Cookbook Project: Some lows, some highs
Maybe I got too cocky after a string of successful (read: delicious) cookbook projects. If so, a couple of my more recent experiments definitely brought me down a peg! Not that they weren’t still good, but they certainly didn’t go the way I expected.
#1. The GBBO Big Book of Baking
First up, a cookbook made by the Great British Bake Off creators, full of recipes from contestants and judges of the show. This was a housewarming gift from my friend Devon and I fully embraced how much I love the show with this project: baking kouign-amann from the GBBO cookbook while also watching GBBO on my computer!
I am trying to eat more and more vegan food, so felt like this was a relatively easy recipe to make vegan by swapping out the traditional butter for plant based butter. I’ve done this in a lot of recipes before, including other puff pastry recipes, but totally forgot to lessen the salt in the recipe to balance out the fact that my vegan butter had some salt in it. By the first fold of my pastry, I realized my mistake.
I really enjoy making puff pastry though, so I decided to keep going. I like the rhythm of rolling and folding and I love seeing the layers of dough and butter start to appear as you make it.
I also love making a mess of my kitchen counter!
Even though I knew it’d be slightly saltier than I wanted it to, I figured I could balance it out with a bit more sugar in the topping. Which did balance out the taste, but also ended up burning a bit during baking!
The calm before the overbaking, burnt sugar storm.
This image is very intentionally cropped to avoid the most burnt sections.
All in all, these actually turned out alright. The puff pastry formed all the layers as it should, and, as long as you avoided the burnt bits, the taste was great!
#2. Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads
This book has an amazing number of different bread recipes and there are so many different ones that I want to try. It even has directions to build an outdoor bread oven which may or may not be on my lifelong to-do list.
I went a little less ambitious than a full bread oven this time and chose a rosemary garlic bread instead. However, the dough was incredibly dry and I ended up adding a lot more liquid.
The rosemary and garlic definitely save this bread. It’s a bit dry, but it’s nothing that pairing it with some soup can’t fix!
#3. Ruffage
We got this cookbook as a wedding present and I really love it. I have used it for a lot of meals but, like so many other cookbooks, I tend to focus on one or two tried-and-true recipes and wanted to branch out. The squash with dukkah, dried cherries, and ricotta cheese seemed like a good choice as I’ve never actually used dukkah in my kitchen before!
I’m so happy to say I can end this post on a high note. This recipe came together so easily and was absolutely delicious. It’s just a matter of roasting the squash and then combining everything. One of the things that I really like about this cookbook is the inclusion of different variations on each recipe and I’ve definitely earmarked all the variations on this recipe to go back when I need more inspiration.
