We are off-island for the morning to pick up supplies (Home Depot, Maine Paint Store, Hannaford's); and since the General Store closed there is no internet on the island. We are finally working full days -- scraping, sanding, priming, painting. We run in the evening before dinner, make bread every day or two (recipe below). We've made cookies three times:
1. I was pondering our recipe, trying to decide how to improve it. Emboldened by our success at the vegan coop, Stewart (guru-like) recommended that I eschew measuring and make a batch by what looked and tasted right. I had wanted to try less butter and sugar, maybe increase the oats, but what I ended up with had in it (I think, we'll never know for sure) less sugar and flour, and the same amount of butter, which means they came out sizzling in a puddle -- fried, not sweet, chocolate chip biscuits.
2. I went to town for vegetables and left Stewart alone, during which time he resolved to stop eating cookies and to exercise more. He immediately made a 1/2 batch (adding poppy seeds and his trademark dash of cinnamon) and we have started running double what we used to (3-4 miles now).
3. I made cookies with only 3/4 of a stick of butter and a whole cup of oats (see above). They came out well, maybe a little too dry. Stewart ate and enjoyed them.
BREAD
2 tbsp sugar (brown, white or honey)
1 cup warm water (it helps to warm the bowl too)
1 tsp yeast
wait for bubbles
1 cup white flour (we try to keep the ratio of white to wheat flour 1:2)
rise 15-20 minutes (called "the sponge")
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
little things to taste (seeds, nutmeats, raisins, cinnamon)
add approx. 2 cups whole wheat flour gradually as you knead
cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 30 minutes
knead again
place in pan on a bed of oats and let rise for 30 minutes
bake at 350
Thursday, September 18
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1 comment:
the coop kitchen has seen many characters passing through in the last week, including at least 10 half batches of "coop cookies" [there must be a better name. perhaps, "one day she's fine and the next day she's vomiting cookies"] leave the oven for the wide wide world. of these 10 half batches, 8 half batches were made in a single session last thursday, destined for b&g and aramark staff.
there are both virtues and downsides to handling so much dough at one time "someone else" discovered last week. among the virtues are that a troupe of high college kids can march through the kitchen and hardly make a dent in the mountain of steaming cookies. among the downsides are that it takes over fifteen minutes to mix that much butter and that much sugar all together with one small wooden spoon. lack of proper lighting in a massive oven also in this case led to the "over cooking" and "drying out" of some unfortunate of individuals in this batch which "someone else" sincerely regrets. in a ninth and tenth batch however, cookies came out relatively pale and simply the perfect consistency (reminding one almost of shortbread) ("someone else" also doesn't get credit for baking these).
regardless, the coop will be very pleased when their namesake recipe earns a respectable name and giorgiostewmari return to 1. bake cookies, 2. take their car.
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