Category Archives: baking

May 13, 2011 · 3:34 pm

Thirty’s Cake Walk

Oh what a wonderful first day of my 30’s!

And it was made even better by all of your sweet, thoughtful, lovely birthday wishes, thank you!!!

After being served breakfast at home I decided what I most wanted to do with MY day was hike.

Hike we did!  9 miles roundtrip and 3100 feet elevation gained.

The Priest.

We walked and talked and refueled once we (finally!) reached the top.

We arrived home late afternoon dirty and tired but there was no rest for this birthday girl.

It was yoga time.  30 sun salutations on the yoga deck later and it was time to party!

Hmmm, there was lots of good food and great friends but my pictures seem to be focused only on the booze and cake!

Holy birthday cake!!!

Tate ordered this beautiful beast from Albermarle Baking Company, they told him it would serve 20.  We cut 20 generous slices and were left with half a cake!

Mmmm leftover cake.


Alrighty, in the interest of containing this post to manageable proportions I will post some recipes in a second post.  Keep your eyes out for Goodness Green Dip and crackers in a few hours!

Thanks again for all the wonderful wishes!

P.S Kath has some lovely party pictures, she’s much more on top of the photography thing than I am!

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April 29, 2011 · 2:05 pm

SOcca Good

Wow, thanks for all the positive response from yesterday’s post!  And all the compliments. 🙂

I finally used a recipe! At the beginning of the month I made a goal to follow at least one recipe a week but this socca recipe is the first I completed.  The intention behind the recipe goal was to get me out of my cooking routine and try some new things.

Socca is a French pancake made from chickpea flour, water, salt, and olive oil.  Given the simplicity of the ingredients it is surprisingly delicious with the faintest hint of falafel and a rich nuttiness.

Socca

Original recipe from David Lebovitz can be found here

  • 1 cup chickpea flour*
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • generous pinches of salt
  • sprinkle of cumin
*I used Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo and Fava Bean Flour because that is what I found at the store.  It worked brilliantly but I can’t compare the flavor to plain garbanzo flour.

It’s funny to me that I am counting this as following a recipe because not only did I substitute the flour but it is so stinking simple.

Whisk everything but 1 tablespoon of the olive oil into the flour.

Let the thin batter sit for at least two hours.

I made this on Tuesday afternoon and it ended up be so ridiculously hot and sticky that evening that I couldn’t bare to turn on the oven.  The batter went into a jar and refrigerated until Wednesday night.

When you are ready to bake it off add the rest of your olive oil to an oven-safe pan (I used cast iron) and place in oven, turn on your broiler.  When the pan in hot, hot, hot, carefully pour in your batter.

And here’s where I failed to read the recipe details.  I only noticed after pouring the entire jar of batter into the pan and placing it in the oven that David’s recipe makes “about three pancakes”.   Whoops.  My dinner company and I loved the density and thickness that resulted but it did lack any resemblance to a cracker, pancake, or crepe.

After about 12 minutes on a middle rack my socca was golden brown and ready to be gobbled down.

Accompanied by a cucumber salad with garden herbs and lentil sprouts

and a side of garden hose 🙂

I now understand Ashley‘s obsession with socca, I’ve been thinking about it since the first bite and biding my time until I can whip up another.  SO GOOD.

Have a gorgeous, delicious Friday!

P.S  I pronounce it SOcca but have no clue whether this is correct, do you know?  I did a few internet searches but all I came up with were other folks as unsure as I am!

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