so i finally got some barley flour in my CSA. this was super exciting, as i got barley (grains) twice, and wanted to make barley bread, so i tried to grind them into a flour, but failed at it horribly. luckily, my CSA read my mind, and sent along some barley flour a few weeks later. AND they gave a recipe idea! cranberry sour cream cake/bread with barley flour!
do you know how hard it is to find cranberries this time of year? my recipe called for cranberries in a can. where does one find those? or, you could use cranberry relish. okay....well, i couldnt find canned cranberries. so i figured, maybe there would be frozen cranberries i could throw in! i found frozen strawberries. and frozen raspberries. and frozen blackberries. and freakin FROZEN CANTALOUPE. but NO frozen cranberries! what the hell, supermarket. what the hell. all i could find was cranberry sauce. so i bought a can of cranberry sauce with whole berries in it. not quite the consistency i was looking for. it worked, but it still wasnt right. i made the cake in a bundt pan...and how annoying are those! they NEVER come out perfectly. even if you grease the pan. even if there is a ton of butter in the topping. it ALWAYS annoyingly sticks to the pan. hate hate hate. maybe i will buy a nonstick bundt pan one of these days, instead of using my aunt's old non-non-stick one.
also on the dessert front...i introduce to you: matzoh crack. this is...one of the tastiest treats there is. and there are only 4 ingredients: butter, brown sugar, chocolate, and matzoh. the first time that i made it (AKA, a week ago) i followed the recipe. i grabbed my large pan, and spread 5 pieces of matzoh out, made the toffee, and poured it on top. it looked a bit thin, and i really had to spread the toffee out to make sure all the matzoh got covered. first sign that i should have done something different. threw it in the oven, pulled it out at the right time...second sign: it was a bit burnt. now yes, i know, its caramel toffee...of COURSE its burnt, that is the entire point. but there are levels of burnt-ness. and while this was still edible-burnt, it was still burnt. i covered the top in chocolate chips, let them melt, spread across, threw in the freezer, and voila, when i pulled it out and pulled it off the parchment paper, it was a delicious treat all broken up.
i felt like the recipe could use a little alteration, however, based on the incredible version my coworker donna made. so 2 days later, while home in NY, i went to the grocery store and picked up my 4 ingredients. this time, i used a smaller pan. and only 3.5 pieces of matzoh. and 1.5X the amount of toffee. which i knew was the correct amount when i poured it on top and it completely covered the matzoh in a lovely, thick coating. after cooking (didnt burn this time!) i once again coated in chocolate (miiiight have been too thick this time) and put some slivered almonds on top. this was all lovely, EXCEPT for the fact that mom doesnt own parchment paper. so i used wax paper. NOT the same thing! the toffee stuck to the wax paper. really badly. so that i was peeling off tiny pieces. so depressing. perhaps 3rd time will be the charm.
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