Daring Bakers: Castle von Gummi

Castle von Gummi is situated on a plateau atop a high mountain. Its walls, though roughly hewn, have never given way to enemy attack. An impregnable stronghold, it has served as a seat of power for time out of mind.

The crest of the von Gummi royal family decorates the castle walls. The current king, Friedrich von Gummi, has lately been troubled by a rebellious faction, the Trolli. Longtime separatists, they see Friedrich's reluctance for war as an opportunity for attack.

But inside, von Gummi's warriors are ready. Catapults and ammunition are ready.

Lookouts are posted in every watchtower.

Outside the protection of the castle walls, El Capitán Haribo waits for the Trolli's onslaught. Once a marauder, he threw his lot in with the von Gummi family for reasons known only to himself. His fearlessness inspires unwavering loyalty and bravery amongst the von Gummi soldiers.

The alarm is sounded! There is a rush inside the walls for final preparations.

The Trolli forces have brought a battering ram! Their hugest warriors bear it upon their shoulders, shouting, "Death to the Gummi! Death to Haribo!"

El Capitán Haribo stands his ground, unblanching.

The Gummi forces wait their Captain's signal.

Trolli troops have set their catapults.

But the Gummis strike first!

Wounded Trollis litter the field.

The battering ram warriors face this formidable sight through the portcullis.

Who will win this battle? Will Friedrich keep his crown? Will El Capitán Haribo prevail?


The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I used Y's Scandanavian recipe, with strange results... I think later there was an amendment to the recipe, using less flour. As it is, my castle walls are lighter in color than normal gingerbread and more bread-like in texture. Warping was also a problem. Ah well, I just say that bears aren't the best architects and, well, their castle IS made out of mountain stone.

Der Weihnachtsmarkt : The Christmas Market

With the beginning of Advent, Christmas markets all over Germany open. In plazas and squares, bakers and crafters and artists set up shop. Heidelberg hosts several markets in four separate squares in the old city, and it is really lovely and picturesque.

This stand is selling traditional Nutcrackers and wooden ornaments.

Of course there are Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and candy sellers everywhere.

Besides from Christmas fare, there are also beautiful crafts for sale, like this lovely pottery.

This brilliantly lit shop is selling Glühwein, a spiced mulled-wine that's only drunk at this time of year.
It is powerful stuff! I like the taste, but, really, I should stay far away from it!

This man is carving a wooden bowl. His shop sells all sorts of wooden

serving platters as well as stools and tables - all hand carved by him!

This is the bowl and ladle I bought from him. I love it that I know

who made this and that I can see his knife patterns all over the bowl.

I wish that the States had more of a market culture. Sure, there are farmers markets and craft markets, especially in large cities, like New York, but we're still much more dependent on Target and supermarkets. Not that I don't love Target! But, there is lots to be said about buying direct from a grower or crafter or artist and enjoying the walk around a city square.

What Does She Do All Day?

I thought I'd dedicate a post to describing my daily life here, in case you're curious. Other than baking and knitting and sniffing perfumes and daydreaming about travel, I lead the life of a monk! I spend my days shut up in my fourth story apartment in Germany, straining my eyes and brain to read ancient texts. Fits the bill, right? Here's a passage I love that I read recently, from Plato's dialogue Crito. Socrates is in jail and has been condemned to death, and his friend, Crito, has been urging him to escape by night. After a lengthy debate, Socrates ends his argument against fleeing from death by saying this:

ταῦτα, ὦ φίλε ἑταῖρε Κρίτων, εὖ ἴσθι ὅτι ἐγὼ δοκῶ ἀκούειν, ὥσπερ οἱ κορυβαντιῶντες τῶν αὐλῶν δοκοῦσιν ἀκούειν, καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ αὕτη ἡ ἠχὴ τούτων τῶν λόγων βομβεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ μὴ δύνασθαι τῶν ἄλλων ἀκούειν· ἀλλὰ ἴσθι, ὅσα γε τὰ νῦν ἐμοὶ δοκοῦντα, ἐὰν λέγῃς παρὰ ταῦτα, μάτην ἐρεῖς.

