I love telling people about Melon Pan/Melon Bread/メロンパン, and I love eating it, but I’ve been reticent to try to make it.

It’s not made from melon. When I had my first melon pans, I spent a lot of time trying to find melon flavor, to no avail.

So why is it called melon bread? The general consensus is that it’s because it looks like a melon (though you can’t really tell that from my efforts), and if you ask people in Japan, that’s likely what they’ll tell you.

Some might tell you that a foreign baker

As with the history of most food, the origin really isn’t clear.

Anyway, a little bit more about what it is before I jump into the recipe. In short, it’s a sweet bun with a cookie crust (you score the cookie bit, and that’s how you get the lines that make it look like a melon).

The sweet bun, call kashi-pan (菓子パン), is used for lots of different treats, and often has sweet red bean or cream inside. However, it’s unfilled for melon pan.

The recipe I used for the sweet bread came from this website. The ingredients are:

1 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup cake flour (you can substitute all purpose flour by replacing some of the flour with cornstarch, which I did)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
1 large egg, beaten
3 1/2 tbsp whole milk, at about 85-90F
3 1/2 tbsp water, at about 85-90F
2 1/2 tsp room temperature butter, cubed

As always, I used my mixer. Kneading is probably a good workout, and I could probably use it. But, I digress. Here’s how to make the bread:

1) Combine the flours, sugar, and salt and mix. Now, to be perfectly honest, I’m sure that you can just use 2 cups of all purpose flour.
2) Beat the egg, and add both the egg and the yeast to the flour/sugar mix.
3) Add the milk and water. Mix using the dough hook.
4) Once the dough comes together, add the butter and continue to knead it in with the mixer. It will look weird for a while. Have faith. It will come together.
5) Put the kneaded dough into a bowl and leave it somewhere warm for one to two hours.

I made the cookie crust part of the recipe from the same website, but it just didn’t turn out for me. It crumbled and cracked and, although it adhered to the buns when baked, it just wasn’t flexible enough to cover the bun. So I found a different cookie recipe, from this website, which went better.

The ingredients are:

2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 extra large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

And here’s how I made it:

1) Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl.
2) In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar.
3) Add the egg and vanilla and mix.
4) Add the flour/baking soda mix.

In my opinion, assembling the melon bread was the hardest part. I’m not gifted with bread dough. Or anything requiring finesse, really.

The quantities for the bread dough and the cookie dough were quite different. The bread recipe was meant to make ten melon pans, the cookie recipe, eight. Put melon pan in general has an expected size, so I figure the recipes were both designed for the same size of melon pan. I ended up dividing the bread dough into ten and the cookie dough into eight, and then I just baked two sweet buns without a cookie crust.

Once the bread dough is finished rising (if you stick a finger in the dough and the hole doesn’t close back up, it’s done), measure it and divide it into ten equal pieces.

Roll those pieces into little balls and let them rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes.

Divide the cookie dough into eight pieces and put them in fridge for a few minutes. After they’ve chilled for a bit (I let mine chill for 5-10 minutes), take them out and roll them into flat circles.

To assemble, place a cookie disc in the palm of your hand, and a bun on top of it seam side up. Wrap the cookie dough around the bun and place it on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle on some sugar and score the top to get that melon look.

Most people say to dip the cookie-wrapped bun in sugar. I had a problem the cookie part falling off when I tipped it upside down (gravity, ya know?), so I just sprinkled sugar on top. It seemed to work.

Let them rise under a damp cloth for about 40 minutes and then bake them at 350F for 15 minutes.

Simple, huh?

They were tasty. And my Japanese friend said she could tell they were melon pan. So the lesson is that I need to practice more. And maybe try out some new flavors.

What are halloumopites, you might ask? Excellent question. I hadn’t heard of them either, until I decided it was time for a culinary trip to Cyprus. They’re described as cheese pies, but there are a variety of ways to make them, both pastry and bread. I was craving something savory, so I went the bread route.

As far as the cheese, halloumopites are made with a specific kind of cheese: halloumi. I actually have a strong memory of halloumi from childhood. I always think of it as that-cheese-someone-cooked-over-a-grill-that-was-squeaky-and-chewy-and-delicious.

Yes, you read that correctly. You can grill halloumi. The halloumi I got my hands on here was made from cow’s milk, but traditionally it is made from goat and sheep milks. It’s stored in a brine, so if you eat it raw, it’s got a salty, briny flavor that I really like.

