House Capuchin 3

It’s been pretty slow this week, but lots of us are very busy with school and work. This week’s big deal was the trials runs on the cheese filling for babovka. We already know that the poppyseed will work (it was tried on kolache for a feast several years ago) but needed to know if the cultured milk cheese (tvarog) would work and then also to try the babovka dough recipe in the bread maker. All of that is below, along with some stitchery and herbs.

Meetings are at the normal times this week, with the possible addition of another trial of tvarog (‘coz there was a problem, also see below) which might mean more babovka. <horrors>

• Sewing Night – At Ancient Light, Thursdays, 6-8pm
• Herb Bunch – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 11am-1pm
• Sewing Time – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 3-5pm

• 

  Project Day – At Ancient Light, Sundays, Noon to 6pm

• Cheese & Wine – Watch the schedule or the Facebook group! This is going to be irregularly scheduled for when tasks need to occur.
• Next Potluck – 11/19

Here is the direct Portfolio link which has all the past Project Day reports and various projects, original here:  https://housecapuchin.wordpress.com/portfolio/  and new one here:  https://housecapuchin2.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and number three is here: https://housecapuchin3.wordpress.com/portfolio/

Early Week

Well, the needlepoint wasn’t salvageable. <sigh>. It’s turning into a pouch for Tymberhavene that will have real ermine spots, but wouldn’t survive as a kneeler. Anja put in a number of hours on the “secret” embroidery project during the week. 🙂 She also saved some of the recipes that Gogor found over the weekend for possible subs for the alcohol.

Cookery

We had been gifted with a pint of cultured buttermilk over last weekend so Anja decided to make tvarog/quark and started culturing the milk Tuesday night. She also set up a bottle of pickled carrots. …by Thursday while the milk had obviously cultured, it wasn’t yet beginning to separate, so Tempus set up a lightbulb and a box to get it a little warmer. Anja added radishes to the carrot pickles and tried one of the carrots….not there, yet. So on Friday the cultured milk was ready and we got the quark made… or tried… it boiled, so it was more like ricotta than quark! More below…. …and we had some of the yummy carrots on Sunday as a snack!

Sewing Time – Thursday – One of our sewing boxes went to Martinmas as a fund-raiser. It’s the hexagonal one with the red top seen in previous pix. We’re almost to the bottom of that stack. No one was here for the actual time, but Anja worked on the kneeler piece and got it finished.

She’s going to complete the stitching to make it a rectangle and then make it into a pouch.

Sewing Time – Saturday – Again, nobody but Anja….

Herb Bunch

Early in the week, while the weather was still good, more got done with the garden herbs. The chives and dandelion got dirt added and were brought down where they could be watched. The small rosemary went under the garden table where it will be more protected this winter. Other things need to get moved there, as well, and the fennel needs to be re-potted… well, maybe there will be time between the showers… During the workshop time we sorted, crunched and put away holly, mistletoe, bay, cedar and a couple of other things.

Project Day – …started early. Because of the time change Loren and Anja were at their shop earlier than usual and started a babovka dough going in the breadmaker. Anja set up the tvarog as a filling with candied ginger, golden raisins and honey, and cardamom and nutmeg for spice, after she broke up the ball with a fork. Because of the boiling the texture was odd on the tvarog so she needed to add extra liquid and used honey for that purpose instead of the usual brown sugar. The pans turned out to be at the apartment, so Loren ran back after them in the middle of the afternoon. Anja was working on pictures and making the fillings and such. After he got back the babovki got filled, formed, buttered and spiced and were left to rise. They were baked at home.

Amy showed up for an 1/2 hour or so late in the afternoon. We talked over some things like events for this coming year and current projects, while Anja embroidered. …and at the very tail end of the shop day we set up a new vanilla extract to steep.

