) remember that bacon tomato pasta sauce? Yeah, this is better.

Let's jump right in, shall we? This is easy enough that anyone who likes pasta and has a half an hour should try it out. You can use this pasta cooking technique for almost any combination of vegetable and cheese that you like, and if you're a vegetarian you can, of course, forgo the pancetta.

Ingredients: Olive oil, salt, pepper, pancetta, chicken broth, pasta, asparagus, shallots, feta cheese

Get out a medium pot, or any kind of pan with high-ish sides. Whatever vegetable you want to add should be cooked and cut into pieces roughly similar to the size of the pasta you have chosen. This dish works best with pasta like penne, rigatoni, farfalle or rotini. You're going to start by crisping up your chopped pancetta in the bottom of the pan (the pieces should be not too big, not too small). Keep the stove between medium and high, you shouldn't need to adjust the heat at all throughout the recipe. Once the pancetta is crisped and browned take it out of the pan and set it aside (you'll be using it soon enough). Make sure you don't pour it out, because you want that yummy fat in the pan to brown your shallots.

The shallots should be sliced thin before you toss them in the pan. Stir and flip them around so they get nicely covered in the fat, and if you've added it, the olive oil. You don't want them to get too brown to fast, so if they start to get to hot pull the pan of the burner and shake them around a bit. To get it right you can pull it off the burner and put it back as much as you'd like. After a couple of minutes they should have softened and will start to look cooked. At this point you should put the pasta in the pan with the shallots, stirring and tossing for a minute until they are slightly toasted and covered in oil/fat. Yum.

Add chicken broth to the pan until the pasta is just covered. This should be enough that after the broth has been absorbed, the pasta will be cooked through (but not overdone). Make sure you stir it frequently so the pasta cooks evenly.

While the pasta is cooking, and in between stirring, you chop up the feta cheese. When the pasta is almost done, add the asparagus and mix it in. When the liquid is almost completely gone and the pasta is cooked, pour it into the dish in which you'll be serving, topping it with the feta and pancetta from earlier. Don't salt it too much, the cheese and pancetta should give it plenty of flavor already.

Then you're ready to eat! Doesn't cooking it this way make up a nice sauce for the pasta? Really rich and tasty. Next time I might add some lemon juice to the chicken broth, and top it with zest afterward. I think the original recipe called for that but I was too lazy to zest a lemon last night.

Italy

Italy, Italy, Italy. This is where I spent the summer of my 19th year learning Italian. I always remember it as being a vaguely uncomfortable trip. The heat and humidity meant that my skin was horrible and I was constantly getting sick, I never had enough sleep and I must have gained 15 pounds in a matter of weeks. It was glorious! I love going back, so when my father took me with him a couple weeks ago I was a pretty happy camper. Work and travel? What could be better!?

Well. As it turns out wearing a suit and heels in the train is uncomfortable, especially when you have heavy bags to carry. And of course I left my jeans in Switzerland, and had to go shopping (I hate doing this in Italy, it's impossible!). It was uncomfortable, and yet I relished the feeling because it was so very Italian to me. Vaguely uncomfortable and completely wonderful. So what did we do?? I've already told you about the food, so let's talk about the touring!

My father has been staying in the same hotel in Florence for thirty years. It's called the Hotel Villani, run by one Erminio Villani, and it's a single floor in a building about a block from the Dome. In fact, the Cathedrale (di Santa Maria in Fiore) is so close that you can't take a picture of it out the window. It's just too big! Here is an example of my attempt:

 Pretty pathetic, no? Here is a better picture, taken down the block the night before:

I think it might be one of the nicest pictures I've ever taken.

While wandering around the city this time I stumbled across a little museum I didn't even know existed, the artifacts of which left me breathless for an entire day! Can you guess what it might have been? Probably not. It was the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe museum! As it turns out, you can order recreations of famous shoes worn by movie stars! Rita Hayworth, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, among many others, wore his beautiful shoes in their movies. Even Marilyn Monroe! They are so beautiful in person that words cannot describe. And since photos are verboten in the museum I can't show you either. Just be sure you get yourself over to the website and have a look. It really has to be seen to be believed. (http://www.museoferragamo.it/en/scopri-cinema.php)

We took a trip outside of Florence one day to see Tuscany a bit. We went to San Geminiano, a little walled medieval city that has been beautifully restored and is now a world heritage site. Here is a photo:

We also saw Siena, which is worth a look although not as beautiful to me as many other Italian cities, and to a little town I had never heard of before called Monte Reggiano, where we ate incredibly tasty proscuitto on traditional tuscan bread (unsalted) and very fresh pecorino. Yum! Here is my father and our friends enjoying our wine in the rain. At the end of the day we headed to a farm that produces its own wine and olive oil, and which has a lovely restaurant. A truly Italian dinner followed, by which I mean pasta, meat, contorno of beans and a little dessert, all with plenty of wine!

