PastryMade Rolling Pins: 5 Tips to Roll with the Best!

If you're wondering if PastryMade's rolling pins are worth the splurge, they are! The designs are laser-etched deeply to give you great results. There are dozens to choose from, and several are bee-themed. I bought Honeycomb, Morning Birds, and my third pin (not shown) is the Stand with Ukraine one, which literally supports families in the Ukraine.

Their butter cookie recipe (below) makes a really nice cookie that's not particularly sweet but not particularly rich either. Tender crisp, they are perfect with a cup of tea. The recipe is super easy, but here are some tips to help you get the best results from your specialty pins.

Tip #1: the Regular size is more than adequate, no need to spend another $10 for the Big rolling pin.

Tip #2: use spoon butter to prep your pins

Tip #3: a Silpat will give you the classic, blonde shortbread cookie look

Tip #4: rice flour gives you a nonstick work surface and tender reworked dough

Tip #5: clean the grooves with a toothbrush for perfect impressions time and time again.

These fall somewhere between a sugar cookie and a classic shortbread. 

Butter cookies made with the Honeycomb Rolling Pin.

I've made these with Irish butter and supermarket butter, and it doesn't make a huge difference. You can even use salted butter if that's what you've got. With the exception of needing to use a scale, it's a very forgiving recipe. The volume measurements (in parentheses) are close approximations.

Morning Birds, bottoms dipped in chocolate. A little bottom browning helps balance the flavors.

The recipe makes about 60 cookies. I can fit two dozen on a half-sheet and bake two sheets at a time, so the time spent actually baking is short. It's a good idea to bake one tray to start, to determine if you need to adjust your oven temperature up or down.

With the oven at the right temperature, baked cookies won't look much different from unbaked ones.

I bake at 350°F when using Super Parchment (top tray above), which tends to bottom brown the cookies, whereas Silpat (bottom tray above) isn't prone to that. I prefer my shortbreads blonde, but color = flavor so go for it if that's what you like. 

The recipe makes about 60 cookies.

PASTRYMADE BUTTER COOKIES

butter 200g / 7.05 oz. (14 Tbsp.)
1 egg
2 T. olive oil (I prefer something neutral, like avocado oil)
pinch of salt
flour 400g / 14.1 oz. (shy 3¼ cups)
icing (powdered) sugar 150g / 5.25 oz. (1⅓ c.)

It doesn't get any easier than this! Place all (room temperature) ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until thoroughly combined. Roll, cut, bake.

Ready for the TMI?

Rest the dough in the fridge while you prep your rolling pin(s). I don't like the idea of using oil, which will eventually go rancid. Instead, I recommend treating it with spoon butter, which is more durable and won't need to be repeated as often. Use a manual toothbrush to really work it into the engraved details. The warmth of your hands can help it penetrate the wood.

Working with half the dough, use a regular rolling pin and roll to a thickness somewhere between ⅛- and ¼-inch. Lightly dusting your work surface and the dough with rice flour will help you get the best impression from your engraved pin. Rice flour has no gluten so won't toughen up your cookies even after rerolling the scraps.

Though the pins spin nicely on their handles, I find that using them requires a slight forward push which stretches and tears the dough. Not using the handles, treating it like a French pin, works better for me. Use more downward pressure than forward pressure (though I suppose you could start from the far edge and roll toward yourself). For evenly thick cookies start to finish, make a mental note of how the downward pressure feels. The dough expands forward as it's manipulated by a small amount, but there is no stretching (so there's no rebound and your cookies keep their shape as they bake). If the impression isn't as intense as you'd hoped, you can flip the dough over and try again if it's thick enough. I probably do it 50% of the time.

My favorite cutters are a fluted 38mm/1½" and 48mm/1⅞". Since the cookies don't expand, I place them practically touching each other on a lined half-sheet. Silpat are ideal. Super Parchment is a less expensive sustainable option. Parchment paper, especially the thin cheap kind, can get wavy as the dough releases moisture, producing cookies that aren't flat. Gather the scraps, reroll and cut until you run out of dough. You'll roll out the other half of the dough while the first batch bakes.