Know well, dear friend Crito, that I seem to hear these arguments, just as the frenzied worshipers of Cybele seem to hear the flutes, and the sound of these words resounds and makes me unable to hear any other. So know that so far do they seem right to me that if you should say anything besides them, you will speak in vain.

My monk's cell. It is a lovely view, though.

It was cold and foggy today - I love to watch the clouds
roll down the hills of the Philosophenweg.

Surrounding myself with things I like to look at and touch helps the tedium!
As you can see, I have a ring obsession.

Not much on the calendar. Oddly enough, that hourglass only
runs for about 45 minutes. Hmm. And more rings. From Israel!

One of my favoritest things in my study - I bought this in Japantown, SF.
Leave it to the Japanese to create the worlds smallest colored-pencil box.
I use it to sketch out knitting projects, so I can visualize color combinations.

Daring Bakers: Cannoli!

This month, the Daring Bakers decided not to bake - instead, we would deep fry! I must say, I prefer baking. I wasn't ever crazy about cannoli, and I don't think I ever will be, but I'm still game to try anything.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I decided to make a plain cannoli dough and, after frying, to dip them in chocolate and garnish with orange zest. The ricotta filling was a bit too dense, but it made for a nice taste combination.

I made stacked, flat cannoli, since I am in Germany and couldn't get my hands on cannoli forms even if I wanted to. Okay, now you can tell I am a grouchy baker. Working with a million conversions (oz to grams, F to C to gas oven numbers, etc. etc.) and two not-so-successful Daring Baker challenges (and recipes, in my opinion) have made me a bit grumpy. But hopefully December will be a different story!

Der Philosophenweg

There's a hiking path across the river from the Old City called "The Philosopher's Way." Part of it weaves through gardens and orchards and gives great views of the castle and the city. Part of it dives into the forest, with tall, tall trees and little undergrowth . . .

It starts out on a winding alley, called the Snake Path, going up, up, up the side of the hill.

Mounds of moss are magical woodland worlds in miniature.

At the tail end of autumn, the path is littered with leaves. Night falls quickly, and within just a few minutes we were plunged into darkness amidst the trees. Suddenly it felt as if we could be in any century - there were no lights, no sound. It was easy then to understand why people once venerated and feared the forest, why they told stories of beasts and horrors creeping out from it, why the glow of a village could be so comforting. This was the first time I felt that the "Old World" felt really, really old. This hadn't happened while looking at ruins or old city walls. Instead, I felt it in the forest, in something that has evoked fear, awe, and worship for time out of mind.

Thankfully, there was some respite from the darkness - there's a small vineyard at the end of one path. Here, in the clearing, we could see the old city in the valley below.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 4

Well, after reviewing macarons from three patisseries and trying my own hand at making them, I finish this macaron series with Monsieur Macaron Himself, Pierre Hermé - well, at least with his patisserie. We visited the shop (one of two in Paris) located on a quiet corner in Saint Germain des Prés. I was allowed to take precisely and only two photos inside of the store. Here they are:

Lovely, perfect pastries on display.

The famous macarons themselves! I had a hard time getting all the flavors straight -
my French is really abysmal, and I am too proud (sometimes) to speak in English!

After haphazardly choosing a variety of mini-macarons, we headed out to the fountain and park area next to St-Sulpice to enjoy ourselves.

As far as I can remember, the flavors are (clockwise from top right):
mint, cocoa, raspberry and something-or-other, and olive oil-vanilla.

We couldn't miss the famous Ipahan concoction - a giant macaron filled
with raspberries, lychees, and rosewater-flavored cream.
This is Hermé's signature pastry.

Crunch!

The flavors of rosewater, raspberries, and lychees melded together elegantly - and I am always gratified when lychees are used. I feel that they are such an under-appreciated - or, rather, unknown - fruit. But, really, they are so sweet, light, and lovely.

But . . . as amazing as Pierre Hermé and his store are, I must announce the winner of the macaron taste-off as Fauchon. For us, Fauchon's macarons had not only perfect texture but also the most delicious flavorings, and the best balance of sweet, salty, fragrant, and rich. This is not to say that ANY of the patisseries we tried were lacking (although one of the Hermé maracons was slightly too chewy, almost - gasp! - stale). Fauchon was just more perfect. But, of course, I'm always willing to go back to Paris and try everything again!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Macarons and the Case of the Missing Feet!

