Quince Season & Overdyed Wool

It's quince season again, I'm not going to repeat last years post in which I described how I make quince jelly & membrillo paste, but I will tell you that I also tried something a little different this year, bottled quince poached in a honey and rose water syrup.

The 3 jars at the rear left of the photo are the bottled quince, the rest are the quince jelly. The membrillo is bubbling and spitting away as I'm typing, no doubt there will be a major clean up session later ha ha.













I'm considering using this tin to set the membrillo, however, do I brush the insides of the cups with glycerine to try to prevent it sticking, or do I line the cups with baking paper? The safest bet is probably the paper. The cups on this tin are deep and cylindrical, not like a muffin or cupcake tin, I think the finished membrillo will look like good if my plan works:

I overdyed some yarn last week. I bought it over 10 years ago and came across it while having a clear out/stash tidy. There was 600g, enough for a cardigan and it was a shame to throw it out as it's really good quality stuff. Debbie Bliss merino DK, I just really disliked the colour which was a very very pale baby blue. So I skeined it up, soaked it and overdyed it to a nice semi solid shade of deep hunter green:

I could have either gone green or purple with it owing to it's original colour, but I had a pattern already in mind and wanted to go with the green. I'm really pleased with how the dye job turned out. The cardigan is knit from the top down in one piece.

I still haven't finished the cowl, but only have about another 10 cm to knit so almost there with it.










Here's my Mother's Day Terrarium ~ I'm over the moon with this. I normally get flowers but it's so nice to receive something that will last much longer than a bouquet.

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze

I seem to be on a bit of a bread making drive at the moment. Last week Pitta breads, this weekend I made fruited buns and today cinnamon rolls. Here's the recipe, it's quite a long one, but most of the time you aren't actually doing anything:


For the rolls:
2/3 cup milk
1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 cups plus 2 Tbsp high grade flour

For the Filling:
50g butter, melted
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup soft brown sugar

For the Frosting:
100g cream cheese
50g soft butter
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm the milk and sprinkle the yeast over it, let it sit until it begins to get foamy. About 5 minutes

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the butter, sugar, salt, and egg.

Fit the mixing bowl onto the mixer with the dough hook. With the mixer on the lowest setting, pour in the milk/yeast mixture and the flour. Increase speed to medium and let the dough knead for about 5 minutes until it forms a soft sticky dough. The mixture will seem quite wet at first, but will form a smooth soft dough once kneaded. If the mixture is too wet after kneading, add more flour a little at a time until a soft but sticky dough forms.

Let the dough rest, covered with a damp tea towel for 10 minutes.

Roll it out into a rectangle approx 15 x 10".

Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle over the brown sugar and cinnamon. You can add a cup of dried fruit at this stage if you like.

Roll the dough tightly into a large tube starting at the wide side. Pinch the dough shut to seal. Cut into individual rolls (approx 12) and place on a baking sheet or in a greased rectangular tin. I use dental floss for this, slide it under the dough and then pull both ends together and across each other ~ it will slice straight through it without compressing the dough or dragging out half of the filling.

Cover with plastic film and allow the rolls to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. If you are making the dough a day ahead, cover the rolls in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. Remove from the refrigerator about 30 minutes prior to baking the next day. Preheat oven to 190ºC

Bake the rolls for 20 - 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the frosting/glaze ~ mix all the ingredients together and beat well. 

Spread the frosting over the rolls while they are still slightly warm.

Before rising

After 50 minutes rising

After baking

Ready to eat!













I've made some progress on my Callicarpa cowl,  I decided to add beads on only alternate mesh panels:

 ~ I can never seem to find a crochet hook with a small enough head when adding beads. So instead I use dental floss to add them quickly and easily. You can see from the above photo where this is going - slide the stitch off the needle then slide the bead down over the stitch and put the stitch back on the needle using the floss.

Easy Pitta Breads

Pitta bread, also known as Arabic bread or Lebanese bread is a soft, lightly leavened flat bread. It's so easy to make these at home. They are crisp on the outside and soft and light on the inside and are quick to make as they only require one proving. I make the dough in my bread making machine, on the dough only setting, then remove the dough, shape and bake. If you are making them to toast later, then make sure you don't make them too big if you want to fit them into your toaster.

Pitta Bread

Makes 8 large breads
250 ml warm water
375g strong plain flour (bread flour, you may need a little bit more than this depending on how it absorbs the liquid)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast

Mix everything together in a large bowl, turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, if it feels a bit too sticky add a little more flour whilst kneading.

Pop the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until it's doubled in size, this will take 45 mins to 1 hour.