I’m going to be honest. I messed this one up a bit. It’s really important to read your recipe before you just throw things together. But I’d had a heck of a time finding halloumi, and then I finally found it, and then I forgot mint. So I went back to the store. And then forgot that most of recipes I saw while researching called for dried mint and I got fresh instead. And then got home from the store after getting the mint and realized I didn’t have evaporated milk. So, then I made my own (which I really don’t recommend). But I misread the recipe and only added a little over a cup of my homemade evaporated milk when I should have added two.

As I said. I. Should. Have. Read. The. Recipe.

But the end result was tasty, even if it wasn’t the real deal.

The ingredients are:

• 3 cups grated halloumi cheese
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup evaporated milk**
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

And this is how I put them together:

1) Mix together the grated cheese, the oil, evaporated milk, mint and flour.
2) Preheat the oven to 350 F.
3) Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
4) Bake for one hour.

From a technical perspective, it’s one of the easier things I’ve made recently. Mix and bake.

And if I’d had my act together, it might have turned out better. But it isn’t bad. It’s got a mild minty flavor and a weird cheesy/bready texture that I can’t describe. It’s less cheesy than pao de queijo, but less bready than your standard bread loaf.

Not a bad snack.

OK, I’m more than a little late on this blog post, but better late than never. I decided to make hamantaschen for Purim. I even made three different fillings slightly in advance so it would take less time. Then got my days confused, and there I was at 9:00 at night, on Purim, thinking about how late it would be by the time I was done baking. So I compromised, made the cookie dough, and vowed to bake them the next day. Which I did, but I did not get the blog post up that day, obviously. And took only very poor photos throughout the process, so only one photo this time. Can’t win ’em all.

Anyway, Purim and hamantaschen. Disclaimer: I am not Jewish, and I don’t own religious texts from any religions, so the following is how I understand Purim based on what I’ve found on the internet. I’m definitely open to kind and constructive corrections.

Purim is the story of the salvation of the Jews in the Persian empire. King Ahasuerus executed Queen Vashti for not following orders, and picked Esther, a Jewish girl, to be his new wife. By beauty pageant, of course. Looks over brains, obviously. She didn’t tell him she was Jewish.

The leader of the Jews, Mordechai, refused to bow down to the prime minister Haman, who hated Jews. Haman in turn convinced the king to issue a decree ordering the extermination of all the Jews.

Before all this could happen, Esther revealed to the king that she was Jewish. Haman was hanged, and Mordechai became prime minister. A new decree was issued giving Jews the right to defend themselves against their enemies.

On the 13th of Adar (AKA the day before Purim), the Jews mobilized and killed many of their enemies. On the 14th of Adar (AKA Purim), they rested and celebrated.

And today, they eat Hamantaschen! Like pretzels, hamantaschen have an interesting history. One of the oldest mentions of hamantashcen (or oznei Haman) was in a comedy skit written by Yehudah Sommo (1527- 1592) of Italy. That literally translates to Haman’s ears, although many people also think of them as Haman’s hat. For this and all other sorts of interesting history, you can check out this website! Honestly, there is just too much history for me to do it justice.

The classic hamantaschen filling is poppy seeds (mohn) or prunes (levkar). Being an indecisive over-achiever, I decided to make three different types of filling. A date-orange filling, an apricot filling, and a prune filling.

My favorite, without a doubt, was apricot. The ingredients for that filling were:

1 3/4 cups chopped dried apricots
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cardamom (in the future, I’ll probably increase this 1/4 or 1/2)
1/8 tsp vanilla (in the future, I’ll probably increase this 1/4 or 1/2)

The ingredients for the prune filling were:

1 clementine orange peel
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 cup prunes
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I really wanted to add ginger, which is supposed to really complement prunes, but I was out. That may have something to do with the three gingerbread houses, gingerbread star Christmas tree, and gingerbread biscotti I made this year. Not that I have a problem with moderation or anything, but maybe I went just a smidge overboard with the gingerbread… Anyway, if you want to try it, give it a go!)
1/2 tsp vanilla

The ingredient for the date filling were:

1 cup dates (about 8 oz.), pitted, quartered
1 clementine orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp unsalted butter

The way I made these was pretty much the same.

