Buttermilk baking binge

You know how it is. You have a litre of buttermilk in your fridge, and you've meant to use it. And suddenly, it's at its expiry date, so you gotta use it fast.

Welcome to my Thursday night.

Oh, I'll come clean, I had wanted to do baking tonight anyway. Souffles aside, it had been far too long since last I really baked. And, sadly, the rustiness showed.

Conrad cooked dinner for me. Yes, it was his specialty: turkey burgers. And yes, I did make the (simple) salad dressing - oooh, try this: just toss the salad with a little plain low fat yogurt, salt, and pepper. Easy, breezy, yummy salad dressing! In any case, he did this for me since I was so late home from work. As if I didn't have reason enough to love him.

Dinner done, I settled into the kitchen. Before dinner I'd looked up a few recipes using buttermilk, so a few things - the cakes - were new to me tonight. I put on some CanCon and got to work. Jane, Kate and Anna, Holly Cole, Rufus, Martha, the Ladies, kd, and others: ahhhhhh....

First up: get some lightly sweet pastry made and put into the fridge to rest. Not a problem doing it, but I'm not happy with the result. More shortly.

Next up: warm sour apple and buttermilk torte. That's the recipe name, but I suspect it will be served up room temperature at either Conrad's office or the Library tomorrow. An easy enough recipe, and the apples atop the cake do look attractive. The texture seems light, though I had hoped it would rise a little more. Ah well. Pretty simple cake otherwise.

Then: jam tartlets. Damson plum and raspberry. These things are popular at work, and I haven't made them in ages. I decided I was burned out on blackberry after the souffles, and I only had a little of my precious Saskatoon berry jam, so the two flavours are what resulted. Now then, the pastry: I think I used too little butter in it (and yes, Steven, I know lard makes pastry best, but butter is what I had on hand). It all held together and wasn't too wet, but I think it became easily overworked. The tartlets are alright. I ate one (and ugh - how much dough/batter did I consume tonight? Far too much. Bad Peter!) and thought it too crispy, not flaky or rich. Butter does that, I know, makes things crisp, but I think some more butter would have been better. Am I getting too alliterative here? The other concern is that the filling is a little skimpy. The jam boils up during the baking, and if it overflows the pastry, it's a real nuisance to clean up, let alone try to fish an intact tartlet out of the tin. I haven't made them in a while, and my eyeballing abilities have atrophied.

I took the leftover scraps of pastry I hadn't eaten and made something like what my Mum used to do. She called it an eccles cake and filled it with raisins, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I had some apple slices leftover from the first cake, so I diced them and used them in place of the raisins. A misshapen little thing, but it should taste alright. I've had eccles cakes from bakeries in Canada and the UK - they aren't exactly like Mum would make.

After that: a maple buttermilk spice cake. Not sure how this one will be. I think I may have had it in a bit long as well, for the cake seems a bit dense and, well, solid. We'll see. I have yet to unmold that one.

And then: two simple buttermilk cakes that are meant to be brushed liberally with a syrup made from sweet dessert wine and topped with macerated berries. Not tonight. Two cake layers, each of which I will wrap and freeze and use for a furture casual dinner party when I can dress one or both with a syrup, some cream, some fruit, whatever. Maybe a wedge alongside poached pears?

Finally: chocolate chip and candied ginger scones, something to honour the good mornings back in Terrace when I would show up at Skeena Jr. Secondary with some fresh from the oven to give to my friend Greer on her break. I hope she made the other teachers jealous! Man, I am rusty. I forgot that I had adjusted the recipe to make twelve rather than ten, so these scones are big! I think they turned out well. Jeph received his copy of the cookbook I use for them today. May he give them a go and play with other combos of things for them rather than the currants in the recipe.

And that, my friends, used the entire litre exactly. Conrad did have to run to the store downstairs for eggs, but ah well.

Ah, and just to brag a little (oh let me - I have the tartlets' pastry to keep me humble!): I got all this baked AND clean up done by 10:20. As one thing was baking, the next was being mixed and put in the pans. So, a pat on the back to me, and let's hope that people tomorrow like what they're snacking on!