Pear - scone cake (-ish sort of... but real good!)

350 gr (12 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

125 gr (4oz/1 stick) butter

130 gr (4 oz) granulated sugar

1 egg, beaten

4-8 tbs milk (I used 6**)

3 ripe pears, peeled cored and quartered (anjou or doyenne du comice)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

lemon juice (enough to brush pear with; approx. 1 tbs)

milk to glaze, granulated sugar to sprinkle

** not sure if I need to use more as to get an easier dough to roll or just use the same amount of liquid and knead it longer.

Oven: 180C/350F, 24cm (9.1/2 inch) tart tin with removable base or spring form, buttered

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until resembling coarse bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar, mix in the egg and enough milk to make a soft dough. Divide in half and roll each part into a round fitting your tart tin. One half is used for the bottom, the other will cover the pears.

(I tried rolling this dough but found it easier to push it over the base of the tin. Of course pushing the dough over the pears is harder hence the "rustic" look of my finished cake.)

Arrange the pear slices (quarters) on the dough and brush with lemon juice, sprinkle with cinnamon/ginger mixture. Roll, or spread out the second half of the dough over the pears. Score the dough with a knife around the pears so they will peek through the dough once baked.

Brush with some milk and sprinkle with a little sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes until golden.

Very nice when served warm for dessert with a little ice cream or whipped cream, equally delicious when cold with your mid morning coffee.

What I liked about it is that it's not too sweet, the crust has this nice bite/crumble and the pears are fragrant and still maintain their freshness. Very good!

Béééhh...

Het is stil... zo stil hier.

Kan geen enkel excuus bedenken behalve dan dat het makkelijker wordt om niet te bloggen naarmate het langer duurt. Kan ook niet bedenken hoe ik dat deed, voorheen. Het feit dat onze internet verbinding -en telefoon- net zo wisselvallig is als het weer is ook niet echt een excuus, hoogstens irritant en erg onhandig. Alhoewel... je houdt verbazingwekkend veelt tijd over zo zonder telefoon en internet.

Ik heb mijn huis gepoetst, achter de naaimachine gezeten, weinig brood gebakken, urenlang over bouwtekeningen en offertes gebogen gezeten, keukenbedrijven bezocht (en een keuken gekocht!!!), het is zover; we gaan eindelijk verbouwen! En jongens wat gaat het een puinhoop worden straks. Ik vrees met grote vreze....

Tot die tijd -en tot de eerste rekeningen binnenkomen- slapen we in ieder geval heerlijk.

Want een nieuw dekbed gekocht.

Lits Jumeaux.

Mega dus.

Vier seizoenen.

Dubbel mega dus.

Geen dons, geen polyester maar (h)eerlijke Texelse schapenwol. Voor alle duidelijkheid: dat is dus gevuld met wol.

Van schapen.

Milieuvriendelijk.

Ventilerend.

Veerkrachtig.

Warm in de winter (ja!)

en koel in de zomer (zou het?)

Heilzaam voor de spieren vanwege de lanoline=wolvet.

Daar had een belletje moeten gaan rinkelen....

Fijn he?

En het stinkt.

Naar schaap. Nee, naar heel veel schapen. In mijn bed. Wat zeg ik, onder mijn neus! Dát vertellen ze er nou net even niet bij. Toen wij ons de eerste nacht, vol verwachting klopt ons hart, onder het nieuwe dek nestelden, lekker frisse hoezen erop, was ik even stil.

Eh..echtgenoot?

Ruik jij ook schaap?

Echtgenoot rook ook schaap maar dat dondert niet hij slaapt toch wel. Het bleef nog lang onrustig aan mijn kant van het bed. Mopper mopper schapenlucht, getver, mopper. Uiteindelijk riep echtgenoot:

Ah joh, da's toch gezellig in deze tijd van het jaar, denk maar dat je in een kerststal ligt. Ja, met mijn neus in de *** van een schaap!

Ik krijg subiet hele andere ideeën waarom er géén plaats was in de herberg maar wél in de stal. Vind ik niet zo gek opeens.

Afijn het hele hussie hangt vrijwel elke dag buiten. Lekker luchten. Moet het niet gaan motregenen. Dan heb je nat schaap. En die stinken nog véél meer!

Béééééh!!

Gadgets that work! Is it a clock? Is it a frisbee?

Nooooo, but what is it? I know, do you?

You both are right and what David said in the comments is what had me grinning all the way from the back of the store to the register... Ah great minds...

This plate will help you divide a round whatever into odd parts. Or rather even parts. Odd numbers. Hmm. Picture a pizza on the plate and in this example 5 hungry family members. Your first cut will be starting at the "0" on the bottom of the picture and then slice starting at every "5" you see on the plate. Ofcourse we tried it immediately and it really works.

Not sure what the crèpe recipe is doing there in the center, can't imagine dividing a crèpe into so many parts but since we bought in Britttany I figured a crèpe recipe and this plate was the ideal souvenir.

Bread Baking Babes: Bake Brioche Mousseline

~~start classical music~~ Mellow Voice over:

As you all know we are foodies. We're all about quality, fine dining, perfect patisserie. We're torturing each other about methods, ingredients, fresh herbs, the best butter, heirloom everything and free roaming all. The Bread Baking Babes are no different.

~~end classical music~~

Let me pull you back to reality. That's not how things go all the time always. This month our hostess Monique in her Kitchen of the Month had us scrambling for the cheapest canned food! We shared our finds: apple sauce! tomato puree! White beans, brown beans! Coffee isn't sold in cans not in Europe anyway but dog food is....