Clean the pin with the toothbrush if the dough starts sticking (and when you're done for the day). To help the pattern be most visible, PastryMade recommends chilling the sheet of cookies for 20-30 minutes but I don't bother. While the oven preheats and by the time I've loaded up two cookie sheets, they've rested plenty.

The original recipe says to bake at 200°, which I didn't realize was Celsius until several minutes after they were supposed to be done baking, they just looked wet and raw. Converted that's 392°F but I find it too hot. It makes the cookies puff up so the design gets stretched and muted, plus the cookies don't bake through evenly. At lower temperatures, the cookies don't budge, so the design stays crisp and the bottom is evenly golden. As with all cookies, if you don't see them at least starting to turn gold on the edges, you run the risk of the cookies tasting flour-y and being a little chewy (underbaked). You can bake multiple trays at a time, rotating and swapping trays midway. Depending on how thick your cookies are, bake for 9-15" per batch. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and repeat with the other half of the dough.

These cookies taste like a lightly sweet, classic shortbread. A trio of them is a good accompaniment to a cup of tea any day.

BONUS TIPS for making it to the bottom of this post!

#1: No Pressure! the Buy 2 Get 1 promotion is perpetual, despite PastryMade's constant ads (and website) saying Only Today. Try THANKS10 for 10% off your order.

#2: Use milk chocolate if you're decorating the cookies; their delicately flavor is overwhelmed by dark chocolate.

#3: Scraping seeds from half a vanilla bean gives these simple cookies a greater depth of flavor.

Let me know if you make these cookies, and if you used a fancy rolling pin! 

Beeswax Wraps & 3 DIY tips that work!

DIY beeswax wraps that work! A 5" wrap covers a Oui jar perfectly. A 7" wrap is more than ample for an 8-ounce ramekin.

Determined to make a substitute for plastic cling wrap and foil, today's post is on things I learned from making beeswax wraps. In case you've got the crazy idea to make your own, too, I hope I can save you some trouble.

Tip #1: Wraps made with pure beeswax alone are brittle and don't cling at all. If you're a beekeeper with a Warré Hive, they are fantastic between the top bars and quilt!

Tip #2: A little oil provides flexibility, so your wraps bend without cracking. Think of a wax/oil version as a foil substitute. It's bendy and holds its shape but doesn't make an airtight seal. Stay away from cooking oils with short shelf lives. I like meadowfoam, which is a North American native wildflower. It has a longer shelf life than jojoba oil, and I can use a tad less oil.

Tip #3: Resin is what puts the cling in DIY cling wrap. If you're wondering about using propolis, the resin-like substance made by bees, at the amount needed to create cling it imparts a strong odor and bitter taste to wrapped items. And I mean really bitter. Invest in pine resin in powder form; chunk form takes too long to melt, which degrades your wax/oil. A 1-pound bag of pine resin will make about 12 dozen wraps. (If you find a smaller bag for less than $15, please let me know!)

If you're ready to embark on making your own, my formulation makes an extra sticky blend for beeswax wraps that actually work! I'm providing volume measurements for convenience but, especially if small-batch crafting, I highly recommend a quality digital scale like a MyWeigh, which is accurate to a tenth of a gram.

DIY Beeswax Wraps Recipe

Makes ~(5) 12"x12" wraps.

60 g. beeswax (about 1/2 c. pastilles)
20 g. pine resin (about 2 1/2 Tbsp.)
12 g. jojoba (1 Tbsp) oil

Melt everything together using a water bath, stirring until completely blended. I use a milk frothing pitcher set in a small sauce pot over medium heat, and it takes about 15-20 minutes to make sure the resin is completely dissolved. The resin sinks to the bottom, so you'll know it's fully dissolved when you don't feel your stirring tool dragging anymore. Double-check that there aren't globs stuck to your stirrer, though.

Resin needs a good amount of heat to melt. Maintain a simmer.

Instead of brushing the liquid mixture onto fabric, I pour it thinly into molds. Once set, I pop out a few wafers and iron them into fabric that's in-between pieces of parchment paper. You want to barely saturate the fabric, but if you put on too much just use the iron to push the excess out past the fabric edges (but still inside the parchment sheets). Using the next piece of fabric to absorb it, it's almost zero waste and cleanup is a breeze. This is especially why I love the wafer/iron method.

