CC seed-cake

     I have carrots. What with the biweekly veggie box, and the weekly fruit box, I seem to always have produce rotting all around me. This semester is killing me, and I'm cooking much less than I'd like. Carrots have mostly just been peeled, sliced, and cooked along with ramen for the last month. Which is a shame, because these are very pretty, Nantes carrots care of Farm Fresh to You, fresh and fragrant, with some mud still on 'em. Lovely. But I've been craving sweet, and wanting to make a traditional Seed-cake for some time. Needing to, almost. Between taking Brit Lit 2 (We're in the Victorians now) and feeling a need for slightly more healthy but reassuring foods to eat with tea while studying, I googled "Carrot tea cake" to find something a bit simpler than the big, cream cheese-frosted American-type carrot cake, and something a bit more like banana bread, or the apple cake I made a few weeks ago.

      So we're not reading Jane Eyre (pity), but rather Charlotte Brontë's hysterical sister Emily's opus Wuthering Heights. Best guess, everyone, which I prefer. Nonetheless, I have relistened to Jane Eyre, courtesy of Librivox, read by the incomparable Elizabeth Klett. I feel both stimulated and reassured by a heroine as passionate, yet outwardly calm, as the titular Jane, and elements of the novel have shown up in bits and pieces of my recent creative life, including an NPC named Helen Burns and a craving for Caraway seed cake.

 

 Jane and Helen feasting with Miss Temple. Illustration by John Huehnergarth 1954

 (brazenly stolen from another blogger making seed-cake)

      At any rate, I found a recipe on Cooks.com, and added about 3/4 tsp caraway seeds (for the classic English seed-cake flavor, probably limited somewhat by the sweetness of the grated carrot), and 1/2 tsp of chia seeds, splashed with a bit of water, since chia sucks up moisture to make that . . . gel stuff they do.

      The name? Not terribly clever - Carrot-chia seed cake. The caraway is insinuated by the fact that I'm a purist (when it suits me), and the Brontës would definitely assume caraway seeds. Shortened to 'cc' to evoke a desperately needed injection of something (2 ccs of tea cake! Stat!)

       Pictures to come. Phonecam is busted to death, and I'm not used to Hex's camera and pic-sharing stuff yet.

Challah, attempt #3 postscript

It was beautiful. Turns out, I need to watch this oven every second, or it will attempt . . . shenanigans.

The extra oil, egg glaze, and time to rise made a lovely loaf. I'm pleased to have found my ideal.

Now I need to figure a better way to burn the portion for the blessing than holding a lighter to it for ten minutes. Or stinking up the apartment by burning it to a cinder in the oven. Not to mention the waste of energy.

Pizza Stone woes

So DBF has a pizza stone. When I first saw it, it had lots of caked-on nasty and I thought to myself that I had no interest in that thing whatsoever. But I like to bake, so yesterday I took a chisel and some time on the balcony and tried to chip much of it away. Then I opened all the windows, turned on all the fans, set the oven to 500 degrees F (as high as it goes), and baked the thing for nearly two hours. I got used to the smoke smell pretty fast, but DBF was blinking back tears when he got home from work. All the other-colored stains, etc had turned black. Some were ashy black, some greasy nasty oil-black. I let it cool anf swept off all that I could.

So I want to make bread on this thing, but had no intention of wasting the time, effort and yeast on a challah braid if the bottom was going to be awful/disgusting anyway. So I whipped up a no-yeast pizza crust, brushed it with oil, sprinkled on mixed herbs and let it bake. It looks fine. It looks rather lovely, actually. The question now is whether it tastes all right. I'm worried about a smoky, ashy flavor. I can smell the smokiness, but that may just be the stupid oven itself. So I wait for it to cool a bit, then I'll check. Here's hoping!

Knitastic

So, becoming bored of/frustrated with my Mindflayer doll, I turn my eyes (and needles) to a shorter, more instantly gratifying project. The Minisweater is a vaguely Georgian/Regency looking number, a single-buttoned sweater with short, slightly poufed sleeves which ends just below the bust. Too much Jane Austen recently? Probably yes.

Plotting and planning for Changeling, cleaning the oven and pizza stone with extreme heat, going a run (I cheated a bit today. /lame) and knitting were the prime objectives of the day. And all pretty much happened. Bread will just have to be a tomorrow thing.

And I passed my Drivers' Test, so am officially temporarily licensed in California, and will get my permanent card, complete with sleepy-looking Girl Scout picture on the front.