When the dough is ready, punch it down in the bowl and lightly knead on a floured surface. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees and put a baking tray on the top shelf of the oven to heat. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll each piece out until it's a few millimetres thick, I lay them on paper lined trays until I'm ready to pop them in the oven.

Remove the tray from the oven, quickly dust with flour and place the breads on it. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes, they will rise up quite quickly. Remove from the oven and wrap in a tea towel. Repeat with the remaining breads. Enjoy your freshly baked breads.

Anzac Biscuits

Today is Anzac day in New Zealand, so of course I had to bake a batch of Anzac biscuits. 

For people who don't know the story - Anzac biscuits originated during WW1 when wives and mothers would bake these oat biscuits to send to the Anzac troops fighting at Gallipoli.

These economical biscuits did not require any eggs, which were scarce during war time, the biscuits travelled well and didn't spoil due to the lack of egg in the recipe.

I love the coconut/oat flavour of these biscuits. When making them I bake half crispy and half softer due to family preferences. 

Anzac Biscuits:

Pre-heat the oven to 160 deg
Makes approx 18 large cookies.

Mix together in a bowl:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup oats
1 cup soft brown sugar
Melt together in a small saucepan:
125g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons water

Once the butter has melted add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to the pan and stir.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Form into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball (using wet hands is easier as the mixture is quite sticky).

Place them on a tray and flatten them out.

Bake 15 mins for softer chewy style cookies, 18 - 20 mins for crisp biscuits. Let them cool on the tray for 5 minutes or so before trying to remove them to a cooling rack. They will crisp up more as they cool.

I like my biscuits to be the same size, the way I do this is to use the base of a drinking glass (dipped in cold water) to flatten them out. It's the easiest and quickest way I've found, flatten them out until they are the same size as the base of the glass.

Oscar Wabbit, Spinning for Socks and a Cowl.

I've been grooming Oscar every 2-3 days to keep his coat nice, but I noticed over the last week his fibre is starting to shed when I comb him and he has been feeling the heat, so obviously it's time to pluck him. This doesn't hurt the rabbit, you are just removing the old coat and leaving the new short coat behind. It was rather time consuming as I went slowly, not wanting to frighten him with it being the first time either of us had gone through this process, but he was happy enough and enjoyed the cuddles and attention.

Here he is before plucking:

And after, notice how dark his new short coat looks compared to his old one:

Here's the box of treasure, it weighs just 28g.

The good thing about plucking as opposed to cutting the fibre is that you get the full staple length, whereas in cutting I would not dare cut near to his skin and would be lucky to get a 2" staple length.

I didn't cut the fibre from his ears or cheeks, but I did clip his legs and paws and trimmed his claws which were as sharp as needles before. 

Hopefully he will feel much cooler and will be easier to groom. Now I'm going to spin some of the fibre ~ another bonus being that it's already clean and not full of v.m...... unlike the alpaca's!

I started spinning some Corriedale sock blend fibre that I dyed a while back, more Autumnal colours:

Then I cast on for a cowl, and learnt a new method of doing a provisional cast on in the process:

The pattern is Callicarpa

The yarn is Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino Dk in Purple Plum.

Here's a link to the winding on provisional cast on tutorial.

And that's all for now folks!

Friday Finish.

The HyperNoro scarf is all finished, I love the lightness of this scarf ~ it weighs next to nothing but drapes beautifully. The yarn felt quite crunchy before I soaked and blocked it but it's softened up nicely and developed a slight halo ~

And here are some pics of the Orchard fibre I spun, that's now finished too!

Singles

'N' plying

Finished skein
NZ Halfbred fibre
Orchard colourway
250 metres
Navajo Plied
sport weight












Now to decide what to make next. I think a bit more spinning, possibly this little beauty:

This is an 85% Polwarth & 15% silk blend and is dyed randomly. Maybe I will fractal spin this one and see what happens!

Spinning Autumn Colours

My HyperNoro scarf is off the needles and I will post more photo's tomorrow when it's finally dry.

I don't know what to knit next ~ so while I think about what to make I thought I would do a little spinning. This fibre is New Zealand Half Bred and the colourway is 'Orchard' a beautiful combination of Autumnal gold/tan, greens and plum-purple, just right for this time of year.

I've lightly drafted the fibre out and as it's dyed in a gradient colourway I'm going to spin it from light to dark then 'N' ply to preserve the colour changes. I will be aiming for a fingering/4 ply weight finished yarn.

Here's a shot of my HyperNoro scarf on the blocking wires. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, it's big ~ 210 cm long x 20 cm wide. The first fan section took 15g, so I kept knitting until I had 15g left then knit the second, final fan.