All this to bake really great brioche, using the cans as our baking tins. Can we bake brioche?

Yes we can!

For the recipe I refer you to Monique, I need to say that I accidentally forgot to add two eggs and only used four in total. That never compromised the end product, we all loved it. We loved it fresh out of the oven but we adored it as much the next day toasted.

Think about it for a while: lovely soft yellow-crumbed slices of brioche, dipped in poached egg, or smeared with some more butter or home made preserves. (I won't tell on my son who had two thick slices toasted and made a burger out of it. I had a bite and it was great!).

The brioche dough is made -buttery! eggy! yellow! soft! pliable! perfect handcream!- and then after the first proofing it's carefully balled up and slid into the waiting cans prepared with a lining of parchment paper with a high collar. Definitely make the collars high because these babies grow to enormous lengths. *cough*

I filled my tins up until 2/3 of the way. You can use any size cans but make sure they're not lined with the poisonous-when-heated white plastic stuff. Hence the search for cans.... Difficult to find unlined ones.

Can we be a Buddy and bake this in regular size tins? Yes, but why would you miss out on the fun of these eh...peculiar shaped breads? Well? Let Monique know that you've baked, check her blog for the details and the recipe!

Don't forget to check with my Bread Baking Babes right there in the right hand column! Lovely challenge Monique, great fun and gorgeous breads.

Real Dutch? Liquorice ice cream / Echt Hollands: Drop ijs!

Dit is echt de hit: drop ijs! Hoe Hollands kun je het maken? Ik heb allemaal hele blije jongetjes in huis nu. Niet zelf verzonnen, was het maar waar, maar gelezen en schaamteloos rechtstreeks gekopieerd van Mangerie. Zij noemde het een succesrecept, ooit hier geproefd en ik kan het alleen maar beamen; gewoon maken dit ijs!

150 gr zachte drop (favoriete smaak, geen suikervrije) of van Melle droptoffees <- jaa!! doen!!

280 gr halfvolle melk

120 gr. slagroom

75 gr. suiker

Drop in kleine stukjes knippen met een schaar (of snijden met een mesje) en onder voortdurend roeren laten oplossen in de melk in een pannetje boven laag-middelhoog vuur.

Het ziet eruit alsof het een beetje schift maar de drop lost niet volledig op in de melk, komt allemaal goed straks! Laat het dropmengsel afkoelen in de koelkast.

Slagroom met de suiker stijfkloppen en door het dropmengsel spatelen.

In je ijsmachine doen en volgens de gebruiksaanwijzing ijs van draaien. Overdoen in een geschikte diepvriesbak en nog een nachtje laten opstijven in de vriezer. Dit ijs blijft tamelijk zacht en keurig schepbaar rechtstreeks vanuit de vriezer. Het smelt dus ook behoorlijk snel, scheppen en opeten dus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dutch Liquorice Ice cream (yes really!)

Never knew it could be done until I had my first taste of a similar flavour in Sweden! Vanilla ice cream popsicle coated by a greyish-black liquorice ice.... So good! Ice cream is not something I normally crave but I walked the boys happily to the store during that holiday, want some ice cream boys? Inge over at Mangerie hunted down a recipe for liquorice ice and I love it! Moreover the boys are crazy about it as well. And the best thing is: it's so easy to make at home.

Recipe couldn't be simpler:

150 gr soft sweet liquorice (your favorite or liqourice flavored toffee)

280 gr low fat milk

120 gr. double cream

75 gr. sugar

Cut the liquorice in small pieves (or snip with scissors) and combine them with the milk in a small saucepan. Heat on low-medium and stir while the liquorice melts and combines with the milk. (looks a bit curdly but all will be well in the end) Let cool in the fridge. Once cold, whisk cream with the sugar and mix with liquorice mixture.

Proceed and follow the directions of your ice cream maker. Transfer to a suitable container and freeze overnight. This ice cream will stay soft-ish but nevertheless very delicious! Scoop and enjoy right away!

Bread Baking Babes they're multiplying: Tanta Wawa's or baking babies!

I wonder how many creepy onlookers we'll get with these kind of headlines! Of course we're not making babies, nor are we baking babies... We joined Gretchen in her kitchen this month, she drafted from her sweet memories of Peru and provided us with a recipe and a beautiful story behind the Tanta Wawa's we're baking this month.

Referring you to her post for the story and the recipe, I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment (really should have posted yesterday, oops). I just wanted to show you the arts and crafts that made my dough into eeh... well... what can I say? The one baby I thought I had fabricated was christened a bug by my sons, the whale morphed into a shark when transferred from workbench to cookie sheet and I won't even show you the lovely lady-doll that became a Dancing Derwisj during baking... Luckily there's one nice lady left.

The dough itself was dry by account of my fellow Babes, I ended up with a very soft and smooth Play-doh, guess I used more liquid and my use of a liguid butter product helped it tip over to a very soft dough. It didn't rise much. Or... didn't rise at all! Hours later not an inch! Shaped, set to proof, again... nothing. Baked and yes we have movement.

All the figurines ended up with nice full bellies -and some cracks-. The smell however was wonderful!

Peeling

pumpkin peel, originally uploaded by BakingSoda.

For the color, the lines and note to self: remember the recipe that convinced the family to eat pumpkin soup and finish the post!