reconnections

today's potluck party presented me with a few opportunities, chief among them the opportunity to use up some butter, cornmeal, frozen pie doughs...

this was my first attempt at dorie's shortbread cookies. the trick, she says, is to cream the butter and sugar until smooth, but not light and fluffy. i think i overdid this with the mixer.
so anyhow, this is dorie's clever method for getting equal-sized cookies. you put the dough into a ziploc, roll it out, seal it, refrigerate, and cut.
the evidence that i over-creamed the butter: the cookies puffed a lot during baking and flattened out upon cooling. so, they didn't keep their thick slab shapes.
just see how greasy they are - all that butter that leaked out during the baking. still, the cookies were delicious and crunchy. rich, buttery, like a much better sunshine cookie.

then i made an apple pie. the crust is an adaptation of my CIA recipe, using some whole-wheat flour. the filling comes from dorie's book.
i managed to get through the whole pie assembly without much problems. the CIA pie dough usually tears very easily, and indeed i was working fast to get it done before all the dough softened completely.
i think a semi-whole-wheat pie crust makes me feel a bit more redeemed than a white one. it's like you know how much butter - fat - you're eating, but you know that bit of whole-wheat is good for you. the apple filling was nice, not as sweet as the previous apple pies from CIA.

and finally, the birthday cake. this is the old-fashioned chocolate cake from nigella's feast.
the cake batter is easily/simply/quickly made in a food processor. and it's so extremely thick and creamy it's almost like a frosting. (and very delicious to eat too, though there are raw eggs inside.)
the icing is also a doddle to make. just blitz in the food processor too. the sour cream made it just a little tangy.
this might very well be the first cake i successfully iced. the seibu doesn't really count, because the 'icing' for that was whipped cream, which i don't even think is a real icing. all the other cakes i tried to ice have gone somewhat awry, maybe except the chocolate chantilly torte. nigella's sour cream chocolate icing, however, is a dream to work with. it is just the right firmness for spreading on the cakes.
so there, a beautiful one.

two years ago, at our lockers, sonya gave us a taste of pomegranate. i think it was during one of our major examinations period. anyhow, i happened to see them for sale, and bought two.
after struggling to get all the seeds out, sonya told me the trick is to soak it in cold water. and the seeds will come off.

last year i started the nigella sourdough starter, when i was in my bread phase. it's almost a year on now, i'm still keeping the sourdough starter alive. it is my baby.