I couldn't have been more excited about a Daring Baker's challenge - imagine having just come back from Paris and sampling the world's finest macarons, only to find out that you yourself are being challenged to produce the same pastry!

Alas, the macarons were not to be. I tried to follow all the advice out there: I aged the egg whites 24 hours, I tapped the baking sheets, I let the unbaked cookies dry out. But the end result was simply not a macaron. A fine almond cookie, sure, but there were no feet! If you scroll down to the other posts below on macarons, the feet are the ruffly edge on the bottom of the macaron cookie. At any rate, at least I tried (and will try again!) and got a good caramel sauce recipe out of the deal.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This batter looked promising: smooth, shiny. What could go wrong? HA!

Alas: these are just glorified almond cookies. Light and airy - but no feet! Arggghhhh.
Still, the caramel was delectable. Not a total loss.

For all things macaron, including recipes, I suggest going to Tartlette's blog. I used her Salty Caramel Sauce, which is the filling for her Pecan Pie Macaron. My shells were unflavored. I think I overfolded my batter. And I will have to experiment more with my oven, which uses gas mark numbers rather than actual temperatures. Live and learn!

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 3

This is the entrance of Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées, a patisserie with a very different modus operandi than Fauchon. Fauchon is modern and chic. Ladurée is aiming for baroque opulence, with velvet walls and chandeliers. It certainly works!

Here's the line on a Saturday night.

There are attendants in white gloves, ready to wrap up whatever delicacy you like.

And the wrapping is absolutely fabulous, as you can see here. This is a little Ladurée tableaux
I set up in our lodgings that night - before we promptly gobbled it down.

Aren't they lovely? Clockwise from the top: bergamot (yes, the spice
that flavors Earl Grey!), pistachio, chocolate, citron, and raspberry.

These were pretty good - I think the pistachio was especially yummy. The bergamot flavored macaron was interesting - it captured the taste of a mildly sweet and creamy cup of tea without being too weird.

Okay, this is not a macaron, but it is, in my opinion, Ladurée's pièce de résistance: a rosewater-raspberry concoction with oh-so-subtly flavored cream and tiny bonbons embedded in the sides. The bottom is a pâte à choux, filled with more cream.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 2

Fauchon is located by the L'Église de la Madeleine, along with Hédiard, another gourmet food store - which makes for a very tasty corner of Paris, all around.

This is at Fauchon - amazing store, with all sorts of goodies: foie gras,
terrines, pâte de fruits, etc. But look at these pastries! Those are raspberries,
painted a pearly white! I really cant' say enough good things about Fauchon.

Eclairs at Fauchon - not sure what I think of decorating
an eclair like a hot dog, but I'm sure they taste good.

A citron macaron from Fauchon. Perfect macaron shell - you can see the
crunchy exterior, followed by the almondy chewyness, followed by
perfectly flavored filling.

The macarons we ordered at Fauchon were full size - about 2-3 inches in diameter, as you can see above. I must say that they were fantastic. Maybe taste and texture are affected by the size of the macaron - maybe the bigger the better? Anyway, these were a welcome treat after a very wonderful but exhausting day at the Louvre.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 1

Since relocating to Heidelberg, Germany, I've been astounded by how easy it is to get to other European locales. Last weekend we headed to Paris - only 3 1/2 hours by train! As my mom said, "That's like driving to Tahoe!" (from the SF Bay Area, that is). One of my main incentives for going to Paris was sampling all the macarons I've been obsessing about for the last year or so. It seems that this meringue sandwich cookie has taken the foodie-world by storm. So here goes for our Paris macaron taste-off:

This is the display in the Lenôtre, in Bastille, 11th arrondissement.
We stopped there our first morning, for our first macaron tasting.

These were light and satisfyingly crunchy-chewy, with lovely fillings.