1. Chop up the fruit into quarters. Smaller if you want. I knew I was going to put eat one in my food processor to smooth them out because I don’t have a masher, so quartering was fine for me.
2. Mix in the water/orange juice/lemon juice/spices/orange peel/spices/ vanilla, if in the recipe.
3. Let it simmer until it gets to an almost jam-like consistency.
3.5. For the date filling only, stir in the butter after it reaches that consistency.
4. Mash it up with a fork, potato masher, or a food processor. Whatever you have available. I like really smooth fillings and have a food processor, so that’s what I went with.

Put the filling(s) aside until you’re ready to use them.

Now, the hamantaschen recipe. I made a huge amount, since I had three fillings. If you want to be a reasonable human being (recommended), halve the recipe:

1 1/2 cup sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
2 eggs, beaten
5 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp water
Splash of milk
4 tsp orange zest

And here’s how you make it.

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. As always, I used my stand mixer.
2. Add butter and mix until mixture resembles wet sand.
3. Add the egg, orange juice, water and zest and mix until the dough comes together. The splash of milk came in for me because it just wasn’t coming together for me and I didn’t want the dough too orange-y. And I don’t have to worry about it being pareve.
4. Wrap and chill for at least an hour. I chilled overnight.
5. Preheat the over to 350F.
6. Roll out the dough to about an eighth of an inch and cut out large-ish circles. I got a three inch biscuit cutter, the rim of a large glass should be fine. Despite what the internet may tell you, they do not need to be a certain diameter. Large-ish is good, because you need room to put some filling, but too large and you get a gargantuan cookie that doesn’t hold its shape.
7. Put a teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle. Or more, if your circles are particularly large. Listen to your heart.
8. Pinch the dough at three points to create little tricorn hats.
9. Bake for 12-13 minutes.

Man, I loved these. And the limitless filling opportunities. It may be a bit like scones being a great vehicle to convey clotted cream and/or lemon curd to my mouth. But I definitely have quite a lengthy list of flavors I’d like to experiment with. Do any of you have any favorites?

It’s about time I made my way to South America. And since it’s the week of Carnival, I thought I’d stop by Brazil.

Guys, there is a lot going on down there, and I am not just talking about the celebration. I’m talking about a samba school including a tribute to Marielle Franco in a parade honoring Brazil’s forgotten heroes. I’m talking about continued resistance to those who would persecute others.

Brazil owes a lot of its culture to Afro-Brazilians. Marielle was a gay rights and Afro-Brazilian rights activist who was killed almost one year ago today, and whose murder goes unsolved. After working with the asylee/refugee population for years, I was afraid I would be numb to this sort of thing. But I am still angry to see this sort of cruelty in the world. And angry that there is so little I can do about it.

Baking some cheese bread can’t change the past, but I’m hopeful that somewhere someday someone reads this and lets their interest overcome their prejudice.

It is believed that indigenous Brazilians used cassava to make bread before the Portuguese arrived in Brazil. But arguably, it is from Afro-Brazilian culture that the world ended up with Pao de Quiejo (Brazilian cheese bread). It started out humbly as one of the cast-offs that slave owners threw to their slaves by way of food.

Namely, the powdery tapioca starch left over from making cassava root edible. Slaves made balls of dough out of that. No cheese in the bread at that time.

Slavery in Brazil ended in 1888, and dairy products, particularly in/from Minas Gerais, were incorporated into the bread. And a star was born.

Because I am unfamiliar with tapioca outside of bubble tea and tapioca pudding, I did borrow most of a recipe from another blog, by Michael Toa.

The ingredients are:

2 1/4 cups tapioca starch
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Pretty simple! The steps are pretty simple, too. But let me tell you, the order in which you do things really matters. I actually tried/modified a couple of different recipes, and depending on the way the recipe put things together, the results were radically different!

First, mix together the dry ingredients (i.e. the tapioca flour and salt, not the cheese!) in a bowl. I did this in my stand mixer.

Second, combine the milk and oil in a pan and bring to a soft boil. Seriously, the second it is boiling, remove the pan from the heat. You don’t want the mixture to reduce at all.

Third, pour the just-boiled milk/oil mixture into the stand mixer and beat it until it comes together and is relatively smooth.

Let the dough cool for several minutes before adding the eggs. It should be room temperature.

