a wolf angel is not a good angel

Last week I made the long-rise bread, after great trouble finding something to cook it in, which last night I realised was totally not a problem because I have something myself (in fact, the same thing I borrowed! but it’s in the pile of “kitchen stuff my grandmother insisted I take” which is, by and large, not useful stuff), so, ok, stupid, but whatever, now I can make the bread again.

Which I am going to, because that bread is good. It’s quite baguette-like, except in shape, which is fine, since I know how to make baguettes too, though I never do, because I can just go buy them. It’s got a great crust, and a really nice crumb. The only bad part about this bread is the amount of time you need to think ahead.

The directions sound much worse than they are. What you really need to do is:

Combine 3 cups of flour, ¼ teaspoon instant yeast (I used regular yeast and just proofed it first), 1¼ teaspoons salt with 1 5/8 cups water. Mix until it looks well mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let it sit for 18 hours. Active time: a few minutes.

When the dough has bubbles on the surface, sprinkle some flour on a surface, put the dough on it, put more flour on top of the dough, fold it into a ball, cover with the plastic wrap again, wait 15 minutes. Active time: one minute.

Make the dough into a ball. Cover with enough flour to be sure it doesn’t stick to anything (less than you’d think), put on a piece of towel, fold towel over, let sit for 2 hours or until doubled (mine didn’t double, quite, but it got in a little car accident). Active time: one minute.

Half an hour before you want to bake it, heat the oven to 450, and put some heavy pot (ideally with lid, though you can always use tinfoil instead — dutch oven, roasting pan, whatever) in to heat up with it. When oven is hot, take out pot, drop dough into pot, put back in oven with lid for 30 minutes. Take lid off, cook a further 15-30 minutes. Active time: a few minutes.

Clean up the flour you managed to get all over the kitchen. Active time: depends how much flour.

I’m making it again tonight/tomorrow.

NB: That’s the new-homed cat. She was really into carbs.

This is the best recipe ever.

Not my week for cooking.

I tried to make Tarte Tatin, and totally burnt the caramel. I’ll probably try again on Sunday, or just make a normal apple pie, I haven’t decided. But — sigh. It looked so nice. I think I’ll make cookies now instead.

Is that it makes you hungry. Not 18 hours later, when it’s normal to be hungry. No, a few hours after dinner, when you’re not normally hungry, just because you know you can’t (or are choosing not to) eat.

I swear, something I ate for dinner tonight — or my delicious sundae (I’m betting on the hot fudge sauce) — had hidden alcohol in it. Both my mother and I — despite her claims to the contrary — are drunkish. And we had nothing alcoholic, at least not deliberately.

This is very odd. But the sundae (and her milkshake) were very good.

I know, I know, who cares? But every time I looked at my pie I felt sort of stupid, but also like there was nothing in the entire world I wanted less than to eat that pie. So I stuck it in the freezer next to the raspberry pie, and I will not be making any more pies for a very long time until apple season.

But true!

I am sick of pie. I have half of a peach-strawberry pie (soup) left (as well as raspberry, but that is frozen), and I am totally disinclined to eat it (it tastes just fine, that’s not the reason). This is perhaps because I had my tropical fruit sandwich (still just as delicious!) for breakfast. Also it has cooled down, so eating things other than just pie is acceptable, and even appealing.

I had the best sandwich yesterday, and as I lie in bed unable to sleep because I am — unaccountably — starving, I realise it is so good I must share it. (Or I realise I cannot concentrate on anything because I am so hungry. But I just ate something. So I don’t really understand.) I paninied a bagel, filled with: pineapple, mango, tomato, avocado, cheese, chipotle in adobo sauce, turned into a paste. It could maybe have used spinach too. I have leftover of all the fruit, so I know what lunch is tomorrow, too.

I made strawberry peach, which was phenomenal. I have a bazillion more peaches, or so, so I will make another peach based pie. (Plain or with berries.) But I will still have a lot of peaches, so: what other things can I make with peaches?

I now have, waiting for my oven, a raspberry pie with streusel topping. Since I only had a few raspberries, it’s a small pie, so I have a second pie crust waiting to be filled. I have not decided what to fill it with. A quiche? Go to the market, pray for ripe peaches? Pray for ripe peaches AND ripe strawberries, so I can make a strawberry peach pie? Chocolate chip cookie? I’m planning on making a peach pie for Saturday. I guess it could be strawberry peach. Also there might not be fresh peaches. Though I could buy them now and wait. But do I want two peach-based pies and two berry pies? But it’s really way too hot for a non-fruit pie. Then again, a chocolate chip cookie pie would be wonderful with ice cream.

See, it’s like a puzzle, figuring all this out. A delicious, delicious puzzle.