I think by now you can tell its winter here, but if not, here are some more photos of food and knitting to get you in the mood!
The earflap hat is finished and very popular. I prised it off Miss A's head for a moment to take this photo. Another great Ravelry knit, if I made it again I would size it down a little for her. It will be perfect for our trip west this holidays and I might need to knit one for me.
On the food front, eclairs were made as promised on Friday and eaten soon after. They were delicious and not too much work to make though they are filled with pastry cream and topped with the most delicious icing. Miss A made all of it and I only helped a little with piping the pastry and filling them at the end... oh and the eating!
We were invited to a wonderful soup party at a friend's house yesterday so on Saturday I made my artisan no knead dough to prove overnight in the fridge. While I was baking I decided to have a go at bagels too which I'd seen people making around the blogs. These were quite a bit more work as they rise three times and then you plunge them in a pot of boiling water before you bake them. They rise like gnocchi in the pot when they are cooked and take on a great bagel like crust. They were delicious and very bagel like which was most satisfying. And they look so beautiful with their poppy and sesame seed crowns. (I used this recipe: http://novice-baker.blogspot.com/2008/11/homemade-bagels.html but I changed the molasses to golden syrup and only used one tablespoon. They were plenty sweet enough. I used plain flour rather than bread flour too, I think its called all purpose flour in the US.)
The soup party was loads of fun. Such a great idea, five delicious soups brought by different people, fresh bread and buns, brownies and Frangelico for the adults, home made pizza for the tangle of kids raging round the place, wrestling and trampolining happily and playing board games and then snuggled up under a load of blankets together at the end, watching telly.
I think I need a leaf out of your winter book. For a start, so far there hasn't been hide nor hair of those eclairs, let alone the bagels, in my neck of the woods. OK. There's been a row or two of knitting.
ReplyDeleteSummer has finally arrived here (we've just had our first few consecutive days of wonderful, scorchio sunshine... hope I'm not jinxing it!) so it's strange to read about all your wintery goodness :)
ReplyDeleteThe earflap hat looks great, the éclairs too (one of my favourite things!) and your bagels look absolutely delicious! May I ask what recipe you used?