Fourth, add the beaten eggs. I added it in three parts, letting each part incorporate into the dough before adding the next. The dough was oddly silky once they were added, for such a starchy dough.

Fifth, add the cheese! I added it about a half cup at a time.

Bake at 400F for 200 minutes. And enjoy the cheesy stretchy goodness that results. I mean, really, look at that. It was chewy and cheesy and wonderful. And I’m really not that much of a cheese person.

Some recipes include other types of cheese, so I imagine the sky is the limit in terms of flavor. I’ll almost certainly make this a go-to for party/potluck contributions.

Yeah, that’s not a traditional pretzel, is it? I’ll get to that, but first, it’s National Fairy Tale day! When I think of fairy tales, I think of several people. Hans Christian Andersen. Charles Perrault. But most of all, the Brothers Grimm.

Think of all that fairy tales have done for us. For centuries, they have passed down Western moral precepts. But they’ve permeated our entire lives.

If I think about fairy tales and how they influence children and adults today, I think of the children’s book series Sisters Grimm, the comic series Fabletown, the TV show Once Upon a Time, the movies Snow White and the Huntsman and Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters, the musical Into the Woods, and more romance novel retellings than I could hope to remember.

Clearly, fairy tales have got staying power.

In honor of fairy tales, and those German brother’s Grimm in particular, it seemed a great day to make pretzels! Just your basic pretzel—not a dessert pretzel or a holiday pretzel or a sweet pretzel or a cheese pretzel or any other permutation of pretzel that exists.

Once again, this a new foray into baking for me. Pretzels have a (wait for it….) twisted history. There’s no definitive origin story. Some say they were started in monks in France or Italy. Others say there were bakers held hostage in Germany! We may never know the truth.

What we do know is that they played a prominent role in religion. Although the first evidence of pretzels appeared in the crest of German bakers’ guilds, most references come from religious sources. There was an illustration of pretzels in the Hortus Delicarum. Even more, the prayer book of Catherine of Cleves included a picture of St. Bartholomew surrounded by pretzels.

And of course, they still feature into festivals and holidays today. New Year’s Pretzels are a thing. And so I contend that there should be Fairy Tale Day pretzels. I can imagine the brothers Grimm chowing down on soft, ever so slightly salty pretzels.

Perhaps I should not project my own preferences onto historic figures. But I like soft pretzels, and I like them just kissed with salt, not coated in it.

Having never made pretzels before, I went on a hunt for a simple but tasty pretzel recipe. I used an absolutely scientific method of picking and choosing bits I liked from some recipes and bits I like from others and smoothing them together. But, the end result was very similar to Alton Brown’s recipe, which can be found here.

Because really, a basic pretzel is, well, basic. Just a bit of flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, and butter.

The pretzel dough was made from these ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbs brown sugar
2 ttsp salt
1 envelope active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

The ingredients for final steps and accoutrements (i.e. all the fancy stuff after making the dough) are:

10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
Coarse sea salt

I made mine in a stand mixer, because I am not an excellent kneader. I know practice makes perfect, but since I have a mixer, I like to use it. If you have one, use your dough hook throughout. 

The first step is to combine the warm water, sugar, and salt in the mixer bowl.

Second, sprinkle the yeast over the water, sugar, and salt mixture and let sit for about five minutes. It’ll be nice and foamy.

Third, add the flour and butter and mix on low speed until it’s all combined. Once combined, increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. It took about three minutes for me.

Fourth, let it rise! Oil a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm until the dough doubles in size.

To be honest, I only let it rise for 50 minutes because it was getting late and I was getting tired. The dough may not have doubled in size. But it did grow, and they did turn out alright, so there’s that.

After about 40 minutes, I started the second part of this process.
Namely: I heated the oven to 450 degrees F, lined two pans with parchment paper, combined the water and baking soda and set them to boil in a large pan.

Then we got to the fun part! Shaping.

I lightly oiled my work surface (all the while worrying about whether the oil would adversely affect the countertop—it did not) and divided the dough into eight roughly equal pieces. Most recipes say to roll these out into ropes, make U shapes with those ropes, cross the ends over each other and press the ends down to create the traditional pretzel shape. I did that once.
My traditional pretzel was not great, the lack of finesse was not why I only made one.

I had a special request.

