Cake Shopping Will Help Too!

Oh, Pickle!

Don't be sad, I can't bear it! (Would it help to tell you that I would DIE for a couple of months by myself and spend them running around the house naked while eating bon-bons with no husbands or kiddos to steal them from me or to be startled by my bouncing buttocks? The truth is I would probably just sit in an armchair and enjoy the fact that my shoes are where I left them and I don't need to vacuum like, hourly. Still, jaded bliss...)

We will totally cheer you up with baguette. Warm. With butter. How can one be sad then?

In the mean time, go look at adorable cupcake accoutrements here. I ordered a whole bunch including the absolutely charming Christmas cupcake kit, full of retro toppers that make me wish it was December, and the pirate cupcake kit which will undoubtedly make little boys very happy. I also ordered a bunch of darling cupcake papers which came packaged with little decos to coordinate with them. That will help! And just think, no husband to scrutinize your package of imported foo-fas when it arrives = less guilt.

I have some pictures coming up of a couple of baked goods which will feature the blue gingham cupcake papers.

Love and warm bread to you,
Gumdrop

Bake Away the Blues

Dear Gumdrop:

Lately, I’ve been feeling a little blue. A husband who has been MIA for 2 ½ months is to blame (damn movie-making in far-flung locales!). Not even a burst of truly summer-like weather has been able to lift my spirits. But I think fresh-baked bread might do the trick.

A homemade baguette might be the bread-lover’s equivalent of those pillow boyfriends you see Japanese girls with blunt cuts and knee socks clutching in indie fashion magazines. After this challenge, IE may find me curled up with an olive boule (and sporting a stylish yet sensible new haircut) when returns.

So feel the love, bake some bread.

Pickle

Kreskin Hearts Crackers

Dear Pickle:

Remember the amazing Kreskin and his act? Okay, here’s my version:

ANSWER – Knit scarves, the rules, jokes about your mother and crackers.



QUESTION – Name things that are better if you make them yourself…

My apologies to Johnny Carson.

You’d never know it by how late I am with this one, but I too loved and was comforted by making these crackers. The first time I made bread I was like nineteen and going through the obligatory college hippie phase. I hereby apologize to High School Boyfriend and His University Buddy, who were forced to eat the leaden loaves I enthusiastically produced from the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book (the original hippie GET BAKED bible). OHMIGOD, soggy and kind of anvil-like and absolutely indigestible.

If only I’d started with delightful, delicious SIMPLE crackers! And, maybe, some nice white flour instead of sprouted rye or WTF I was brainwashed into at that point.

The recipe I used was from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, a gorgeous book that won the James Beard award and the subject of yet another weekly blog circle that I had dreams of joining at some, more ambitious point. I was a bit shocked to see instant yeast used here as I thought maybe purists wouldn’t think of such a thing, but I faithfully bought some and with the additions of honey, oil and flour I had a dough in like thirty seconds! No proofing of the yeast with the sugar or anything!

It’s been a mega-stressful summer for me work-wise, and yet it all kind of melted away with the ten minutes of kneading required. This is one of those things that every time I do it, I am all like – why don’t I knead something EVERY DAY?!? (Oh yeah, because I was born at the wrong time. Drat. Though I do appreciate the indoor plumbing and anti-frizz hair products available nowadays.) I guess the tricky part was finding a day when I would be at home and sane for two hours while the dough rose, but once it was done working it’s magic on a sunny windowsill, I swear it only took me another thirty seconds to roll these mofos out on a counter lightly sprayed with cooking spray.

I chose to sprinkle them with alternating lines of poppy and sesame seeds, although the book’s author uses a number of spices so I may have to go back and try that too… Anyway, they were light and crisp and joyous - if not perfectly, evenly browned. They were consumed enthusiastically by all members of my little household, despite the fact that they came out of the oven mere moments after dinner, the smell having been just too intoxicating to ignore. And I got to feel all smug that they had no preservatives and didn’t come out of a package (er, for once.)

Anyway, I hope your summer has been good to you and I can’t wait to dig in – so please, challenge me!!!

Crackers for you,
Gumdrop

Look, gratuitous cute baby eating ice cream as my apology to you! Peanut just turned ONE!