Blimey, Victoria, this non-wheat flour business has some tweaks and corners to it. Tapioca flour is made by blasting tapioca in a blender, except mine was a bit gritty at the end. No photo, sorry, didn't think to bother.
Rice flour: none to be had at Morrison's or the Co-Op, so I made my own. You soak your rice for at least 30 minutes, drain it, dry it then blast it in a blender, then cook it over a low heat to get rid of excess moisture. The whole process took ages.
Today's dough had xanthan gum added - which means it now acts like real dough instead of a semi-liquid batter. And for extra moisture, a few ounces of mashed potato.
<Imagine a photo here - IE being an idiot and preventing uploads>
I can see why gluten-free flour mix is expensive, as the loaves are, too.
Or, When Baking Halloween Pumpkin Cake, Have A Pumpkin Substitute
The Giant Pumpkin is an occasional visitor to these shores, so to make the very highly regarded cake named above, I need a substitute. Wonder Wife very cannily suggested Butternut Squash - same vegetable family, same colour flesh, not too strong a taste. So I got two today and may try replicating the recipe. If all turns out horrid, there's still Butternut Squash Soup.
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| The least rude photograph I could find. Butternut Squash - NSFW |
Righto, time to go down and batter that dough a bit*.
The Passing of Doris Lessing
I saw the film made from one of her books, featuring Julie Christie IIRC, back in the 1980's - and cannot remember what it was called. Er, or even what it was about.
I also read one of her books, "Briefing For A Descent Into Hell" and could not make out what was going on. A mental patient going round the twist? A person being briefed for a literal descent into Hades? Neither? Both? I may Google after this blog to see if anyone else made sense of the novel.
Hang on a moment, got to go turn the loaf tin around -
- hmmm it's not risen much in the oven. Oh well, 22 minutes and we'll know what's what.
Conrad Shivers In Fear
The BBC website has a sidebar article - do more women than men attend musicals?
Hell yes I would bloody well think so! Because Conrad isn't going to go watch a musical. Not unless you can recreate The Blues Brothers on a theatre stage**, he isn't.
| Pineapple, parsnip and musicals - Conrad's three biggest fears |
Okayyyy, off to spin that tin. Farewell!
* Do you see what I did there? Do you? Oh you do.
** Physically impossible. You can't fit 85 police cars on any theatre stage.
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