Letters. There was a request for letter-shaped pretzels. I get a letter-shaped request a lot, to be honest. And I’m terrible at saying no. So even though this meant uncharted territory and potential embarrassment in front of an internet audience, off I went down the alphabet trail.

I thought about doing the ABCs, or as many of them as I could with the amount dough I had. But I had no real idea of how they were going to bake, so I just did capitals A, D, I, and N.

I wanted to see whether the crossbar of the A would float off in the soda wash. Would the D be distinguishable from an O once baked? Would an I without serifs warp and be unrecognizable? Look anything other than a log? Would an N hold its shaped even though it’s just a rope with two angles in it with nothing to wrap around to hold in place? So many unanswered questions. But, I digress.

After shaping, it was time to do the soda wash. Remember that boiling water with all that baking soda? I took each shaped pretzel and boiled it in the water for about 30 seconds.

THEY HELD THEIR SHAPES. More or less. As well as not-very-finessed pretzels could, I’d wager.

So, I beat together the egg and the tablespoon of water, brushed it over the tops of the pretzels, and sprinkled on coarse sea salt. 

Then I baked them for 13 minutes. I baked the two trays at once, so I switched racks at the six minute point to ensure they’d both brown on the outside.

They were actually delightful! I like them even better than the pretzels you can get at sports stadiums and Auntie Anne’s. 

If you’ve ever thought about trying your hand at pretzels, please do! And if you know of anybody’s grandma’s super authentic pretzel recipe, I’d love to hear about it.

Happy Valentine’s Day! After completely experimenting with nian gao, I decided to go with something simple. 

Stress-free. Something I have mastered.

So, I went with grandma’s sugar cookies. And decided to try to create a marbled cookie. 

I’ve never made grandma’s cookies like grandma. And I’ve never created marbled cookies.

Clearly, I am good at making my life stress-free.

Someday I want to make them just like grandma. I suspect I will achieve this when I am grandma-aged.

The ingredients in the original recipe are not at all precise. One or two of this. A pinch of that.

Here’s what I went with:

3 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt (ok, sorry, I didn’t measure the salt)
1/4 cup milk

Similarly, the instructions were sparse. Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Mix. Roll. Cut and bake.

Here’s what I did:

I creamed together the sugar and shortening. Then I added the eggs and vanilla. Then I added the milk and mixed well.

I mixed together the salt, baking powder, and flour. Then I added it to the wet ingredients.

And here’s where I left grandma behind. To my knowledge, she never made marbled sugar cookies. But if she did, I’m sure she did it better than I did.

At any rate, since it’s Valentine’s Day, I decided to marble with pink. First, I removed about half of the dough from the mixer bowl and set it aside.

Then I used gel food color to achieve a nice pink. Lots and lots of it. 

In the center below are my two bits of cookie dough,  ready to be marbled.

I broke them each up into four bits and (here comes the technical term) smooshed them back together. Then I folded them together a little bit create some swirls.

I broke the swirled dough up into a couple of small discs and chilled them overnight.

The next day they were ready to roll! What shape was I going to use? A heart, of course! 

And a D20.

My husband loves to game and play around with 3D printers and all that geeky stuff. So I am in possession of a D20 cookie cutter. What better way to say ‘I love you’ than a dice-shaped cookie?

They baked at 400F for nine minutes.

The marbling turned out pretty well, especially for a fly by the seat of my pants experiment.

I like to think I’d have made grandma proud. Sadly, she died when I was really young, and I don’t really remember her. 

But the cookies were nice and crisp, sweet without being cloying, and the texture was really smooth.

Still waiting on my dad to weigh in on whether I met the grandma standard… but they did pass the toddler standard. Not bad praise.

Well, I’m a bit late, but 新年快乐! That’s Happy New Year (pronounced shin nee-an kwai le), for us non-Chinese speakers.

Lunar New Year is very popular in my neck of the woods. Even the mall had a shindig, with traditional dancers (including but not limited to dragon dancers) martial arts demonstrations, red lanterns, music, and calligraphy demonstrations. Sadly, no fireworks, but if it hadn’t been indoors, maybe there would have been.

Both at the mall and in more intimate celebrations, red is the main color of decorations, because it is an auspicious color. Images of the animal that matches the year make many appearances, as well.

Much like Christmas in countries that celebrate Christmas, gifts are exchanged, as well as red envelopes containing money (generally, only children and retirees are given red envelopes). Sometimes, people give nian gao as a gift.

