I finished Audrey’s Rose City Rollers Socks in Rainbow Dashing by Yarn Geek Fibers. I love how fast these socks knit up. Audrey is very happy with them.
We’ve had a lazy morning. Instead of running errands, Elliot and I made sourdough crackers seasoned with Herbs de Provence. They are delicious, but the best part by far is having him as a helper in the kitchen.
I hope you are having a good start to your week. It’s going to be hot here this week, so I imagine we will be very lazy this week.
I am currently in the groove with sourdough. I remember to feed my starter. I don’t hesitate before throwing away some of the discard. I’m even finding recipes I like.
I usually stick with Cooks Illustrated or King Arthur Flour for all of my baking recipe needs, but I haven’t loved their sourdough options. I picked up a copy of Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa and it has changed my sourdough world.
The cookbook is worth it for the cinnamon sugar sourdough waffle recipe – if you enjoy mini donuts at fairs and carnivals you would love these waffles. I wish I would remember to take a picture of the waffles, but the waffles are devoured before I remember to take photos every single time. Everyone in my family loves these waffles, even John, who is a self-proclaimed pancake snob. The waffles use discard, so I usually make them once a week when I’m feeding the starter.
I’ve also made country farmhouse white sandwich bread from Raffa’s book. It was delicious, easy, and perfect for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (we eat a lot of those in this house).
I made the best bread I’ve ever made using another recipe in the book: Decadent Chocolate Chip. It has a flavor similar to pain au chocolat, which means I’m in danger of eating a loaf of bread in a day. This is going to be my going to a brunch and bring a fancy gift bread from now on.
In addition to baking enough bread to feed an army I’ve been getting the kids outside as much as possible now that it is above freezing. We went to the zoo yesterday and I snapped this tigertastic photo.
I hope your week is carb filled and above freezing too.
Way back in 2010 I spent a year trying a new loaf of bread every week. Most of that time was spent working my way through the Bread Bakers Apprentice. That year I maintained a sourdough starter and baked with it occasionally.
I started day dreaming about sourdough bread after reading Sourdough last year. After mulling over getting back into sourdough bread baking for months I decided it was time to get back to it (having a snowstorm or a polar vortex a couple of days a week for a month will really motivate a person to get baking).
Over the past 24 hours I’ve made sourdough pizza and sourdough English muffins.
Over the past 24 hours I’ve also come to the realization that I’ve been romanticizing my love of maintaining a sourdough starter. Having a starter means feeding it once or twice a week. Each time you feed it you either throw away a large portion of it or you bake from what you discard. I’m need to expand my recipe repertoire or get comfortable throwing ingredients away.
If you have any sourdough recipes you recommend please send them my way. I’m hoping to find sourdough motivation and become a better baker.
On Saturday we celebrated Audrey’s birthday again. This time we celebrated with family over brunch. We have parties for Audrey and Elliot at my sister’s house, as she has a nice entertaining space and we live in a glorified tiny home.
I keep the food simple for birthday parties – fruit, frozen cinnamon rolls, and egg bakes. I don’t keep the cake simple. I make whatever cake the kids pick.
Audrey picked a pretzel cake from the cover of Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson. It was delicious. It was a triple layer chocolate cake with peanut butter butter cream. There were pretzels and chopped chocolate between the layers. It was topped with chopped chocolate and peanuts. Pretzels adorned the sides. Audrey helped me decorate the cake. She was very focused.
She was excited to blow out the candles.
She thought the cake was delicious. John and I agreed.
After presents we headed home in time for naps. I love that about brunch.
Please note that my sister not only lets us use her house, she also made Audrey’s hat and shirt. Audrey wears her party hat to every party she goes to. It gets a lot of use, as it should.
Are you a baker? Have you noticed how expensive vanilla extract has gotten? The vanilla crop in Madagascar failed causing a shortage of vanilla beans. The price of vanilla is now ten times what it was a few years ago.
I recently ran out of vanilla and picked some up at my local spice shop. An ingredient that I never considered the cost of now makes me gasp. I used over half of this bottle in two batches of cookies this morning.
I am not going to switch to intimation vanilla extract. You can tell the difference in the final product. I was planning to buy the now $40 bottle of vanilla the next time I’m at Costco. It is a large bottle and should get me through a year of baking. I may still buy a bottle, but it is no longer immediately needed.
I remembered I had vanilla beans from Costco that I bought last fall. I also have vodka. Those two items are all you need to make your own vanilla extract.
It couldn’t be easier. Slice some vanilla beans open (I also cut them in half so they would fit in a jelly jar). Put the open beans in a jar. 
Cover the beans with vodka.
Put a lid on the jar. Put it in your cupboard. Shake it a couple of times a day for two weeks. after that it should be ready to use. I’ll add vodka a few times, as there will be enough vanilla to infuse two or three times the amount of vodka in the jar.
After a few hours you can already see the change in the vodka.
Hopefully the vanilla crop recovers soon. Until then, I hope you find some forgotten vanilla beans in a drawer and vodka in your freezer and make some of your own extract.
I have a problem. A baking problem. I can’t get enough of it. It is a problem because most recipes make 12-24 servings and there are only 4 of us in our home. That means we are stuck eating all of whatever I make. I suppose I could freeze some of the treats, but the truth is neither John nor I are good at moderation when it comes to sweets.
After weeks of looking at a recipe for Chocolate Revel Bars I had pulled out of my latest issue of Cooks Country I decided it was time to make them. I opted for the butterscotch version, as we are big butterscotch fans in our house.
Oh my wow. These suckers are delicious. Imagine using the topping for apple crisp (oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, almonds, and a shameful amount of butter) as a cookie bottom layer. Now imagine that is topped with a mixture of butter, butterscotch chips, and sweetened condensed milk. The top layer is even more of the crumb topping.
Are you drooling yet? You should be. These heavenly bars are almost gone. I brought some to my book club this afternoon to help us get through them. John is in charge of eating the rest. They are amazing but incredibly unhealthy (337 calories each!).
These are now my go to pot luck dessert recipe. I can only be trusted to make them when I can get them out of my house. I really want to make them again, so please invite me to a party at your house. I promise to bring delicious treats.
These are from Cooks Country magazine. The website is a subscription, so it doesn’t work for me to post a link to it. I am able to e-mail the recipe from the site however, so if you are interested in the recipe leave me a comment with your e mail address and I’ll get it to you. If you don’t feel like leaving your e mail address out in a public space, you could send me a message on Instagram (I’m mildly_granola over there).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat the crumbs John has left behind. I said I was done with the bars, but I didn’t say I was done with bar remnants.
mildlygranola 