Spelunking

Hungry for dinner but impotent, I excavated the days old pain au chocolate for bittersweet nuggets. Delicious chocolate—wrapped in dough, baked, left to sit, and unearthed—is still incredibly delicious. Mark was jealous.

After a little research it looks like the almond flour you buy is different from the almond flour you make because the flour you buy has all of the oil removed. I had a fear that if I tried to make it myself I'd end up with almond butter instead of almond flour, so this unsubstantiated information fed my fear: I opted to buy. I also bought these super cute tulip muffin papers like you see at Starbucks. (You might see them in other much hipper places, but I live in Alaska.) They're going to photograph well.

Now I need to find a pastry bag and tip. The temptation is to buy disposable bags because you don't have to wash them. But my inner conservationist and my inner francophile teamed up to insist that I buy the washable kind. Now I just need to hunt out a good source. Shopping for pastry tips I feel like I imagine Mark felt when he first started shopping for router bits—do I get the set or do I pay a little more for each piece? The latter requires a little faith and self awareness; it's much more attractive.

A few things I've read that I thought were worth sharing:

Baking in small batches here.

Baking with sauerkraut here.

Rating store brands here. (In general I agree, but don't fall for the Safeway Organics brand of garbanzo beans—they're mushy. I'm for S&W.)

A quick post script—Mark took the above photo of my biscuit cutters several years ago with some now defunct Polaroid film. I still love the photo.