Nian gao is a steamed rice cake, and it is popular in part because it is considered a lucky food. The name even sounds like the phrase ‘year higher,’ so it hoped that when you eat nian gao, you will have more luck in the coming year.

I feel like I could always do with a little luck, so trying to make nian gao seemed like a good opportunity. At best, I’d be luckier in the coming year. At worst, it would be a good learning experience.

So, how do you make nian gao? With a few simple ingredients!

2 cups of water
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 pound (3 cups) sweet rice flour
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg (optional)

First, make a syrup by mixing the sugar and water together in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the sugar dissolves and let cool to room temperature.

Second, place your rice flour in a bowl and add the syrup. Normally I use a mixer, but I kicked nian gao old school and mixed it by hand in a bowl.
Add in the oil and vanilla extract and mix well.

My nian gao batter was thicker than I wanted, but first attempts are rarely perfect.

Place in oiled cake tins or cake tins lined with parchment paper.

Then put the tins in pans large enough to accommodate them and fill the pans so that the water level is at least halfway up the side of the tin.

Set the heat on low, cover, and steam the cakes for two hours. You can, and should, periodically check the water level. Add some hot water if the water gets low.

Seriously, check. See the dark spots? That was me not paying attention…

As you may have intuited, this is what it looked like when I opened the lid after two hours. Darker than I would have thought, even though all my research suggested it would be dark.

Let it cool and slice it. You can eat it just like that. Or you can dip it in egg and fry it.

I prefer it sliced and not fried.

I’m going to be honest with you. This was not my favorite cake ever. And I like mochi, which is very similar.

I think it would have been better with almond extract and/or some orange zest to brighten it. But, I did have some friends who enjoyed it. And I love learning new things, so it was a great experience. If you feel like being adventurous next lunar new year, consider giving it a try.

Why pulla? A couple of reasons. First, the shutdown is over, my friends! I’m back at work, doing my thing, for at least another three weeks. When we might start again. So, maybe, lukewarm news! But I felt like celebrating with a new baking project.

To explain the other reasons, I’m going to backtrack a bit. I’m a Michigander. And pulla made its way to Michigan via Finland.

It’s mostly popular in the upper peninsula, where it is called nisu. But although I haven’t spent a ton of time there, I was feeling nostalgic and this was a new bread, so it called to me.

Why did I get nostalgic?

Well, I keep an eye on Michigan news. And boy did a news story catch my eye. Despite the article being disconcerting, I really can’t think of my home state with anything but love.

Michigan is one of the most gerrymandered states in the USA.

If you don’t know what gerrymandering is, it’s drawing political districts to benefit political parties. It can also aid or harm constituents based on race, religion, or other demographics. Basically, it’s bad news.

Not too long ago, a lawsuit over the issue was filed in Michigan. The article said that Michigan is now trying to settle the lawsuit. Happily, there is good news on the horizon.

Michigan passed a proposal to change the way it draws districts so that a commission with four Democrats, four Republicans, and five people without party affiliation are involved. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. So pulla is my nod to Michigan, Finland, and to cardamom.

Pulla is a cardamom-spiced bread. It can be a plain loaf. It can be braided. It can even be baked as rolls.

However it’s baked, apparently many barkers mark the dough with a cross to bless the bread. It is absolutely amazing how food reflects religion.

It’s usually eaten with tea or coffer. For tea-obsessed me, it seemed like a great thing to try.

As you know, I subscribe to the “grandma” philosophy of baking, so although I had a recipe that I used as a guide, I kind of made a recipe up as I went along.

Actually, I made two loaves; one plain, and one with raisins and a sugar topping.

Sorry I didn’t measure the raisins. I added as many as seemed right to me. 

The ingredients are:

1 package of yeast
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup melted butter
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cardamom
2 room temperature eggs

I’m not sure I’ve made a single loaf of yeast bread before, but I think it went well.

First, I combined the water and milk in a saucepan and warmed it. I wanted to measure the temperature, but there wasn’t enough liquid for my thermometer to work.

It’s supposed to be warmed to 110F. I went with this: when it was warm enough that when I stuck a finger in I didn’t want to keep it there, but didn’t feel an immediate urge to yank it out.

I combined the milk/water mixture with the sugar in the bowl of my stand mixer and sprinkled the package of yeast on top and let it sit for five minutes.