So, the baking…. that was an experience! The “bun” in the upper right of the pic above in the regular cake pan, baked in 35 minutes at 350. It took an hour for the others to bake and of course Anja pulled one not long after the bun got pulled and served around. When she tipped it out, it was still kinda raw, so she dropped it into the cake pan, raw-side up and stuck it back in. Well, it tasted good, even if it looked awful! …and the sour baked right out of the cheese! Now, these things are a slavic pastry, a bread dough. They’re not all that sweet, but the filling makes up for it and the bread part is tasty, too, even if startling to folks who are used to sweet, buttery doughs.

Annenka Babovka (Poppyseed Ring)

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp white sugar

In a glass mixing cup nuke milk in 15 second bursts until warm. Add yeast and sugar, stir until mixed, then pour into breadmaker bowl. Let stand 15 minutes.

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Again, zap in the nuker, this time in 1 minute increments until the butter is melted. Stir well, then add to breadmaker bowl.

• 2 eggs, messed up (don’t need to beat, just get ‘em mixed…)

Add to breadmaker bowl, then one at a time add the next set of ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch ground mace (two hard shakes from tin)
• 1 pinch ground ginger (1 hard shake from spice jar)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

1. Set breadmaker to dough cycle and let ‘er rip. Check after the first “rumpus” to make sure the flour is incorporated into the dough, and after the 2^nd to make sure the dough isn’t too wet. (You can add up to 2 tablespoons of flour if it is.)
2. When the dough cycle is finished, cover the bowl and put in the fridge to cool, or if you need to do another batch, place dough in a large lightly buttered bowl and cover. Allow to thoroughly cool, at least 2 hours.

To form the cakes:

• 42 ounces (?) poppyseed filling, tvarog, apricot filling, etc. (1 can filling makes 3)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Butter and flour your mini-bundt pans.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in 6.
3. Roll out on floured board like a jellyroll, large and oblong, about 6 x 12 inches.
4. Spread filling over each piece of dough, then roll up each piece (along the long side) and pinch the ends together (the short ends) to form a circle.
5. Press rings down to flatten.
6. Brush or drizzle melted butter on top of the rings, cover and let rise in a warm place for l l/2 hours, or until doubled in size. (Mine only rose 1/3… in 4 hours…)
7. Then preheat oven to 350F.
8. Pour a thin line of honey on the top of the ring, then pour more butter over. Add crushed nuts, if you wish.
9. Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour or until the top is starting to get *really* brown. Check at 50 minutes.
10. Run a knife around both outside and around the center column and tip out onto a plate. Sides should be a gold/orange color, obviously cooked.
11. Let cool and store air-tight.

• Note: You can purchase poppyseed filling and apricot filling. 2 cups of fluffed up Tvarog should be mixed with 1/2 cups of brown sugar (or if your cheese is dry ½ cup honey) and a handful of golden raisins with whatever spices you prefer (I used lots of nutmeg and a little cardamom, plus candied ginger). Other traditional fillings are mak (poppyseed, which recipe I’ll put into another post, cherry (sour pie cherry) and tvarog mixed with dried cherries that have been plumped in rum or brandy.

Miscellaneous pix

Music – A Czech cross-over group.

Links

Yseult shared an interesting quince pie recipe: http://coquinaria.nl/en/quince-pie/ From this site, which looks fascinating! http://coquinaria.nl/en/introduction/

Funnies 

Anja, Loren, Nicole (v), Amy, Jeanne

Largesse Item Count – (includes gifts, prizes, auction items, etc.)

• ASXLVII = 24
• ASXLVIII = 88
• ASXLIX = 794
• ASL = 2138
• ASLI = 731
• ASLII = 177+8 plus 4 pouch (2 more just need strings), 25 pouches for block-printing, 35 (plus 26 unfinished) pincushions, 7 emery bags, 10 lucet cord, 1 hat, 1 bone needle & case, 2 sewing boxes (finished except for bone needles), varnished stuff (124) (8-piece Sewing box went to Martinmas)

Total as a Household = 3544 handed off

In ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 10/29/17 & published 11/6/17 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 11/6/17