A "cake mold" like this one is about $9 on Amazon. Clean each well with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol for a polished finished piece.

Beeswax Wraps Wafers

Quick to melt, three wafers will treat a large piece of tight-weave fabric. My first beeswax wraps were made out of an old but high-quality cotton percale pillowcase, upcycling at its best. An economical option is remnants at your local fabric store (mine is Joann), or buy quilting squares or fat quarters are cute and fun.

I prefer to wax my fabric first and cut it to size afterward, which minimizes fraying.

Use a rotary cutter or pinking shears if you have them. Either will reduce fraying but you'll always have loose threads…don't pull them! You can hem the edges if you're sewing the fabric into a baggie.

It's easy to pinch pieces off the wafers, to ensure even coverage. You move the pools of wax with your iron so you don't have to be perfect or precise. (Be sure to place a piece of parchment paper underneath and on top.)

Because my friends say things like, "You should sell these on Etsy," you can buy my Beeswax Wraps Waxing Wafers, four for $4.

etsy.com/shop/BackyardBeeHive – DIY beeswax wraps waxing wafers, premixed

If you'd rather not spend $15 for resin and make 144 wraps, then these ready-to-use waxing wafers are for you! If you have year-old wraps that have lost their stickiness and need a refresh, these waxing wafers are for you! Or if you have beeswax wraps that weren't sticky enough in the first place, these waxing wafers are for you!

My Beeswax Wraps Waxing Wafers are four for $4 (plus cost to mail). Four wafers will make up to nine (9) wraps with plenty leftover for touch-ups. Depending on how you cut it, from one quilting square you can make:

• three 7x7" (small) and two 10x13" (medium) wraps
• 3 small, (1) 7x13" (rectangular medium), and (1) 13x13" (large) wrap
• 3 small and 1 extra-large 13x20" wrap (perfect for covering a lasagna pan with handles)

Remember, you're not limited to squares or rectangles. I find rounds to be the most versatile. The cast-offs make terrific fire starters, and I mean terrific. 🔥 Or don't cut the quilting square at all, and sew it into a plastic-free baggie. The possibilities are endless. 

DIY Beeswax Wraps Waxing Wafers

BONUS TIP for making it to the end of this post: Making DIY, and indeed using, beeswax wraps is messy business. Rubbing alcohol will clean up drips and smudges, and hand sanitizer is your skin's best friend.

Olympian Fig Tree, Air Layer vs. Cutting Prop

On the topic of bees, figs can't be bee-pollinated! Their flowers are inverted and require a specialized pollinator. They're pollinated by wasps, aptly called fig wasps.

OFF-TOPIC: Here's an update on my fig tree propagations. As a reminder, to produce two new trees (from one that was dying from Root Knot Nematodes) in July 2023, I took one stem cutting and did an air-layer. I didn't know if one method was better than the other, but now I definitely have a preference. Have a look at how they compare.

(L) Cut branch propagation, 6-weeks from being taken off the donor plant (R) and being rooted in soil. Here it's getting its third pot-up. The donor plant is no worse for the wear of taking props but also no signs of improvement in re: RKN.

(L) Air-layered propagation, 6 weeks of root formation despite my negligence and letting the sphagnum dry out. It's getting its first pot-up. Click on the picture for a zoomable view.

Late-August 2023 (a month since taking the cuttings): The cutting prop lost all but one leaf but then grew so fast it had to be potted up three times. It put all its energy into a single trunk. The well-rooted air-layer prop's first potting was into a 1-gallon nursery pot, where it sent up a whole new branch. The difference in leaf size is remarkable. The cutting (in the grow bag in the photo below) is pushing out huge leaves and the trunk is thickening up nicely, too. Figs like full sun, so I wonder what difference leaf size will make in fruit production.

Another 6 weeks: The air-layer prop doubled its number of leaves and is working to push out a third branch. I wasn't planning on potting up again but the squirrels dumped it over, looking for a place to plant acorns.

It rains so much here, 20 inches in a 3-month period this summer, there's no such thing as a pot with too much drainage. Fabric grow bags work pretty well but you do have to watch out for mold and mushrooms growing on the bags. I haven't had ants move into my grow bags like they do my plastic pots. Every pot with a drainage hole has an ant problem, that is, until I scratch neem seed meal into the soil. It takes care of them like magic! Even though I have a solution, I'd rather not have the problem in the first place, so I'm switching to grow bags whenever possible.