I was impressed by the chocolate ganache filling - very rich. The others we tried were pistachio, frambois (raspberry), and caramel, with sea salt. I think my favorite was the caramel (it usually is!), but one complaint is that the sea salt hits you first when you bite into the macaron, and it's a bit strong. The burnt-sugar taste of caramel comes almost at the end, which is too long to wait, in my mind. All in all, though, a great sweet treat - light but very satisfying.

Heidelberger Herbst

That means "Heidelberg Autumn" - a festival that celebrated its 60th anniversary this last weekend. It was an interesting, and fun, mixture of Oktoberfest, Renaissance fairs, and flea markets.

That's the Oktoberfest part - or so I imagine. Guys dressed up
in traditional German dress and drinking at 10 in the morning!

There were also gingerbread houses (sort of) selling big gingerbread hearts
with cutsie sayings in frosting on them, e.g. "Du bist mein Stern" ("You are my star").

Ah yes, the Ren Fair folks.

Beautiful (and expensive!) armor for sale.

The best part of any festival, though, is the food!
I am all for roasting suckling pig!!

Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (potato pancakes with applesauce).
Yummmmmmm.

And lots and lots of beer. Drunk from terra cotta cups.

Marketing in Heidelberg

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon out in the Marktplatz...

These are artichoke blooms - I'd never seen before what would happen
if the choke wasn't eaten and allowed to blossom.

My bounty from the market: greens from nearby Handschuheim (literally "Glove Home"),
some Poire William pears, blackberries, and a squash of some sort,
which turned out quite dense and yam-like.

Knitting around the World!

These are the flights I've taken over the last 3 months:

1) NYC to Frankfurt
2) Frankfurt to Tel Aviv
3) Tel Aviv to Frankfurt
4) Frankfurt to NYC
5) NYC to SF
6) SF to NYC
7) NYC to Frankfurt

Needless to say, I am sick of flying now and am happy to stay in one place for a few months. The upside of all this flying is that I had lots and lots of free hours to knit! Here are a few things I've worked on up in the sky (and on the ground):

The mittens I knitted in Israel, during my 5-week intensive biblical Hebrew course. It was a nice, meditative ritual during that time. And they were my first mittens! Knitted on double pointed needles! The hat I made in Germany, after I got back from Israel. It's all knit out of delicious Malabrigo Yarn - merino wool that's beautifully textured and hand-dyed. I loved working with it.

This is a head kerchief I started in the Bay and then finished in Germany. I especially liked learning how to make the more complicated leaf ties - which are, unfortunately, hidden when you wear the thing!


Next on my list? I'm hoping to make a kid mohair cowl scarf and a beret...maybe. And I would love to try my hand at socks and cables. To be continued.

Back in Heidelberg

Finally done with travels this summer, almost ready to hunker down and get some serious research and Greek reading done! But, a little pause before the plunge might be nice! How about some flowers for the apartment? Or a picnic?

Flower are so cheap here! Today I bought a bunch of roses for the equivalent of $6 US!

Our picnic site. This is on the banks of the River Neckar
across from where we live in the Altstadt.

Our picnic! Complete with a sharp Alpine cheese and Landjäger sausage - a hard salami.

Jerusalem Souks: The Old City

I don't know why I'm running out of steam in terms of blogging...especially when I saw such beautiful things in Israel. Well, here are some of my favorite images from the souks in the Old City, on King David Street, the Christian Quarter Road, and in the Muristan.

Beautiful beads and brass lamps - I always think: well, I'll never wear it,
but could I justify buying a bunch just to look at?

Amazing antique and "junk" shops everywhere.

I was tempted to lie down here. Especially after a hot, sunny walk on the city walls.

Hebron glass! I would've bought out the shop, except how in the world to transport things?!

Sometimes I think, I want to fill my place will lamps and rugs... but then, is it weird? Will I be living in some sort of themed place that's not really me? I think this everytime I go somewhere with beautiful things. So, does one have an eclectic collection from around the world or go whole hog with one culture? I guess what one really needs is 10 homes scattered about the world.

And how much stuff is really too much? After moving and putting stuff in storage this last week the cenobitic life seems pretty good to me! Maybe it's enough just to see beautiful artifacts in context rather than continue to collect and consume.

This lamp looks pretty good in context. No need to take it back to Heidelberg!