Week 20: Doing penance with some canelés

Lemon goat cheese cookies

That's right. Week 20. If you're keeping track, you will notice that there's no entry for week 19. That's because of Too. Much. Gardening. You see, we have a reasonably sized yard. And that means there is enough space to put in just about anything that I get the notion to plant. Which is great. However, it also requires a lot of weeding, uprooting, tilling, soil amending, and plot planning. So that's what I did the previous week. I'll just have to catch up later.

Started with some lemon goat butter cookies from the Mindy Segal's "Cookie Love" cookbook. We went to Hot Chocolate a few times when we lived in Chicago, and the cookies there were definitely worth making room for (or packing up a to-go bag). I also became enamored with goat butter after my weekend gig selling butter and cheese at the Oak Park farmer's market. Lucky for me, Nordic Creamery products are distributed up here! The cookies were delicious with some excellent goat butter flavor. Next time, I would roll in even more powdered sugar (as directed by the recipe) since the cookies spreads out a decent amount.

Les canelés.
C'est trop trieste. :(

Rounding out the weekend was an attempt at canelés. This Bordeaux treat is something that I always look for at patisseries. I was first introduced to these delightful treats at Tru where, back in the day, you would be sent home with a canelé after dinner for an extra treat to enjoy at home. After having scrimped and saved for such a special meal, it was a much appreciated way to extend the meal for one last bite the next day. One of my great friends had made a foray into canelé-making many years ago, and her experiences were mixed. It seemed that silicone molds were bad and beeswax was integral to success. Lucky for me, some local friends had lived in Bordeaux for a spell and had the gorgeous copper molds on hand. I borrowed them and this was the week that I decided to have a go. It did not go well.

When one researches canelés on the internet, one gets drawn into a rabbit hole of horror stories. Not unlike the woeful tales associated with macarons. (I'm noticing a trend....) I thought I'd done some reasonable research and had insider knowledge. Even with that, however, the capricious nature of canelés still got the better of me. I had the pesky mushrooming of the batter out of the top of the molds leading to some sad, squat specimens. The second batch was better, but in my rush, I neglected to freeze the molds again. This, too, appears to be a key step. So not beautiful, but still tasty, and requiring another round at some point in the near future.

Vonnegut dropping some wisdom