One is One Better than None

  The last couple of years have been deficient of morels. Oh, I've found a few but I certainly haven't needed a bag to carry them home in. I start looking about April 10 but I have found nothing ... until yesterday.

 It's a beauty, though: fresh, large, perfectly formed.

 I brought it home and  washed it and placed in a container in the refrigerator. If we only had one, I wasn't going to waste it with breading (it would disappear in the pan) but cut it into small pieces and added it to our usual Wednesday morning scrambled egg breakfast.

  The once-a-week  eggs are a treat in  themselves but with the addition of even this one morel, they're a breakfast to  remember.

 Cutting a morel longitudinally will show it's hollow nature and confirm the identification (I've hunted them so many years I have no fear; a morel is quite distinctive).

 I always make our scrambled eggs with five eggs (two and a half for each of us isn't excessive) and I added the pieces of mushroom while I heated the pan. The eggs take on a different  scent with the addition of the morel: earthy, even sensual.

 I called Tom at 7:30 AM and he came down a few minutes later and we enjoyed our special breakfast.

 I remember my grandfather collecting morels by the bushel-basketful in Bear Lake, Michigan. Each of those put mine to shame, They'd bring extras home,  too. Grandma would wash them and somehow prepare them for the 450 mile trip home. We'd get together and have a repast fit for a king.

 That was later in the spring, of course. Maybe May 10. Eventually he got too old to hunt but Mom  and I would find some locally every spring. Now it's up to me.

 I think of that one this way:  One isn't much but one is one better than none.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

  My supply of homemade bread was all but gone so I knew I either had to add bread to tomorrow's grocery list or make more of my own. I had time yesterday and thought I'd make a  recipe labeled Soft Cinnamon Swirl Bread. I no longer find it listed on Taste of Home but another recipe - minus the "Soft" - is identical.

 The new recipe can be found here.

 I preferred how the original recipe separated ingredients for the bread and for the Cinnamon-sugar swirl. But it's all here just the same.

 The dough was stiff enough (even with using just 5-1/2 cups of flour) that it was difficult to roll it into two 18" x 8" rectangles. So the swirls were more concentrated, I'm sure it tastes just the  same, though.

 For once I managed two  fairly equal-sized loaves. They browned beautifully in half an hour. I generally tap on the tops and if they return a hollow sound, they're done. Of course the perfect browning of the crust is a give-away,  too.

 I prefer making bread by hand vs. using a bread maker. I love the feel of dough and I can generally tell how well it's coming along just by touch.

 The taste? Delicious, of course.

Later [05/04/22]: I've been eating one loaf and froze the other. Now that I've sliced it I see that it's the prettier of the two. Have a look ...

Homemade Vanilla Pudding

  When I was at the grocery on Friday I picked up a small carton of red raspberries to serve with the Panna Cotta I made a few days ago. The only trouble was, I had forgotten that we finished the Panna Cotta, So what to do?

 I have some commercial rice pudding in the refrigerator but when I offer it to Tom he always declines.

 How about I make some vanilla pudding? I found a recipe for Homemade  Vanilla Pudding at Allrecipes.com.  Click here for the link.

 I probably made two mistakes. First, I had leftover heavy cream from the Panna Cotta  and wanted to use it so rather than all milk I used about 1-3/4 cups of the heavy cream and rounded out the two cups with milk. Of course that was a bit rich and it was certainly thicker than needed.

 I also went ahead and added a little more than the three tablespoons of corn starch because I knew I wanted the pudding to  set up well.

 I did. Too well.

 Other than the  pudding being quite a bit more stiff that I'd have liked, it's quite good. Next time I'll use just regular milk and limit my use of the corn starch.

 This recipe seems to me to perfect for modification of the basic flavor. A little butterscotch flavoring would be great as would the addition of cocoa. And what about adding instant coffee? Those are suggestions I'll try in the near future.

 

Panna cotta (again)

  It's simple and it's good. Those are two important points when considering what dessert to make next.

 I've made it twice: a basic vanilla on 11-13-21 and then a peppermint on 12-11-22. Both are noted in a single blog which you can find here. The recipe I used is linked there as  well.

 I  wish heavy cream could be bought in a 20 ounce container because leftover cream is not something I can readily use (I like my coffee black), I recently picked up a 32 ounce container so the 12 ounces I have left might be a problem. I suppose I could make 60% of a recipe and finish it up that way?

 It's a  simple matter to boil the heavy cream with sugar added. I mixed the gelatin and milk (I just use regular milk, not skim) in a small measuring cup and add it when the cream comes to a boil  The additional minute cooking time is about the quickest anything  can be done on a stove.

 The vanilla is added and stirred in just before the mixture is placed into ramekins.

 I filled four small ramekins and then placed the leftover in two larger dessert bowls.  The other ramekins I have are much  too small to be useful. Who wants to sit down to two bites of something this delicious?

I should note that  the Panna cotta does not set up until it is chilled in the refrigerator. It'll thicken a bit as it cools on the kitchen  shelf but it won't really set until it's been in the refrigerator overnight.

 This isn't a dessert for the calorie conscious. Heavy cream is about 408 calories for 1/2 cup. Since this recipe calls for 2-1/2 cups of heavy cream, that's 2400 calories just for the cream. The skim milk (had I used it) is inconsequential but the sugar adds nearly another 400 calories. So I figure that this entire  recipe is about 2800 calories.

 It's definitely elegant and delicious but not one to have every day.

Amish White Bread (again)

  I just made this recipe this past November (click here) and when I decided to make bread today I pulled that recipe from the file. A link to the recipe is on the page noted above.

 I don't know that it's foolproof but it seems pretty close. I let it rise the first time about an hour and 15 minutes and the second time for 45 minutes. That's a bit longer than the recipe suggests. But unlike the breads I've proofed too long, this one didn't collapse when baked.

 I think the best guide it to allow the dough to double on the first rise and rise about an inch above the pan during the second.

 The texture turned out perfectly.

 Breakfast! I used up the last of the strawberry preserves on the slice in the rear and the slice in the foreground is about to get a healthy dose of peach preserves from the jar I just opened.

 This is how the dough looks after kneading. The texture is soft and wonderful to handle. Unlike some bread doughs I've worked with, it is not sticky and can be kneaded on a pastry cloth without fear of gumming it up.

 After the first rise the dough has a bit of moisture to it. I added a quick dusting of flour to the pastry cloth and worked it easily. After a quick knead, I divided it in half and placed it into two loaf pans.

 At the end of 30 minutes the bread was perfectly baked. Rapping the top gives a hollow sound, just as it should. This crust is quite soft compared to some I have made.

 I was thinking of sprinkling some rolled oats on the top but then though I'd just let things stay natural. The one load had a slight imperfection when I placed it in the pan but I've always liked that effect. It s says "homemade".

 The taste? Perfection.