The volcanic ash lengthened our stay in Tuscany by a couple of days, although we ended up getting quite a bit of work done while we were there. We had a ton of wonderful Tuscan food and got to spend more time wandering the city than we anticipated. But now I'm running out of more things to say about the trip, so I will leave you with some more photos (including a couple of the Ferrari museum in Modena). Enjoy!

 

Oh my beloved Dino. I want a car just like you!

Let's see where this goes

I'm not highly motivated to write at the moment, the weather over Lugano is absolutely dreadful and I'm in a bit of a food coma. Side note? Melt dark chocolate with a bit of butter and cognac. Seriously, it turned my mood around. Before I forget I also need to share a truly weird story. The past few days there have been more bugs than usual. Specifically I keep finding these giant brown spiders on my bedroom floor (and only in the bedroom). Now anyone who knows me knows I hate, loathe, despise and otherwise abhor spiders and bugs of all kinds. Even typing the words "spider" and "bug" give me the creepy crawlies. One of these spiders was even big enough that I could see it without my glasses on. Just to be clear, I can't see my own hand in front of my face without my glasses. Yikes. So when I saw the first giant critter I thought, "I don't have the energy to deal with this right now, I'm just going to trap it under a glass until I get the courage up to kill it". So I did. Except I never did get the courage to kill it, and more spiders kept showing up... long story short I basically have a little menagerie in the corner of my bedroom of spiders trapped under glasses. I'm started to feel like a creepy serial bug killer a la Silence of the Lambs, letting the bugs build up their terror before I kill them. But I'm not really like that! I just don't have the courage to kill them. This is why people have boyfriends and roommates, huh?

But on to nicer things. See I haven't told you about when my friend Jon was here and we went to Bellinzona for the flower festival. Up until this moment I wasn't sure if I was going to, because I'm feeling lazy, but here we go! Bellinzona has a market on the weekends, but one weekend a year they also have a flower festival where local florists submit impressive structures made of flowers (and wire, etc). The general public gets to vote! Here are some examples of the entries, which are located in little corners all over the city center:

Actually, I don't think the giant chair was entered in the competition, but still. It's pretty, right? There were also giant vegetable constructions suspended over the streets. At least I'm pretty sure one of them was supposed to be a carrot.

Throughout the rest of the year Bellinzona is known for the awesome castle whose wall cuts through the middle of the city. It's pretty confusing, we were attempting to access the castle by climbing up ancient stairs to locked gates, when in fact the part that was open for tourists was on the opposite side of town. Once we finally made it was started laughing at the entrance. The "door" is a concrete tunnel with a very high ceiling cut into a sheer wall of rock. You walk in a few yards and there is an elevator and a staircase going maybe four floors up to the castle grounds. It looked a little like something out of Lord of the Rings, I swear. Let's see if there's a good picture. This doesn't show the entrance itself, but it's cut into the wall of rock pictured here. Once you get into the castle walls you can walk up the tower to see the valley. It's really very pretty.

So Bellinzona was an utter success, but we were also able to visit Lugano and nearby Ponte Tresa, sort of the Tijuana of Italy and Switzerland. Only with pasta and cheese instead of drugs and booze. All in all it was a delightful weekend (with beautiful weather). Unfortunately I came down with a cold directly afterward, which I have only just kicked.

Here are a couple more pictures from the trip.

A traditional Swiss Alpine band!

A View!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

I'm getting the jump on things, it's not quite Strawberry-Rhubarb season. Not quite, but good enough to get started. I've been homesick lately and this is something my mom taught me to make. You can do it in any quantity, just grab some rhubarb and a box of strawberries and get going! Don't forget to buy greek yogurt or ricotta to eat with it. 

Start by cleaning of your rhubarb. Isn't it funny looking? Like giant red celery! Slice the ends of with a sharp serrated knife, then start cutting the stalks on the diagonal into small chunks about an inch long. Try to make them even, and don't use the very end if it is completely green. Dump the rhubarb chunks in a pot and cover with some sugar. Toss them around a little to get them coated, and set them aside. Clean the strawberries and slice them, adding them to the pot. Once everything is sliced and in the pot, toss it around a bit to get it all coated. A note: if you're making the compote with strawberries you don't need that much sugar. In fact a variation on this recipe would be to squeeze and orange over the fruit instead.
Let the fruit sit for a half an hour, until the chunks have released some moisture in the pot.

