I must confess though, afternoons suck sometimes! I had just completed my blog entry for today, and had gotten my final photo prepped to upload, and POOF! There goes my post into cyberspace....Damn! Fortunately, I am as stubborn as an aged donkey, AND a flyfisherman: So I know all about patience, and try,try, and try again! The only bummer though, is as I go along sometimes, I come up with wise-ass comments that will be lost, in the moment they vanished, to be replaced by similar, apropos W-A remarks. Still, it's always a shame to waste sarcasm. I digress (nothing new there), I realized as my evening began, that I was still riding the "Almond Diva" euphoria train! My blogmate, SunnyD, who lavished me with compliments, after her namesake cookie was created, was giving me a fat head. I decided to follow up the cookie with another nut-inspired item: The raspberry-nut crumble cake: If I had to describe it, I would liken it to those Entenmanns (sp?) coffee cakes that sometimes boasted a cheese filling. delicious, and sweetly satisfying. This one however, featured a layer of toasted crushed nuts, sweet butter, and another layer of raspberry preserves, with a topper of streusel....Mmm mmm good! Cakey, moist and gooily sweet.
After discussing it briefly with my boss, we decided Spingi would hit the display shelves again....I made up a batch of dough and fashioned some coconut and Saigon cinnamon units. I like the Saigon cinnamon....It has such punch and "Je ne sais quoi, elan, perhaps?" Here is how the Spingi work station looks: Primitive, but pragmatic.
Bread, as always, is on my "to do list", without force-feeding you, "a la gavage", I give you some items that our minibus-sized oven spat out:
During the evening, as I shuttled back and forth, between mixer and oven and fridge and freezer and back to.....Ohforget it! Whilst buzzing about last night, I couldn't help but notice this little something out of the corner of my eye: Now, if you're a dohhead, like yours truly, then a properly prepared food/food item, will always elicit a reaction, or second glance. Lately, I have been fashioning a lot of apple strudel. One of my personal "must haves" for a good strudel, is a flaky outer layer. The filling is critical, but one can achieve a very adequate product with a simple, basic filling....If the pastry is KILLER! Read: Flaky. As I passed my cooling rack, I couldn't help but notice this little pastry end, left all by her lonesome on a tray. I have personalized this little piece of strudel pastry, because she was a thing of loveliness in an altogether simplistic, rudimentary way. She had a beautiful, caramel brown outer layer, with a silky smooth, and glistening inner self. She beckoned to me, at first, and then her soft cries became more pronounced: "Eat me", she whispered. I paid no heed, initially, but her whispers became cries, "Eat me, now". I tried to carry on with my work, but my entire focus became galvanized on this one, solitary piece of pastry. Finally, I could resist her pleadings no longer....I ate her. There, I've said it, now my boss knows, my readers know: My name is dohhead, and I am a "strudelophile". Here she is, er, was:
A little more "puff porn", I don't even know what to call these: Puff squares, "vol au vent" style, filled with a caramel custard, and finished with some dark chocolate curls, and creme chantilly.
I hope this little Saturday trip down lunacy lane has been just that, a trip. I'm out.
