cherry turnovers

The dough is made with cold vodka for its evaporative quality instead of water . It also has white sugar so that it is not so bland and powdered ginger for interest

The filling is straight cherries. Deseeded by slicing and squeezing out the pip. An entire package was used to make the filling, it seemed like too much, and all the filling used up to the last drop. 

The filling has kirsch, a cherry flavored liquor, brown sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and it also has corn starch. It seemed the cherry's pectin was insufficient to thicken on it own.

These turnovers are a failure. The process depicted above did not work. The dough contains butter initially, it must have some in it. The butter added  in slices to the surface of the dough was unsuccessfully kept separate, it incorporated into the dough instead of retaining discrete between layers so it did not matter how many times it was rolled out, nothing would change after that. As a result, when baked the dough failed to form layers of thin flakes. 

It's a bit difficult because the oven is making the kitchen warm and the dough is chilled in the freezer, so the dough is either near frozen or overly warm, there is a very small window for rolling and folding. It would be easier if I left the oven off until the end and chilled the whole room and used the refrigerator instead of the freezer. The thing is, my refrigerator is full.

But what a delicious fail. These turnovers did not last an hour. They were gone like that *snap*. It doesn't matter if the dough turns out like croissants, no, they are delicious and irresistible regardless. I do recommend these cherry turnovers while the cherries are in season. I've never had anything better. And I might do it again before the season is out and do better at keeping the butter cool. I know where I went wrong. The butter softened and I folded and rolled it out anyway in haste. 

desayunar

Pan tostado

queso filadelfia

tomate

basil

ayunar = fast,  des = against, against fast, it could have been contrarayunar, but there you go, the same thing as break+fast.

In Mexico the first meal in the morning that breaks the overnight fast is usually lighter than a full on American breakfast of eggs, toast with jam, bacon or ham, hashed browned potatoes, and coffee. Calm down. It's warm outside, and you'll be having lunch soon enough. It can be anything that is light, it needn't be a fixed thing, like milk and cereal every single day, or a Denny's style breakfast every single day like clockwork. 

This is my own splendid bread. I do not want to gum it up with gobs of sweet goo. No, this bread deserves something better than that, better than butter and fruit preserves. Plus those fruit preserves are commercially mass produced anyway. Notice how closely my topped off toast resembles a pizza. It is the perfect thing in the morning. The bread itself is substantial, and satisfying as mass produced bread cannot be. It just is.

A week ago I mentioned to a friend I hadn't bought a loaf of bread in a decade and his stunned look in response was quite comical. Actually, I did buy a loaf a few years ago, at Sam's two loaves come together, thoughtfully selected for its multi grain composition, but once home I found there was something dreadfully wrong with it. It preserved way too long and way too well. You can smash a slice back into a dough wad, and I ended up tossing both out. Boom. Right in the trash. Because that is what it is, basura. I couldn't imagine eating that stuff, even as punishment. So I lied. But actually, that purchase was a mistake, or let's say a test that failed, and in reality once I got thinking and calculating years, it's been more like two decades. Twenty years I've been making my own bread. My habit is make my own bread, and the bread I make is clearly better than anything I can buy. Significantly better. Substantially better. No brag, just fact. It just is. And at this point it is quite easy to do. There is no measurement except counting the scoops. These two slices of toast beat any commercial cereal, any commercially produced bread available due to the mass production efficiency techniques and economies of scale. And this is why American have such difficulty with weight. There is no longer a connection between healthy cereal and grain-related mass produced food products the exact same as given to cows in feedlots to quickly fatten them up, having remained lean on the range. The full array of grain-related products is bogus. In first world societies the connection with authentic human food is gone. Long gone. 

But not disappeared. 

ceviche, sashimi salad lunch

Mexican breakfast, black beans, saffron rice, fried eggs and tomato, bacon, tortillas

1 cup flour

2 T bacon grease

1 + 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/4 C water

key lime pie

This is a very small pie in a seven inch pan.

A traditional crust of flour and butter is prepared, not Graham cracker as recipes have it. Ice cold vodka is used in place of water for its evaporative quality. The surplus dough used to form entwined vines. None of that is traditional.

Crust:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 T cold butter

1 T sugar

1/8 t salt

Filling:

3 jumbo egg yolks

2 T sour cream

2 T Philadelphia cream cheese

1 14 oz tin Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

3 limes juiced

2 limes grated peel

Pie shell and decoration baked at 400 for 10 minutes

Filled pie baked at 350 for 25 minutes.

What makes this pie fun to make is observing the filling thicken the moment lime juice is added. It's magic!

But not enough to cut, it thickens to pudding consistency, and the eggs are still raw. 

The pie sets further as it cools. 

Usually the egg whites are whipped for meringue. Sometimes cream is whipped. 

This version departs from traditional recipes, it is a bit of a cheesecake, but not much. all those ingredients can be varied. There is broad margin for trial and error.

I didn't bother with a water bath. For a larger thicker pie with more cheesecake elements then I would consider doing that. 

I forgot to add grated fresh ginger, sitting right there, and that bums me out. But it goes to show you, eh, who cares?