Thursday, July 5, 2007

Baking Forecasting / Prévision Culinaire

Apricot


ARIES
(March 21 –April 19)
Organization has never been your thing.
- How dare you! You don’t know me, I mean; yes …I can be…sometimes…but not always.
Your ruler; Mars, is driving you to get the big stuff done- like finding the perfect pair of furry boots, or getting your MySpace profile just right.
- Note the signification of “The big stuff”! We are in July; I don’t think I would need some furry boots. As for MySpace profile, I don’t have one anyway.
You’ll be quite accomplished in 28 days’ time.
- It will take that long! Why not 26 days? Does it have to do with my lack of organization? What should I do in the meantime? Sleep!
You’ll also be more intense than usual. A pleasantly casual hookup? Not on the schedule this month.
- Wait a second: you first accuse me of being disorganized, and then superficial, then slow and now you say that I am “intense!” What does it mean? Do you have something against Aries? And for your information, I am married so back up couple breaker!

Apricots- Nuts Bread

Here is how I would rewrite my own, personalized Horoscope of the week:

ARIES
(March 21 –April 19)
As the week begins, you will feel the need to get things done, to battle the winds, read your forgotten Marguerite Duras’ books and go back to the gym, something you have been talking about 3 months ago, but don’t wait too long as the weather man has predicted some rain for Tuesday and Wednesday and being active during bad weather has never been your thing. We don’t say this often, but it’s time to look like a woman a little bit, a little make up doesn’t hurt! Make a trip to the store near you where they have 75% sale on select cosmetics. A steal!
Tuesday will be your day of great baking achievement. You will finally make the apricot-nuts bread of your dreams that wasn’t that good a couple of weeks ago. At least now you know that starting to bake something, without making sure that you have all the ingredients is stupid; and why we said previously that organization has never been your thing!

Apricots-Nuts Bread

Apricot- Nuts Bread


Recipe:
- 1 ½ cups plain flour
- ½ cup rye flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- ½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
- 1 tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped
- 12 dried apricots, diced
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup whole milk

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 350F. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
Stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, zest, ginger, apricots and nuts. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, brown sugar, butter, and milk. Beat just until blended. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches and mix just until mixed. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula, which you lightly wet (it helps a lot). Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, 55-60 min. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool, first 5 min n the pan, then turn it out onto the rack and cool completely. You can store it in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or freeze it for up to a month.

Pain d’Abricots et de noix

Slices Of It


In francais please:
- 235g de farine
- 75g de farine de seigle
- 1 ½ tsp de levure chimique
- ½ c.c de bicarbonate de soude
- ¼ tsp de sel
- 1 c.s de zest de citron
- 60g de noix, grilles legerement et hachees
- 1 c.s de gingembre crystalise, hache
- 12 abricots secs, coupes en des
- 1 c.s de graines de tournesol
- 2 gros oeufs
- 185g de sucre brun
- 90g de beurre, fondu
- 125ml de lait entier

Positionner votre grille au milieu du four et prechauffer a 180C. Beurrer une moule a cake de 23 cm de longueur sur 13 cm de largeur.
Melanger ensemble les farines, la levure chimique, la bicarbonate de soude, le sel, le zest, le gingembre, les abricots et les noix. Mettre de cote.
Dans un grand bol, melanger les oeufs, le sucre brun, le beurre et le lait jusqu’a ce que le mélange soit homogene. Ajouter les ingredients secs en 3 fois et melanger jusqu’a incorporation complete. Eviter de trop melanger.
Mettre votre pate dans le moule a cake prepare et lisser la surface avec une spatule en caoutchouc ou une cuillere en bois, que vous mouillez legerement. Faire cuire jusqu’a ce qu’un cure-dent insere dans le pain en ressorte propre, 55-60 min.
Laisser votre pain refroidir sur une grille a patisserie, d’abord 5 min dans le moule puis demouler et laisser refroidir completement sur la grille. Le pain se garde parfaitement dans une boite hermetique a temperature ambiante, pendant 2 a 3 jours comme il peut etre congele jusqu’a 1 mois.

Pause Chocolat chaud

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are too funny! I love your rewritten horoscope. Can you rewrite mine too? I need a better one!

sher said...

Beautiful pictures and hilarious post! Thank you!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I'm laughing! And wishing some of your apricot nut bread was sitting on my kitchen counter.

Nora B. said...

Rose, you have such a great sense of humour! I enjoyed reading that and also the photos. This recipe looks great - stone fruits are not in season for us down under so I was happy to see that this recipe uses dried apricots. Thanks!

Claude-Olivier Marti said...

ahhhh je comprends plus rien, je suis de retour en suisse mais c'est en anglais ;-) j'adore ta première photo !!!

biz

Jerry said...

Bright ideas as usual! Love apricots sounds like a great bread!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I'm really liking the originality in this post Rose! At least rye flour in a nut bread is a new one to me but seems instantly perfect with the nuts and seeds! I'm really liking this one.
Now about your Horoscope rewriting, I'm Scorpio, and I think I could use rewrite.
Excellent!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Rose, I'm a total sucker for apricots - this bread in insanely beautiful!

I think you can be as disorganized and you want, sweetie, as long as delicious things like this are coming out of your kitchen!! :)

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

I'm Aries too and scarily, I think you must know me. Though it would be a different book. That apricot nut bread sounds superb.

wheresmymind said...

Beautiful pictures today...I really dig :)

Shaun said...

Rose - My angelheart Eric would get a laugh out of your horoscope reaction and revision, for he, too, is an Aries (but, to support the stereotype, he is a little impatient and he can't multi-task, but I do these things well because I'm a "boring, strait-laced" Capricorn, or so astrologists say). It seems this must be a good summer for apricots in the US because a lot of foodies are actually bothering to write about them. I look forward to buying some next week when I return to the States. I love pairing fruits and nuts, so this cake is especially appealing.

Warda said...

- Kristen: Thank you very much. Just give me your sign of the zodiac and I'll do the rest.
- Thank you very much Sher
- I am glad I made you augh Lydia.
- You are so sweet Nora. Thank you.
- Merci beaucoup Claude. Je suis cotente de te savoir bien rentre chez toi.
- Jerry, I am glad you like it. Thanks
- Scorpio:Soon you will try a nut and apricot bread made with rye flour and you will know what you have been missing for years.And that will be $5 Tanna.
- Thank you, Thank you Patrica. You are always so sweet, my friend.
- Thanks Amanda, fellow Aries.
- Thank you very much Jeff. I really appreciate it.
- Eric won't be too happy to hear that you support the Aries stereotype Shaun! So, next time you come to the US, take some apricot with you to make this bread. It is proven to win every Aries Heart!

Lisa Johnson said...

This nut bread looks scrumptious, but I'm all about the horoscopes! I love it! What's in store for us Virgos? ; )

Cheryl said...

I like your horoscopes so much better than the ones in the papers.

Beautiful bread, I bet your house smelled lovely that day.

Kelly-Jane said...

How funny :)

Your loaf looks so moist and wonderful too, I really like these choc-a-block with bits loaves, yum!

Anonymous said...

Je note cette recette, tes photos sont très réussies !

LILIBOX said...

Bravo Rose pour ce prix de la photo la plus originale .
D'ailleurs je trouve que tes photos sont de plus en plus belles et soignées .