Last night there was a fire alarm at 2 am due to a water leak over the circuits, and today was a state holiday (Patriot's Day), so we slept in a bit. Normally G and I like to go watch the marathon somewhere in Allston, but today we got a late start and I needed to do some baking to bring in to lab. So I stayed home all day, and that ended up being a good thing. We just watched the marathon on TV. We never go to the finish line anyway, because it's always so crowded, but that doesn't make us feel any less unsettled. Everyone is posting on facebook that they are fine, but I guess you have to use process of elimination, because if someone was hurt they wouldn't be posting about that... but I've decided to think that everyone I know will be ok. Walking to lab in the afternoon, the streets were packed with people walking away from Boston. No one was smiling. The sirens kept going all afternoon as the ambulances moved in and out.
I wonder if last night's fire alarm disrupted everyone's sleep enough to stop some people from watching the marathon. But probably not, because the explosions happened a full twelve-ish hours later. Our housemasters were on their way to go watch, but they got a late enough start that they didn't make it there before it happened.
Anyway, we were at home baking. Today I made:
- Tea Cakes with Earl Grey Icing, Food Network Magazine April 2010
- Linzer Cookies, Every Day with Rachael Ray April 2012
The tea cakes recipe as it is published calls for a merengue icing with earl grey tea. Since I was serving this to other people though, I didn't want to make it with dubiously-cooked egg whites, so I set out in search of a different icing recipe. I found a butter cream (linked above). It was pretty subtle, but there is a bit of earl grey flavor there. While searching for it, I found this recipe for lavender cupcakes with earl grey frosting (the same, actually) and I think that would be nice to try sometime, without the food coloring.
The chocolate cupcakes were interesting, except I didn't hear the timer go off, and the timer was set for mini-cupcake time anyway... so I think they got a bit more time than they needed, but I honestly have no idea how long they were baking for. The outside of the base got really hard though, even though the inside was soft. They looked very interesting, with a cracked top as you can see in the picture on the Food Network website. The batter is different from most cake batters, in that its ase is really the melted chocolate and butter, and there is no baking powder or other leavening agent in it. I think they were good, but I only ate one and I was distracted. I would like to make them again without over-baking them.
The cookies on the bottom shelf (which was still quite high up in the oven) also got a little overly baked. I think our oven is a little crazy. I also think I was rolling the dough a little too thin-- how much is 1/8 inch anyway? And so that could've also contributed. The dough is like a shortbread and barely sticks together-- there are no eggs. So the thin, overly-baked cookies had a tendency to break. But the taste was nice, very subtle and not too sugary, with just a hint of cinnamon. Oh, and now that I think about it I probably put ginger instead of nutmeg. Whoops. There's so little anyway you couldn't taste it. It was a fine recipe, though. I used heart-shaped cookie cutters, and I think these were bigger than the ones it called for so I only could make 1-2 dozen instad of the 3 dozen it suggests. We filled them with peach, raspberry, or orange jam.
can you find two 1/4 inch pieces of wood like a ruler or something to use under your rolling pin so it doesn't roll too thin?
ReplyDeleteThey sell rubber-band-looking things for that, I just don't have any. Actually, I misremembered-- it was supposed to be 1/8th inch, and now that I look at a ruler I think I was pretty close. I think I just needed to check on the cookies on the lower rack a few minutes earlier.
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