So due to REASONS I am on mandatory bedrest. F has ordered it, Dan has ordered me to listen to F, and work has told me not to turn up for at least this week.
Dan has also suggested that bedrest should entail actual, y’know, rest. And he does not want to come home and find evidence I spent the entire day doing stuff other than chain watching Netflix. I am allowed limited productivity.
I’m going to be climbing the walls soon.
In silver lining land (a country I regard with suspicion), this allows me to do a few things that I wouldn’t have managed to fit in otherwise. We are attending a babyshower on Sunday, and, because we are hosting Friday through to Sunday morning, we were probably going to turn up empty handed. No more!
Today I mostly played with sugar work and made the salted caramel crack brownies again, only this time with some sensible guidance. The last time we made them as per the recipe they came out delicious and fudgey. However the writing around the recipe doesn’t mention “addictive” or “craving” or anything else similar. This leaves me to believe the “crack” refers to “a sudden sharp or explosive noise” rather than “a potent hard crystalline version of cocaine”.
Last time the caramel definitely didn’t crack. It mostly oozed.
So I gave it another go. Actually I gave it another two goes. The first time I foolishly used the golden caster sugar required from the recipe, completely missed the caramelisation point and burnt the sugar. Caramel should not be that dark.
The second batch was not trouble free, but was useable. By adding two tablespoons of water to the sugar I was able to caramelise it evenly. Then I whisked in the butter, salt and milk and took the mixture up to 130°C.
The problem with sugar work is often stirring. Sometimes if you stir you ruin everything. Sometimes if you don’t stir you ruin everything. Knowing when to stir is important.
I should have stirred. Obvious with hindsight what with the butter and milk in there.
The bottom of the caramel caught slightly. Fortunately what burns in sugar land usually stays in the pan, so I was able to retrieve the unburnt caramel with minimum fuss. This set into a nice snappy caramel, which was added to the brownie mix as the recipe dictated.
Brownies have now gone in the freezer using the Nigella method of freezing the whole slab still on the baking paper and double wrapping with cling then foil.
When Dan got home we made a leek and potato salad for lunches. This was also from “a modern way to eat”. Caramelised leek, new potatoes, radishes and celery for crunch and a mustard based dressing. Not sure what can go wrong there.
thegreedyguineapig 