Monday, November 22, 2021

moondancing in the kitchen



The golden leaves which were on the cherry tree last Thursday, that glorious day, fell almost entirely off the next day, when the (normal) colder weather returned. I guess it was a shock, because most of the leaves are down everywhere. Not that it was so cold, but after such a day - 

I always think of Moondance by Van Morrison; he's singing of October skies, and leaves falling. Our leaves fall in November - surely the Irish climate is milder than ours? I guess it's poetic license, and I love the song all the same. And now we're settling in for winter. 

I bought some gluten-free flour substitute, some spelt and some einkorn flour, and I'm experimenting. I made a batch of brownies I've made many times, with the gluten-free, and a little less sugar, and they were just as delicious as the original. But today I made a pie crust dough with part einkorn and part spelt. This is for the sweet potato pie I'm going to bake on Wednesday. I wanted to bake it a little so the filling wouldn't make the dough gummy, but it was practically melting and I ended up tossing it. This caused me to look up the why's and wherefore's of pie crust. These flours I used have less gluten, and the crust I made seemed like it was just melting after a short time in the oven. I learned from my researches that a moderate amount of gluten makes the best crust. Maybe I should stick to what I know, especially on a big holiday! 



 

1 comment:

  1. It is always a good idea to stick to what you know when preparing important meals! I am still capable of major fails even with tried and tested recipes so I daren't use anything new! :D
    Regarding leaf-fall. We do begin to lose our leaves in October though not as much as we used to when I was a girl. Probably climate change related. I think leaf-fall is triggered by drops in temperature and shortening days and speeded up by windy days. Our (I include Ireland here) weather isn't as extreme in temperature as yours, so our leaves begin to appear a little earlier than yours do and have probably done all they need to do by mid-October. I remember the great storm in October 1987 when there was hardly a leaf left on the trees at the end of the month but that was a really dreadful storm that I have no wish to experience again!

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