After it sat, I added two cups of flour, the eggs, the salt, and the cardamom.

Once well-mixed, I added the melted butter. I used a spoon to mix instead of my dough hook. The dough hook just wasn’t incorporating the way stirring would.

Once that was incorporated, I added in about two and a quarter cups more flour using the dough hook. 

The exact amount you will need depends on how wet your dough is, so add the flour a bit at a time until the dough comes together and doesn’t stick to your fingers.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover loosely with a damp towel and leave to rise for an hour to an hour and a half. It should double in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knock it back a little with your knuckles.

Then divide it into three equal ropes about 20 inches long and shape them into a bread. I haven’t braided since grade school, so I thought the end results were not too bad.

The finished braids, both plain and with raisins!

Don’t braid if you don’t want a braid. If you just want to make rolls or something, make rolls. I like braids because they’re purty.

Brush it with the egg wash and let it rise another 30 minutes. You can, if you wish, sprinkle it with sugar, and/or sliced almonds. Or anything else.

Bake at 370F for 30 minutes.

Not only did I love the results of both loaves, but I took the plain loaf to share with friends and got nothing but great feedback. If you like bread and you like cardamom, I hope you give this a shot!

And if you have any ideas or requests, let me know! I like learning about baking traditions, and fusion is fun, too!

The shutdown is dragging on, my friends. So, in honor of America’s longest shutdown, I decided that it was worth a bake. Also, I am stir crazy. I had a Costco sized bag of chocolate chips that my mom had given me sitting in the pantry. Why not?

Before I jump into that, a brief comment on the shutdown and what it means to me.

America’s president has recklessly shut down the government and is holding my paycheck hostage. Even worse, he’s making thousands of people work without pay. And recalling people to work without pay for non-emergency tasks.

Like processing taxes (but not providing refunds). In my mind, it’s criminal.

And the offer that Trump made on January 19, 2019 was a non-starter–not just for liberals. Conservatives didn’t like it, either. 

For me, the worst part was how it constricted asylum for minors from Central America. Here are two highlights:

1. They’d have to apply in their home countries (despite current law stating that prospective asylees must be in the USA to apply, the fact that there will be not grace period, and the fact that it will take months to set up a mechanism for them to do this). 
2. It would cap asylum processing at 50,000, and asylum granted would be capped at 15,000.

Call me crazy, but if you’re running for your life, you probably can’t wait to be processed in your home country, and you’ll need to be given a fair shot. If America meets that cap before you arrive, you’re just out of luck?

That’s just inhumane. Immoral. That a political party with so much emphasis on Christian values could even entertain this is beyond me.

And the wall? Utterly pointless. Even one of our most conservative think tanks agrees.

So yes, the shutdown and what it represents makes profoundly angry and profoundly sad.

Chocolate chip cookies seemed a decent comfort. 

They’re an American favorite. I have yet to see a cookbook that includes cookies that does not have a recipe. And we’ve probably all used the cookie recipe from the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag. So called because chocolate chip cookies got their start in 1938 at the Toll House Inn.

Seriously, where would we be without them? What would we do for care packages? At bake sales? Snack stands? Parties? Home Ec classes? Gotta have ’em. 

Massachusetts even made it the state cookie!

Some people like crispy cookies. 

Others like cakey cookies. This, coincidentally, I will never understand. Why eat cakey cookies when you can just eat cake? Feel free to weigh in on this point.

Still others like chewy versions. I fall into this camp. Here’s my version. I honestly don’t remember where I cobbled this recipe together from, but to get a chewier cookie, I knew I had to increase the moisture.

The ingredients are:

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups milk chocolate chips (or more, if you prefer)

They’re really easy to make! I used a mixer for most of it, and then got nostalgic and tried to stir in the chocolate chips using a spatula. 

And promptly broke the spatula. Snapped the wooden handle of it in half. Be sure to use a study spatula or wooden spoon if you get nostalgic like me.

First, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Second, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. You’ll want to beat them for a little while so they’re light-ish and fluffy (the dark brown sugar is going to reduce the lightness bit, but not the fluffiness. I beat them together for two minutes.

Third, add in the vanilla and eggs. Mix until well combined. 

Fourth, add in the flour mixture. In a mixer, they’ll mix relatively quickly! By hand it may take a bit.