Once there is a a bit of liquid in the bottom of the pot, place it on the burner and heat it up. You want to get the liquid bubbling but pay very close attention that it doesn't burn! Stir it frequently. Once the liquid has bubbled a bit, turn it down to medium low, stirring often and making sure it doesn't get too hot. In a half an hour or less, all the fruit should be melted down into a delightful looking compote. Taste it to see if it needs more sugar. When you're satisfied, take it off the stove and pour it into another bowl. Enjoy with yogurt, ice cream or by itself!

Red Velvet Cake in France

Finally I get around to telling you about the red velvet cake I made for my sister's birthday. Here's a picture:

As you can see it was made in the shape of a giant cupcake. I hate baking in this pan, you can never get the cake perfect. It's always a little overcooked. But you'll probably bake in a normal pan, right? Good plan. My sister loves cupcakes and cute pans, and she loves red velvet cake. The recipe was beautiful, as I said before we made a couple substitutions, as you can see below. Try it out, it's a fabulous and tasty recipe that will most likely turn out beautifully!

Red Velvet Cake with Fluffy White Frosting and Toasted Coconut

     Adapted from Joy the baker, from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes 2 8-inch or 9-inch round cakes

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 egg

5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4 Tablespoons of liquid, either half coffee and half water, or half food coloring and half water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or one package of vanilla sugar)

1 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup plain yogurt and 1/4 cup milk)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda (or one package of leavening)

3 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).  Grease and flour two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans.  Set aside.  

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Turn mixer to high and add the eggs. Mix very well

In a separate bowl mix together cocoa, vanilla and red food coloring (or coffee & water) to make a thick paste. Add it to the butter/sugar and mix it very thoroughly (this is especially important if you're using the food coloring - get all the batter red!

Turn mixer to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk.  Add half of the flour and salt and mix until combined.  Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour.  Beat on high until smooth.

Turn mixer to low and add baking soda and white vinegar (we weren't sure if we should add them in the same place at the same time, so we put the baking soda on one side of the bowl and the vinegar on the other. It probably makes no difference whatsoever).  Turn to high and beat a few more minutes.

Spoon batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean. It took our cake a looooong time to bake (over an hour) because of the mold it was in. I don't recommend it, the giant cupcake tends to overcook on the outside (although the inside was perfect).

Let rest in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

We didn't have cream cheese, so we used weird French cheese spread. I didn't know what proportions to use but it basically goes like this: Butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Mix it until you get the right consistency... Better yet, go to Joy's website and get one of her recipes!

Tips for frosting your cake: this is not easy. I'm not good at it...that being said, here are some tips that I've heard. Make sure the frosting isn't too cold, or it will be harder to spread. The cake should be at room-temperature or cooler at this point. Don't do it when it's right out of the oven! If you need to make a layer cake, make sure the tops of the layers are fairly even so they will sit flat when stacked. Start by putting a layer of frosting on the first cake layer, then placing the second layer upside down on top. Lightly press it down if it's uneven in certain areas. Now you're going to put the "crumb layer" of frosting on top. This is a thin layer of frosting that will be harder to spread and not look as nice. Frost the top first, then the sides. Put the cake in the fridge for a while and let the frosting set. After an hour or so, take the cake back out and put a much thicker layer of frosting on it, top first, then the sides. Let that set in the fridge for a while. Then you're ready to serve it!

The Last Two Weeks in Three Paragraphs (sorta)

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while...here's what's happened in the last two weeks:

1. Big meetings at work
2. Dad came to Switzerland
3. Dad and I went to Italy for a few days with a friend, they both got stuck for an extra four days because of a certain temperamental Icelandic volcano named Eyjafjallajokull. Yeah, you read right. 
4. My friend Jon came to visit Lugano from Paris
5. Eating. Eating. Eating. Eating. Eating. Food. Eating. 

Few! What have I baked since then? Well, for Dad a flour-less dark chocolate cake with brandied cherries and whipped cream, and after I got back, strawberry-rhubarb compote, hazelnut cake, parmeson cheese crackers and chocolate-banana muffins, and I'm working on making my own vanilla extract. Whew, I know. And I still need to post the red velvet cake! Would you forgive me if I directed you to lovely Joy's website where I found it? Then I can post a picture and tell you the substitutions I made: yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk, vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract and a package of french leavening instead of baking powder (soda?). See? Easy...

Telling you all of what I ate will be harder...budino di riso, nutella, chestnut cake, apple tart, pasta, cheese, pasta, cheese, octopus salad, chicken liver pate (I should have made a record)...bistecca alla fiorentina (giant t-bone steak specially prepared in the florentine style), stinco (roasted forearm of a pig), fresh pasta with truffles, tiny tortellini in broth,  tortellini filling served separately, prosciutto, mozzarella di bufala, fresh pecorino, vitello tonato...the list goes on.

