November 2023 – The Solo Geographer

Turkey Trots and Cranberry Pies.

Catherine makes a pie with a couple mistakes but is still tasty. She also ran a 5k.

Thursday was Thanksgiving in the United States! We had a good time in my family. My sister was able to fly out, and we had brunch and also turkey dinner.

I also ran a 5K Turkey Trot because I am, last I checked, completely weird. Well, not the Turkey Trot part, actually, because it’s one of the most popular race days in the United States. But the fact that I ran it alone, and also ran it competitively. I mean, the only competitor was myself, but it counts.

As you can see, I had a blast.

No, actually, I did enjoy it! I just got a new phone without a headphone jack, and I forgot to grab the proper headphones, so I ran the entire 3.1 miles without music. It was kind of fun hearing other people’s conversations as I weaved around the slowpokes. I also managed to PR, and finished the race with a time of 31:05. That beat out my former Personal Best by 21 seconds. I would have definitely run it faster if it weren’t for the fact that the race was VERY hilly, including a killer hill at the very end. They’re making us work for our Thanksgiving dinner!

They gave us doughnuts at the end so I can’t complain.

Wednesday night I started making a pie from my cookbook! The one I mentioned a few entries back. I saw there was a recipe for cranberry nut pie, and figured it might make a good thanksgiving treat. Even though I don’t care for cranberries, other people in my family do so I made it

Cranberries and water

Sugar.

Tasty

I’ve never cooked cranberries on my own before (again, I don’t care for them) so it was fun doing something new.

I actually somewhat misread the directions, as I was supposed to get the sauce to boiling and then adding other ingredients. But I cooked it down somewhat and then added everything but it ended up being fine. I used orange zest, flour, orange juice (squeezed from the orange I got the zest from), corn syrup, and pecans. The recipe called for walnuts but my mom wanted pecans. So I added all this, let it cook a bit longer, and then let it cool

Then it was time to make the dough! Now, I used All Purpose FLour, and we determined that next time I’m going to use pastry flour. The gluten over activated and the crust was pretty hard. But I’m sure it’ll be good if I try this crust recipe again.

COLD butter.

This Pastry cutter saved my life when I finally bought it.

Ya gotta get your hands in there and make sure the butter chunks are the right size! I somehow missed photos of me adding water a bit at a time. COLD water.

This was a beast to roll out.

Eh, it works.

I was so hyper focused on getting the lattice right that I forgot to get pictures of the process. You can also see where one of the strips broke, but eh, it’s just getting eaten. I put it in the fridge to back on Thanksgiving.

I was so out of it I forgot to egg wash or milk wash the crust and sprinkle sugar. It didn’t matter too much, the crust was way too hard. HOWEVER it wasn’t BAD tasting. And I got two thumbs up for the filling! It was a hit. SO I think with a proper crust it would be amazing. My mom even wants to see about adapting it for the bakery!

Who needs to cut a proper slice? Hehe.

I did not try it, though I meant to (in spite of my dislike of cranberries). I just tried a bit of the crust. And I’m writing this at the airport as I”m about to jet off on a 3 week adventure so I won’t get to try it. This time!!

Hopefully my next update will be something super cool about where I’m traveling too. Have a good weekend, friends!

Shaker Herb Bread? Yes, Please.

I like bread.

I dunno what this is, but it looks pretty bizarre, and that’s what I’m about.

(okay, it’s an illustration from an herbal from 15th century Italy. Not as weird as the Voynich manuscript though).

Herbal, herbs, close enough! I made herb bread today. My book calls it Shaker Herb Bread, so it most likely was developed from a recipe that the Shakers used for their bread. Those Shakers had some good stuff. Flat brooms, Herb Bread, weird religious beliefs (okay maybe not that one). It’s all there!

First things first, my yeast! Since I got a new kettle this summer, I can control the temperature of the water much more easily. I actually set it on the lowest setting, and then pulled the water off once it hit 100F. I then sprinkled the yeast on it. I set it aside as I scalded the milk and it bubbled beautifully.

That foam! That foam I tell you!

I actually used up all my whole milk for ice cream so I had to use 1%. Shame. I was gonna be lazy and scald in in the microwave but I figured I’d go old school. You heat it up until it just starts to bubble. the end. Scalding is easy.

I actually had to cool down the milk somewhat, so I stuck it in the freezer and then creamed sugar with melted butter and the salt.

Eggs.

MY FOAMY YEAST.

I then took all purpose flower and mixed it with rosemary, sage, and oregano. Only a 1/4 tsp for each, but it packs quite a punch!

I added the flour a bit at a time until it incorporated. I used the paddle attachment for almost the entire process because I’ve realized that trying to incorporate the yeast with the dough hook does NOT work. And once the dough got too stiff I pulled out the ol’ standy by.

That’s right, my ol’ mitts. I really got in there and kneaded the rest of the flour in so that it would be mostly incorporated when I put the dough hook attachment on.

I’d actually halved the recipe the day before and it didn’t turn out. There are several factors as to why, but I decided to do the recipe as written and really be careful. What this photo shows is the window pane test. You want to make sure the gluten is properly activated. So you pinch off a piece of dough and spread it out like this. If you can see through it without it breaking, your gluten is goin’ strong.

Dough has risen.

PUNCH.

I then separated the dough into two loaves.

And I divided them unevenly. My dad, “Don’t you have a scale?”
“Yes, I do, I was just lazy.”

Judge me, it’s fine.

It’s too cold in my house for dough to rise properly so my oven-turned-proofbox it is!

Ah there we go. BTW these new bread tins are so nice! My dad got them for me. THey’re also tall.

Brushed a little butter on the tops. By the way, I HATE silicone brushes but they’re much more sanitary than actual brushes.

Pretty! They didn’t rise as much as I thought in the oven (They might have even collapsed slightly) so I was pretty upset with how dense they were. Then we tasted them and they were really good, so I think they’re supposed to be dense loaves. The recipe book didn’t say one way or the other but they make FIRE toast.

The crumb structure isn’t gummy, just a bit dense, but it’s tasty and that’s all that matters! Some breads aren’t gonna be as fluffy as a plain white bread you get at the store. And the herbs really sell the flavor of this. It’d make a good sandwich bread too, and oh I bet a bit of tangy mustard would be great with a turkey sandwich and a mild cheese!

Also, my house smelled AMAZING while I was baking!

So yes, another good recipe I’ll have to make a gain! I wonder if it would rise more during summer. I can certainly try!

I have one more recipe I’m going to bake before my big trip, and that’s for thanksgiving. Keep your eyes peeled, my friends! And then on November 26th I’m heading off on an adventure! I hope to be able to update the blog as I go so I’m looking forward to it! Have a good holiday week!

I guess they can’t all be winners

But I can certainly make pudding out of persimmons.

I actually made this bread last week, but work got very busy, as did everything else. I’m running a half marathon on Sunday, so I’ve been very wrapped up in training. Also registering for Graduate School, preparing for my 3 week long trip abroad… it’s no wonder I haven’t had much time!

Okay so my recipe this time was persimmon bread. Reading the recipe I was excited because it was so similar to the pumpkin loaf that was so delicious. But then… tragedy. There was literally no sugar anywhere in the recipe. And Persimmons aren’t as sweet as say, apples or something. But I decided mmmm, maybe it’ll be good. So I got super excited when I saw fuyu persimmons at Fresh Thyme (a grocery chain that’s similar to Whole Foods but maybe less bougie? IDK I’ve been to Whole Foods like twice in my entire life). I bought four and winced that it cost over $12 but soldiered on.

First things first I had to make persimmon puree, which the recipe did not instruct me on. I found a method online and this is what I did. I took the 4 persimmons and cut off the leaves and quartered them.

Prince REALLY wanted to photobomb. Plz ignore the mess on the floor my life is in shambles.

I put the pieces of persimmon into my crock pot and put enough water in to not-quite submerge the fruit. I also dumped in some cinnamon. I left it to stew for 6 hours.

Once they were soft, I drained them, then put a strainer over a bowl.

Boil ’em mash ’em stick ’em in a bread.

The pulp was being difficult so I pulled out the trusty immersion blender I “borrowed” from my mom. Then it was ready for the bread.

Flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Separately, I put in a cup of persimmon puree. I still had 2 cups leftover, but it was tasty so I thought I’d just eat it like applesauce later. I did not.

Lots of oil. Don’t tell the recipe blog commenters.

Eggs and melted butter.

So of course the butter seized because it was warm and the eggs were cold so I actually used the immersion blender again.

Then I started mixing in the flour mixture.

All mixed up and ready to bake.

I was roasting some bell peppers for dinner, please ignore those. Unless you like them, I don’t know your life.

So I baked it for over an hour and when I took it out, it looked okay. I let it cool for awhile and tried a bite. I did not get photos because it was Not. Good. Like, it wasn’t gagging me, but it did not taste like persimmons and it just tasted like boring quick bread with none of the fun stuff like sugar or flavor.

I wasn’t even upset when Nubie got into the bread because I knew I wouldn’t eat it. The loaf got tossed. I still had those 2 cups of persimmon pulp/puree left. The next day after this bread failure, I opened Chrome and saw a recommended article. It was for persimmon pudding. I read the article, interested, and realized it was less custard pudding (or snackpack puddings) and it was a baked pudding, closer to bread pudding.

I figured, why not! I had just enough pumpkin puree left and I like baked puddings. So I made it. And Reader, it was good!

It filled a whole casserole dish!

I took it to my folks’ house to try and I brought whipped cream.

It had a more mild flavor, but the sugar really helped. The whipped cream gave it a good contrast. It’s best warm. Even though the bread was very disappointing, at least I got something very nice after everything! Here is the recipe I used for the pudding: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/the-lasting-legacy-of-old-fashioned-persimmon-pudding/

Next week I hope to bake some good ol’ fashioned yeast bread, so stay tuned! I’m also hoping to bake a pie for Thanksgiving, so I’ll blog about that too since it’s from the old fashioned pie cookbook. Have a good weekend!