Hello my lovelies! I’ve been hunting for perfect bread tins. I almost had a lurgy but dodged it. I found an amazing new bakery nearby. And I am experimenting with homemade versions of my new favourite snack.
My current first world problem is how difficult it is to find a straight-sided loaf pan for bread. An uncoated, actually heat conducting loaf pan in a range of sizes. I spent hours yesterday scouring the internet. With increasing frustration. By far the best that I could find are made in the UK for bakeries that don’t ship internationally. In NZ, even places that supply the catering and food industry don’t carry good bread tins. I will continue my quest. And let you know if I find the holy grail.
I used to catch a lot of colds. A lot. Last year I started taking a thing called Buccalin. It’s like the flu shot for colds. Nurses swear by it. I don’t know what kind of witchcraft goes into it. But it totally works. The only cold I’ve actually had in two years was when I was pushing my luck to see how long it would last before I had to take it again. I don’t end up sick or have symptoms. But when my body is mounting an immune response I get very tired. Early this week I was a total vegetable. I mentioned in one of my posts that I was craving cookies. My body was using all it’s energy fighting germs. Pretty sure the cookies helped the war effort.
You guys. Wellington peeps especially. NEW BAKERY. Doppio is a Scandi-style bakery that has just opened behind the Sprig & Fern on Tinakori. This is very exciting. We went to visit literally within hours of learning of it’s existence. The poppyseed pastries are amazing. A beautifully spiced crossover between Israeli and Scandi flavours. The focus is very much on dough. Enriched breads and pastries. Heavenly. Dangerously, it opens very early in the morning and is on the route of my run up the hill. Oh dear. I will pop in at a quiet moment and ask them lots of annoying questions about their doughs sometime soon.
I had never really processed the existence of the spicy broad bean snack. Which is probably good. Now that I have discovered them I am obsessed. They are delicious. The readily available ones have more sugar than you’d think though. Naturally I have been trying to make my own version. The first part of my mission was to find dried broad beans. From a review of recipes on offer online, they seemed to be preferred. They are surprisingly hard to find here. My searches led me to a new gem. An online store called Vetro. Which also has some interesting grains and reasonably priced rye flour. My first experiments have taught me the skins must come off. They are trapping moisture inside the beans. So there is more work to do.
Stay healthy. Never give up. Eat more dough. Look after each other.
xx