But once you are done with that, you’re to the fun part! Toss in those chocolate chips. Make it rain chocolate chips. Mmmm, chocolate chips.

The size of your cookie is up to you. I like to measure about a tablespoon and space them out to allow for spreading, although chewy cookies spread less than the other varieties. Two inches between cookies should do it.

Measure out about a tablespoon of cookie dough, and roll it in your hands until it forms a smooth ball. Place that ball on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

These cookies bake for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now, I was in a Korean bakery where they sell chocolate chip cookies the other day. Their cookies have one characteristic that mine have never had, but I was enamored with. There were chocolate chips on top of the cookies. Not in, on!

So, when I brought my cookies out, I grabbed about 3-4 extra chips for each cookie and immediately pressed them into the top. 

Cookies are still soft right out of the oven (especially chewy ones!), so they were easy to press in, and stayed in the cookie really well as it cooled.

I also took the opportunity to sprinkle them with a little sea salt. I like the added flavor. 

If you’re not a sea-salt-and-chocolate kind of person, this totally optional. If you’re not a I-like-seeing-chocolate-chips-atop-my-cookie kind of person, that is optional, too. But I really think you’ll like it if you try.

They did not make the shutdown go away. My paycheck is still held hostage. But at least I have some chocolaty, chewy goodness to enjoy for a few days.

We couldn’t attend International Night at the kiddo’s preschool. It was really disappointing because it was an awesome opportunity to get to know the kids and other parents. The deal was that participants would create a poster or other small presentation about their cultural heritage, and provide a representative snack. 

Kiddo’s dad has Irish heritage, so we wanted to create a poster highlighting a recent trip to Ireland, and bring some books from Irish folklorists and contemporary writers (literary culture in Ireland is amazing!), and serve up some soda bread.

Alas, it was not to be at that time. But the time to provide weekly snacks at the preschool has come, so we had the opportunity to provide at least some Irish soda bread.

I’d love to say that in my travels to Ireland I connected with some really traditional locals and got my hands on an awesome recipe that way. 

Unfortunately, that was not the case. I tried a couple of different recipes from the internet after our trip, and although they were OK, none of them really struck me as being amazing. 

And I didn’t find the website for the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread until after this blog post. It contends, perhaps rightly, that any additions to Irish soda bread beyond flour, baking soda, buttermilk, and salt render the baked good not Irish soda bread. 

But the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread does not have 30 toddlers to please, so I took some liberties in deciding what to bake. Especially since I know there are regional variations including other ingredients.

Luckily, my husband broke out his copy of the Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook (it can be found at gift shops at Ellis Island, I’m sure, but it’s also available here). So I had a recipe, and it looked like it would be tasty.

The ingredients are:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick of melted butter
1 1/2 cups raisins
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 tsp baking soda

It’s pretty easy to get the dough together, especially if you have a mixer like a KitchenAid. 

1) Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2) Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar together.
3) Add melted butter and mix.
4) Stir in raisins and caraway seeds.
5) Combine the buttermilk, egg, and baking soda.
6) Make a well in the center of the batter. Pour in the buttermilk, egg, baking soda, and mix.

Here’s where I diverged from the directions. The book instructs you to place in a large iron frying pan and bake it in that. I don’t have a large iron frying pan, so I went about things differently.

7) Form a loaf on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
8) Cut an X on the top of the loaf and moisten with melted butter.
9) Bake for an hour.

I’m a nerd and I really love step two. I found it really fun to mix sugar with the dry ingredients, because I’m used to sugar being a wet ingredient. I enjoyed seeing how the sugar crystals mixed with all the dry powders. I know, I’m weird.

I was in a bit of a rush to bake enough soda bread for 30 toddlers, so I didn’t look up whether the X should have cut all the way through the loaf, or just have been scored across, so I went with something in the middle.

The cross, as with other scores made in baking, serves a purpose. It allows the heat to penetrate the bread, and allows the bread to expand while it cooks. Mine sure expanded, as you’ll see below. But legend has it that it wards off the devil, too. Who knows?

It tasted really good. The kids loved it (although the teachers just called it raisin bread, because preschoolers aren’t really going to be sensitive to the name of something; just what’s in it). The teachers raved about it the next day. I really recommend any fans of Irish soda bread give this a try.

Also, slices of Irish soda bread are wonderful for conveying Kerrygold butter into your tummy.