Vanillathon - Does Homemade Vanilla Make a Difference?

Last fall, Kelly (of KellyBakes) and I made homemade vanilla extract.  We went in together on a bulk purchase of 4 different types of vanilla beans and then blogged about our extract-making.  Our plan was bottle some of our vanilla bounty for holiday gifts and bake together (using part of the remainder) to see if we could discern a taste difference between the various types of vanilla beans.  The vanillathon finally happened this past weekend, and while the results may not make a good New York Post headline, they will fascinate the bakers among us.  

I did try a taste test on my own before our joint effort.  For a group of expert taste testers, including Domenica Marchetti and Aviva Goldfarb, I made 2 batches (each) of Vanilla Cake and traditional madeleines from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my home to yours.  I used different vanilla extracts for each batch and asked the testers if they could differentiate between the batches.  None of us could.  I would have called that result disappointing, except that the baked goods were quite delicious and even if we could not discern one high quality extract from another, the vanilla flavors were uniformly excellent. 

This weekend’s vanillathon began with a jaunt through the National Arboretum; after all, there is no better inspiration than Mother Nature at her azalea and apple blossom best.  After a side trip to Spike Mendelsohn’s We the Pizza (for very good, but not superior pizza and excellent freshly made fruit sodas) to fortify ourselves for the hard work ahead, we set to baking.  

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Citrus Black Pepper Cookies - Baketogether

This month’s Baketogether, Ginger Slice ‘n Bakes, is tailor-made for my obsession with candied ginger.  Besides a hefty helping of that spicy-sweet delight, Abby Dodge’s recipe adds powdered ginger and black pepper to a buttery dough.  But I just made Brian Samuel’s Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies (fabulous!!) and used up all my crystallized ginger in the process. 

So it was time to get creative.  Latching onto the black pepper, I realized that I just got Tellicherry black pepper from my friend Rachel that should be quite fragrant in a cookie.

Gazing into the refrigerator, I dreamed of peppery, savory and sweet combinations.  The result has orange, lemon, lime rind, a bit of candied orange and orange simple syrup from last night’s oranges in syrup dessert, topped off with coarse sea salt, raw sugar and a bit of finely ground pepper. Weird? Certainly. Tasty? I think so.

Citrus Black Pepper Slice ‘n Bakes

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Baketogether English Muffins Re-imagined as Crumpets

When she chose Whole Wheat Honey English Muffins as this month’s Baketogether, Abby Dodge could not have known that she created a delightful coincidence for me.  I recently received 3 packets of Red Star Platinum yeast through a Kosher Eye giveaway.  Multi-tasking is not my strength and this was “beshert” – Hebrew for “meant to be.” 

Initially, I planned an orange-scented version of English muffins, perhaps with fresh rosemary.  But being a good wife, I asked my husband what “add ins” appealed to him.  He requested candied ginger, mentioning that he hoped for a treat similar to the ginger scones he loves.  So I headed back to my candied ginger obsession, adding orange rind so as not to give up entirely on my original plan. 

Why call them crumpets?  When my husband heard that these are supposed to be English muffins, he asked whether they have to be named that.  I think his preference for scones over muffins motivated the question, but it could be his Irish ancestry peeking through.  Without butter and cream, I could not bear to mis-name them scones, and we settled on crumpets.  Call them what you will, they are delicious.

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