Friday, July 27, 2001
Peaches and gingerbread...
...doesn't that sound good? An old, old gingerbread recipe so spice rich it looks like chocolate cake, baked with loads of fresh, ripe, sweet peach slices buried in the batter mmmmm, topped with lightly sweetened freshly whipped cream, flavored with rum...I tell you, LTF, we barely ate supper knowing we'd be eating what sounded like Ambrosia Cake, later.
The whipped cream was delicious. I'm glad I thought of flavoring it. The peach/gingerbread, well, thing, was not. The cake stuff itself, I'm not sure what I did wrong but I didn't get it sweet enough, which figures. That's why I don't usually do desserts; I have a continual argument going with sugar. It baked up well; good consistency, wonderful smell; but it tasted flat; sort of like a sorghum cake, which I've only had once and will never eat again. The peaches were so sweet all by themselves I was sure I wouldn't need added sweetening especially with the cup of molasses in the cake batter. Once again, I forgot that formula everyone learns at their first birthday party when someone's mother serves lemonade or Kool-aid with frosted cake; Fructose + Sucrose = Fucking Sour. I guess I should have syruped them up, a bit.
I still think peaches-and-gingerbread sounds wonderful and I may do something with dried peaches or cooked peaches and gingerbread, I don't know, maybe a rich glaze or something. But I won't try baking fresh peach slices into gingerbread, again. That was stupid.
We will be able to rescue it with an old trick my grandmother used of which Mom's cousin and Mom reminded me: make bread pudding. When a cake or cookie or bread based dessert turns bad any kind of bad, believe me, I've done it successfully with the worst, break it up into large crouton sized pieces, mix it with milk and eggs (and honey or maple syrup, if necessary; in this case it will probably be necessary) in a baking pan large enough to hold it all and bake it in a moderate oven until an inserted butter knife comes out clean; can be up to an hour. You can add spices, fruit, nuts and luckily my mistake contains all these so it'll be interesting to see what we eat for dessert tomorrow night.
At least we have four delicious peaches left.
The whipped cream was delicious. I'm glad I thought of flavoring it. The peach/gingerbread, well, thing, was not. The cake stuff itself, I'm not sure what I did wrong but I didn't get it sweet enough, which figures. That's why I don't usually do desserts; I have a continual argument going with sugar. It baked up well; good consistency, wonderful smell; but it tasted flat; sort of like a sorghum cake, which I've only had once and will never eat again. The peaches were so sweet all by themselves I was sure I wouldn't need added sweetening especially with the cup of molasses in the cake batter. Once again, I forgot that formula everyone learns at their first birthday party when someone's mother serves lemonade or Kool-aid with frosted cake; Fructose + Sucrose = Fucking Sour. I guess I should have syruped them up, a bit.
I still think peaches-and-gingerbread sounds wonderful and I may do something with dried peaches or cooked peaches and gingerbread, I don't know, maybe a rich glaze or something. But I won't try baking fresh peach slices into gingerbread, again. That was stupid.
We will be able to rescue it with an old trick my grandmother used of which Mom's cousin and Mom reminded me: make bread pudding. When a cake or cookie or bread based dessert turns bad any kind of bad, believe me, I've done it successfully with the worst, break it up into large crouton sized pieces, mix it with milk and eggs (and honey or maple syrup, if necessary; in this case it will probably be necessary) in a baking pan large enough to hold it all and bake it in a moderate oven until an inserted butter knife comes out clean; can be up to an hour. You can add spices, fruit, nuts and luckily my mistake contains all these so it'll be interesting to see what we eat for dessert tomorrow night.
At least we have four delicious peaches left.
