Make Archives • Page 2 of 41 • The Rabbit Hole

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White Chocolate & Raspberry Sourdough Bread

October 21, 2022 No Comments

My journey into sourdough bread started a few years ago. But, as you know, it was in 2020 that half the planet started making bread and I went back to my adventures into the sourdough world.

The main reason why my first experiments, about 4 years ago, were not successful was because I used the method of starting a sourdough starter with the same book from which I got this recipe for a White Chocolate and Raspberry Sourdough Bread! It’s ironic but, it wasn’t until later that I realized what the main problems of my starter were, and that Paul Hollywood’s Bread book doesn’t address. Now that I’ve had an active sourdough starter for 2 years I feel confident in picking the book up again and test some of its sourdough starter recipes.

While I wouldn’t recommend it as a reference for establishing a sourdough starter from scratch, I do recognize a lot of value in the general methods for making bread and the recipes, or recipe ideas, described in the book.

Can sourdough make sweet breads?

Although the connotation of sourdough is to make a sour bread (hence the name), a flavor that is actually very characteristic and close to many of the artisan breads we have in Portugal, this dough makes very interesting sweet breads. I’ve already experienced some and I can assure you that they are sublime!

So, as the first sample of my adventures into the sourdough world I present you a very original bread with white chocolate and raspberry that will open your horizons to the possibilities of this ancient way of making bread.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Sourdough Bread

This sourdough bread is an excellent alternative to a tea cake, and is worth it on its own but also toasted with a small touch of a very good butter. The key is to use fresh raspberries… which unfortunately are not in season at the moment (but they were when I photographed this bread) because frozen raspberries bring a lot of water to the bread dough. Happily (or unfortunately), you can buy fresh raspberries almost any time of the year these days.

There are lots of “basic” artisan sourdough bread recipes out there but I recognize the interest in sharing mine in an upcoming post as well as my adventures in creating a starter from scratch, maintaining it, and the most incredible secret recipes it allows! Sounds to me like we have a new line of posts here. Anyone else interested?

Knit & Crochet, Make

Ramón, the donkey

October 13, 2022 No Comments

Ramón is a donkey!

He is an astronomer and travels around the world looking for the best places to observe the sky.

He grew up watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, Star Trek and Star Wars! This fellow donkey follows every move and launch of Space X with enthusiasm and hopes one day to be able to visit the international space station. His big dream is to create a free public observatory in the Andes so that everyone in the world can observe the galaxies, nebulae, constellations and planets that fascinate him so much.

He might invite some of his beloved friends to join him for a visit: Suzy, Hector, Lundi, Harry and Jeremias. Zé will be on his pocket, for sure!

Knit & Crochet, Make, Summer

Crochet Amigurumi named Jeremias

September 6, 2021 No Comments

I grabbed another amigurumi pattern I found in the book Animal Friends of Pica Pau by Yan Schenkel and made Jeremias, the frog!

Jeremias is a very talented amigurumi frog named after Miss Potter’s character.

He had an amazing olimpic carreer as a professional swimmer when he was a young frog. He traveled all arround the world with his team! After retiring from the olimpic games he wanted to use the amazing vocal sacs he developed as a professional swimmer. So he started to sing and training his voice instead! He met Paul McCartney who invited him to join his famous frog choir. Today Jeremias loves to pop into his crochet swimming shorts and dive into the river with his yellow fins. And then he hums some music under the summer hot sun!

Materials and a pattern review

As usual, to make Jeremias amigurumi I used cotton Catona Scheepjes yarn and simply followed the crochet pattern. I love cotton yarn crochet in summer: it’s light and cool in your hands. And I like it specially for amugurumi crochets. Plus, they are very simple and easy projects to make anywhere you go on vacations! As with the ones I already made, this crochet pattern was very easy to follow. In fact I think all Yan Schenkel Animal Friends patterns are very easy and perfect for beginners too. The thing I love the most is that they always inspire me to create a story arround the amugurumi I am making. Since I usually don’t keep them, I love to add a small story to fill their soul.

Perfect summer crochet project

After so many ocean and river swims I had, Jeremias turned out to be the perfect amugurumi crochet to end my summer season. And just in time to meet his new baby friend Lucas who may arrive anytime soon. What’s your next amigurumi project?

Cook, Preserve, Summer

Easy Homemade Pesto Recipe: done and gone!

August 9, 2021 No Comments

Homemade pesto sauce is one of the most versatile things I know. And basil is one of my favorite herbs that represents summer like no other. Who has never had a pot of basil in need of a trim after several months growing in the kitchen? Basil is an annual herb, an ingredient that appeals and brings back summer memories. It can hold up until the first days of cold weather but it will die before the freeze arrives. It’s in its genes. My basil pot had been in my kitchen for months. I grabbed a leaf here and there. With summer in full force, I couldn’t resist: I had to use it all up before lit goes wild!

I used only the traditional pesto ingredients for my pesto recipe.

At first the quantities were a guessing game until I got the version I liked the most. The improved recipe only involved a few septs. In a food processor, add a cup of fresh basil, half a cup of pine nuts roasted for 5 minutes on the stove, two cloves of garlic, extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese to taste. Then you just grind it adding more olive oil until you get the right consistency. In the end I always taste to correct the salt.

The homemade pesto sauce is ready to go!

I can’t talk enough about how good this pesto sauce is with just a good dose of wholegrain spaghetti (or other pasta really) and a few shavings of parmesan. And nothing else! Any fresh pesto pasta can go the all way from a starter dish, but it’s so good that I insist on making it as the main dish. For the more demanding ones I suggest pesto with walnuts in your pasta and more basil leaves to crunch. It’s the best!

Pesto sauce can be used in many different ways and the second best is, without a doubt, is to add it to some beautiful tomato and mozzarella cheese to a classic pesto salad for a summer picnic. But it’s also perfect as a pesto dip for crackers or nachos, in a pesto pizza, pesto gnocchi. Add it to any stuffed pasta like tortellini to a pesto pasta salad, or to a baked pesto chicken or baked pesto potatoes with a touch of lemon.

Fresh pesto sauce recipes, especially homemade pesto, should be refrigerated with an extra layer of olive oil and must be consumed within a week or two. It is certainly superior to any pesto sauce you can buy at the supermarkets. Mine only lasted about 2 days, just because it was so so good. Anyone else with a basil needing a trim?