There is a lot of recipes for pancakes around, and I experiment periodically, though I still can't recreate the taste and general feel of the thick pancakes ("оладьи") of my childhood. I suspect it is mostly due to the fact that dairy products are different everywhere, and some of the stuff readily available in Russia ("кефир", for example) is not so readily, and sometimes not at all available where I live.
At some point when we were in Finland, I had ordered a bag of hollowfiber stuffing from amazon. I honestly don't remember what sort of project I wanted to do at that point, and the bag was laying unopened for a few months. When Kirill had left for Gran Canaria in the beginning of June, I suddenly had an urge to finally use it for this little critter that later proved to be an excellent breakfast companion — not very talkative, but who is in the morning?
"I don't know how it is, Christopher Robin, but what with all this snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn't so Hot in my field about three o'clock in the morning as some people think it is. It isn't Close, if you know what I mean — not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn't Stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin," he went on in a loud whisper, "quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's Cold."
"Oh, Eeyore!"
When we were coming to Finland for a winter, it was pretty clear that we will need some warm clothes. Warmer than ones we had in Canaries for sure; warmer than ones we used in the UK. But, while I like to shop, I hate to waste money on something that possibly will serve one season.
So, soon after moving over, we discovered a few second-hand shops that we started to comb methodically. The problem we encountered is that you can find quite interesting brick-a-brack there, but not so much clothes — it appears the Finns tend to get the full money worth out of theirs before finally throwing them away or trying to sell them on. No matter, eventually I found this heavy canvas padded coat (which reminds me in general idea of телогрейка, "bodywarmer", except that telogreikas usually came in "one size doesn't fit anybody", while this one fit me rather snugly. Thick leather belt was soon found for it, and I could have stopped here I suppose.
Except I wanted something a bit more interesting. My original idea was simply to paint something bright, possibly floral, in acrylic over the canvas:
During our Gran Canarian Christmas holidays, we spent two nights in Ingenio. Our first day, I've noticed this shop: Mercería Loli. Naturally I had to get in.
There were two types of yarn that I felt a sudden urge to possess: the variegated felting wool and very thick Italian yarn. I decided to sleep on it, since we still had another day (the Christmas Eve) in Ingenio.
Next morning, the choice was made. The thick yarn won. (I took the last 200 g skein they had.) The thick yarn required the thick needles — the label said 13 to 15 mm. Unfortunately, the largest size of circular needles they had was 12, and I needed circular needles for the project I had in mind. So I bought size 15 straight needles and size 12 circular. Armed with this gear, I could start on my holiday project: an extra thick snood for me.
Now that we are away from sunny and hot Fuerteventura, where I wanted to keep all the cooking to the minimum, it's time to start baking again.
Cinnamon buns are on sale here in all forms and shapes — starting from packages of ready-made ones that apparently will keep "fresh" for years (just how do they do that?), through freshly baked and "just stick in the oven" frozen ones, and to the ones that you need to assemble yourself from chilled dough.
But of course it is more interesting to make things from scratch.
Apparently truly Finnish version of those, although very similar in ingredients, is supposed to have a shape of "slapped ears", where you cut the roll of dough diagonally, alternating right and left angle of the cut, but I decided to go with straight cuts and spiral shape.
Here you can see how much butter, sugar and cinnamon filling is used. An awful lot, if you excuse a professional term.
I followed this recipe, with one important omission — I didn't use the cardamom (gasp, shock, horror). I know it is an essential ingredient, but the first time I did add it and our kids didn't like it, so... On the other hand, now, with the winter approaching, their firm preference is for anything with chocolate, so they might be leaving all of the buns for us, in which case I can start adding cardamom again.
Copy of the recipe, so you don´t have to go to and fro, with slight modifications:
Ingidients:
Dough
25 g of fresh yeast
85 g of butter, unsalted
250 ml of milk
50 ml of sugar
Pinch of salt
700 ml of flour
1 egg for glazing
Filling
85 g butter, unsalted
125 ml sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
Plus
1 egg for glazing
Process
Melt the butter and add the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm, break in the yeast, dissolve, add the rest of dough ingredients and knead until smooth. Leave to raise for 30 mins. Mix the filling meanwhile.
Knead a bit more and then roll the dough out in a rectangle. I find it easied to roll it quite thick and in a long rectangle. Spread the filling. Roll into a tube on the short side. For the easiness of cutting, I suggest you stretch/rol the tube till you can see that you can easily cut it in 12 to 16 buns. The filling is slippery, so it is easier to cut into squarish cylinders and then slap them down to disks.
Place to buns on a parchment´lined baking sheet and leave to rise for another 30 minutes.
Start the oven to 225°C. You know your oven best, so time it accordingly.
Glase with egg, sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 10 mins.
That´s it!
I guess I should watch my weight carefully in the nearest few months. Freshly baked things are so difficult to resist.
Next — wheat and rye bread. Stay tuned :)
Baked stuff pics on Shutterstock
I had this yarn sitting in my basket for so long, I can't even recall what sort of mix it was. The only thing I am sure about is that it is a silk mix, bit that as far as it goes. I tried searching, but can't find anything that rings a bell.
And Kirill managed to find it! It's "sea silk" by Hand Maiden Fine Yarns, 70% Silk, 30% Seacell 400 m, 100 g.
Anyway. It's a thin soft shiny yarn, warm to touch, dyed in a shortish sections of raspberry, purple, green and blue, so it's quite a large spread of colors. Overall effect it's more or less dark blue. From the website it looks like that particular set of colors is not done any more.
I tried different types of stitches, but in the end went for simplest all-knit — more complicated stitches didn't go well with the yarn.
As a nice little bonus, and unexpectedly for me, the short sections did form two "pools". They formed in two places where the width of the scarf is about fifteen cm, and disappeared naturally as the baktus triangle widened/narrowed.
I should probably stop knitting scarfs now :)
I don't know about you guys but I love charity shops. Charity shops is one of the things that I am missing badly on Fuertevetura, so during this year's holidays in the UK I kept buying and buying stuff in the charity shops. Fortunately, by now I learned stopping myself from buying something that I definitely not going to use — woollies. I concentrated on summery things, with one exception — this jeans jacket, which hopefully will be useful when Canarian winter strikes with its usual fierceness.
Now to "what I've done" bit. Charity shop things often have small defects on them, which I guess are reasons why the previous owners part with their much-loved stuff in the first place. This jacket was no exception — although in good condition, it had a small hole on the back of the right sleeve. And that was a good reason to exercise my (not-that-extensive) embroidery skills.
Of embroidery I know very little, practically nothing, and do even less. But one thing that I do I learned a while ago — creative darning using the chain stitch. It's an extremely useful stitch, as it is very flexible and once you've decided what figure are doing, you just sort of fumble you way along, correcting and adjusting as needed. I did my first cover-up years ago embroidering a little lizard on my best, but by-then-old, sweater. People who know me and Kirill personally might now go "ah-ha!" finally discovering the explanation for sudden appearance of color matching animals, flowers and other patterns on our garments.
This little tribal sun is not the best thing I did, but it'll do and this jacket will hopefully serve another few years.