This is not even including the "advanced" 10-course meal I ate in Modena at a restaurant called l'Osteria Francescana, where we were served risotto flavored with (but not actually including) oysters, raw fish with (and I'm not joking) smoke, pan-roasted black cod with black tomato sauce, a soup inspired by "the flavors of the earth" including truffles and snails, beer (!), several different wines including one made of walnuts (which I skipped, of course) and a POTATO SOUFFLE, served in a potato skin, with vanilla cream. Let's not forget the roasted, square marshmallows on wooden sticks served after the dessert, and the tiny tiny cream puffs and assorted cakes served after that. As a gift after the dinner, we were given bottles of extremely aged balsamic vinegar, for which Modena is famous.

Would you believe that those to paragraphs are only a fraction of the total amount of food I ate in the last two weeks? More to come when I get my pictures off my phone.

The Longest Day

It's been a long, exhausting day which will be followed by a long, exhausting week. Things are lovely but sometimes a girl just needs a little break. Would somebody be so kind as to hit the off switch on my brain for a short while? K thanks then.

Still got two baking adventures to tell you about (actually more like three), but it'll have wait until I get back from Italy.

Catch you on the flip.

Easter in Brittany

I went on a wee vacation to France last week for Easter. It was so much fun to see my sister and brother-in-law and their rather large extended family again! Among other things we went to the weekly farmer's market, drank tasty tea, ate galettes, brioches, eclairs, tartes aux fraises, quiche and gratin dauphinois. And let's not talk about the chocolate...dear God we ate chocolate. For my sister's birthday we made sushi and I baked a red-velvet cake with (almost) cream cheese frosting. More about that recipe (courtesy Joy the Baker again) in another post.

Rennes is adorable! The center of town is still made up of rickety-looking, tudor-style buildings that tilt this way and that, and are painted bright colors. They look like they might fall down if you exhale emphatically or look at them sideways. Rennes is the capital of the greatest province in all of France (and every last department): Bretagne! Brittany is in the Western-most region of France quite near England. It's so close, in fact, that it shares many of the ancient celtic cultural traditions of the English isles such as monolithic monuments and some traditional cuisine and dress. This unique background makes Brittany different from any other region of France. The regional language, or patois, of Bretagne is closely related to Cornish and Welsh, from (can you guess?) Cornwall and Wales. There is also a strong celtic folk music movement in Brittany which revived the old tunes and instruments and reintroduced them into modern music. Go Bretons!

What is there to see in Brittany? Well, plenty. The coast of Brittany is dotted with small fishing towns which are quaint and serve unbelievable fish platters. Periwinkles, snails, tiny shrimp, big ol' crabs, coquilles st-Jacques (scallops) and raw muscles and oysters are popular, as are my personal favorites, langoustines (like small lobster/crawfish), served steamed with mayonnaise. One coastal town you may have already heard of is called Saint-Malo. It's a walled city that is hugely popular during the summer months, when it only rains 6 out of 7 days in the week. I wish I were joking...Saint-Malo has a wonderful, rich background in piracy and smuggling to nearby England. Now the city is a wonderful place to walk, sit on an old cannon overlooking the sea on a giant stone wall, go to a fancy, purified salt-water spa, or eat kouign amann. What's that? Mmmm, let's get the the food.

Besides raw shellfish (I cannot underscore enough how much raw shellfish is in Brittany, the quantity borders on obscene), the food of Bretagne is tasty and stuffed to the brim with butter. Kouign amann is one such buttery pastry typical of this region of France. To make it you take pastry dough, and you layer it with butter and sugar and fold it a few times. Then you layer it with butter and sugar and fold it a few times. Then you repeat...fifty million times. When you bake it for a while the sugar caramelizes and creates a bit of a crust on the outside. The inside is sugary, doughy and super super buttery. It's like eating a bit of crispy caramel slathered with melting butter. Yes, that's drool you just dripped on to your computer. I know, me too. But wait, there's more. Perhaps some of you who have visited France have tasted the local delicacy known as the crepe? Well if you did it anywhere but Brittany, you were fooled! The homebase, the epicenter, if you will, of the crepe, is Bretagne. Galettes, the savory kind, are made with buckwheat flour and can contain cheese, egg, ham, spinach or shellfish, or just about any other combination of vegetable, meat or seafood you can imagine. They are creative; I think I saw a hawaiian galette on the menu last weekend. They eat the galettes with cider, not like Martinelli's either. This is hard cider, weaker than beer but stronger than water. It's absolutely fantastic. Many people enjoy a kir breton as an aperitif, which is cider (or champagne or white wine) with creme de cassis, or blackcurrant liquor. It's actually originally from Burgundy, but let's just pretend, shall we? Authentic breton all the way.

Well this is a lot  more about Brittany than I was planning to write, but aren't you glad you know it now? No? Well too bad, it's my blog. Here are some pretty pictures from my trip: