More of the weekend

[magid]

Somehow rainy days like this always make me want to bake something, or at least have a pot of soup simmering on the stove. Oh, to curl up with a book, too (more on that later).

I decided that the easiest baking would be some kind of flavored bread. I have some cinnamon dried apple rings, so I thought cinnamon-apple-walnut bread would be nice. But if I did that, I'd want to use apple juice, and I don't have any in the house just now. But I do have cranberry juice, and dried cranberries. So I decided to make cinnamon cran-apple bread instead.

I made a regular white flour dough, but added a bunch of cinnamon, a bit of sugar, and used cranberry juice instead of water. I hadn't been thinking clearly, though, and opened the bottle that had been in the fridge, so instead of a nice warm liquid for the yeasties to multiply in, they had a bit more of a challenge. I thought the dough would be pink, at least, but it wasn't; more of a light tan color.

When the dough was rising, I soaked the dried cranberries and chopped up cinnamon apple rings in hot water. There was plenty of time, and they absorbed most of it.

I punched the dough down a bit earlier than I might've; my plans were still in flux, and I wanted the bread done. I rolled it out to a biggish size, put some more cinnamon and sugar on it, then all the now-softer fruit. I was careful in rolling it up, so the fruit would stay distributed, rather than clump at one end.

I baked it, and yet again some of the fruit escaped. It occurred to me later that this could be remedied if I used bread pans (nowhere for the fruit to go to...). Of course, that would mean buying bread pans, and storing bread pans, so I'm unlikely to do it. But it did make me feel better to think about it.

It had cooled enough to eat when I got back from my walkabout. I cut in, and am mostly pleased with how it came out. The cinnamon is the primary flavor in the dough; I don't think I'd figure out that there was juice in there at all. The swirl of fruit stayed in place, and is nice and thick. The dough in the middle is a just tad undercooked for my taste, but all in all, quite decent.

I wonder what flavor I'll make next....

I didn't buy HP5 at midnight on Shabbat (no surprise), nor did I preorder it. Instead, I walked into Harvard Square this afternoon, questing. I was lucky enough to go during one of the just-raining times, not a downpour at all. Yet again I realized how much of a mental block I can have about going out in the rain, even though it's really nice once I get outside (As long as I don't have to deal with wet socks, I'm happy.).

Harvard Book Store had sold out yesterday afternoon, and were expecting more tomorrow. I went along to Pandemonium, where they had four copies left (now three... :-). And as long as I was there... I remembered reading about a new book by Joan Aiken having just come out, and I snagged their last copy. And I finally succumbed and got a copy of Holes. And while I was there, yet another Joan Aiken. Somehow I managed to resist getting any DWJ, I'm not sure how. And I had a lovely chat with the guy at the store, too. I think I'm supposed to bring him bread next time. And I found out that I'm not the only book cover snob out there, either :-).

And so this afternoon has been spent reading. Nope, haven't cracked HP5 just yet. Two of the others are history, though... Perfect for a rainy Sunday: freshly baked stuff and new books to curl up with (and thunder every once in a while, too).

Contentment.

Comments

[gingicat]

I've been finding that a combination of just-brewed-still-hot fruity herbal tea and refrigerated juice makes a pretty good yeast-growing medium. :)

Was the new Joan Aiken "Midnight Nightingales"? My sister loaned me that today, and I finished it. Quite good, though I think she's gotten formulaic.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't think about tea, since I knew I didn't have any straight apple, cinnamon, and/or cranberry....

Yup, it was Midnight Nightingales. I enjoyed it, but not as much as some of the earlier ones. Some of that was that there was a lot less for Dido to actually do/figure out. Some of that was all the little bits and pieces that don't quite jive with the other books (most of which I've reasonably recently reread, so things were fresh in mind), little details that annoy. Some of it is how quickly there's a new enemy group, now that the Hanoverians were mostly wiped out, just a few months before. So yeah, I'm less enchanted with them. I wish she'd write something new, even if it's in that same world.