Baking Day

I spent 8 wonderful hours with my sister-in-law Ann yesterday baking a whole pile of goodies. We didn't get a chance to do this before Christmas. It worked out much better to do this during the yearly doldrums of January.

We made Heavenly Honey Oatmeal Bread, Chocolate Cherry Bread, Parmesan-Fennel Biscotti, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Monster Cookies, and the main thing she wanted to make, Fig Tart with Pistachio Crust.

Everything turned out, except the Chocolate Cherry bread needs another looking over and retry. It didn't rise after we mixed up the dough, and sat there like a lump for 4 hours. Consequently what we got was a deep brown chocolate cherry-flavored brick. Does cocoa kill yeast? Did my water temperature kill the yeast when we added it to the dry stuff? Yes, I used a thermometer. Or, as Ann theorized, the poor yeast never stood a chance against the weight of all the chocolate and cherries in the dough. Nahhh, I said, disregarding the written recipe amounts as I threw huge double handfuls of Callebaut dark chocolate chunks in the bowl, along with large quantities of big dried Michigan sour cherries.

I think it deserves another chance. Not willing to cut back on the chocolate and cherries, I say add more yeast!

She brought along enormous bags of ingredients from her food coop, including black Mission figs, pistachios, raisins, raw cashews and sunflower seeds. And she managed to buy a few pounds of incredibly creamy Belgian chocolate chips from Zingerman's Bakehouse, which they use in their goods but don't usually sell to customers. We piled those into the oatmeal cookies, along with plenty of cashews and sunflower seeds.

For lunch we enjoyed Liam Neeson's Glens of Antrim stew (which we just call Liam stew). I hadn't made that in a while, and even used homemade beef stock. I almost threw away all the beef trimmings and bones, but then the Depression Era spirit I quite often channel possessed me and made me see the sense of using them. I made the stew with beef (as opposed to lamb, the other option in the recipe) and most of a bottle of Château d'Oupia Minervois. We drank what I didn't use. A very nice $12 bottle of wine, one we'll be buying more of. Big, dry, and like black raspberry juice. Then Tim supplied us with other refreshments (beer) to sustain us as we worked: Brewery Ommegang 'Three Philosophers' and Newport Storm '04.

The chocolate-cherry thing we had going with the bread inspired us to concoct a 'Black Forest' martini later in the afternoon. A slug of Bailey's, a slug of Godiva chocolate liqueur, and a dash of Kirsch. It was a bit too alcoholy, so we diluted it with a little milk.

After an exhausting day of baking, eating and drinking, I was in bed just after 7pm!