The green fibrous stuff is Better Than Rocks, which I use in my outdoor pots with drainage holes. It keeps the ants from using them as doorways to their new favorite home.

I repotted the dumped over fig into a grow bag like its sibling. It's not quite apples-to-apples, though, because it has superior drainage with a bottom layer of Better Than Rocks. I think container grown figs need that, and if they aren't getting it they let you know through brown spots on the leaves.

The Three Little Figs

October 2023: I finally found a use for those darn plastic onion bags! I'm hoping they'll keep the squirrels from planting any more acorns. The purple one is the cutting prop, red is the air layered prop. See the difference in leaf size? The donor plant is on the right. It's got lots of fresh RKN galls so the neem seed meal and straight vermicompost did not remedy that problem. I'm having a hard time with the thought of throwing it away but it's too late in the year to take more propagations. What would you do?

Winter's are pretty mild in coastal VA. 

The trees stayed outside all winter, their pots simply snugged up against the brick wall of our condo. They even held their leaves throughout the dormancy period, Nov-March. 

April 2024 Update: The cutting prop is single-stemmed and about 2-feet tall. The air-layer tree split into two branches so is half the height. I'll share with you if its the lateral structure is more fruitful than the vertical, tree form.

tree-form from cutting prop (L), multi-stem from air-layer prop (R)

June Update: double bumps! They're a fig tree thing. One bud is a lateral (branch) bud; the other is a figlet or fig "embryo." Fig trees generally bear fruit on new, growing shoots (green wood) but may also fruit on one-year-old stems.

Double Bump: which is a branch bud and which is a figlet is TBD. Gotta guess?

July 2024, one year since taking the cuttings: no update but here's a recipe! Roasted Figs with Mascarpone, from Mark Bittman's How to Bake Everything (highly recommend!)

July: the cutting-prop tree, right outside the kitchen door, is now 3-feet tall.

Late-August 2024 update: no fig fruit this year

purple = cutting propagated, single-stemmed fig tree; red = air-layer propagated, multi-branched fig tree

I'm seeing figs at the farmers markets, so I guess all my trees are giving me in 2024 is vegetative growth. One-year old trees are capable of fruiting but mine are waiting for year 2. As a matter of fact, I can see the formation of a breba! Brebas are a small Spring crop produced on last year's new growth. According to the Fig Boss, it comes 4-6 weeks ahead of the main Summer crop. 

Double bumps on the vertical tree form (cutting prop). Pointy buds are branch buds.

The rounded bump is the breba. It's on the multi-branched shrub form.

Both trees are in 3-gallon plastic pots. In the spring, I will probably pot them up into 5- or 7-gallon ones as their permanent home. That's as big as I can go with my tine patio garden. That's it for now. Hope your summer's been brilliant!

More reading on fig pollination: Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Figs

May your holidays be golden and sweet!

I offer to you, these, my favorite cards & one-minute mug cake recipe to help.

Horizontal or vertical, 5x7", 7x5", 3.5x5"… it's your choice. The eggshell texture paper is easy to write on and doesn't smudge. Better yet, customizing the from our hive to yours message makes holiday card writing easy peasy. When you Personalize this template, you don't have to do any!

Designed by yours truly, and they're trending on Zazzle! 💎

Order today and you'll have them in plenty of time to mail your holiday cards to states far and wide. (FYI Dec. 17 is the deadline to mail 1st class in the lower 48.) Printed with metallic foil ink & made in the USA. 🇺🇸

Currently half-price plus you can get up to 10.5% in cash back with a browser extension like BeFrugal, Coupon Cabin or Rakuten!

5x7 card and matching mini mug

I use my matching mini mug everyday. It's espresso sized – the absolute perfect size for mug cake (recipe below) – but you'll find jumbo size and bone china, too. Get yours when you order your 𝙱𝙴𝙴 Mҽɾɾყ cards.

This link will take you to my Zazzle storefront. I have a lot more bee-themed products designed but I'll be darned if I can get Zazzle to display them. 🥴 https://www.zazzle.com/store/backyardbee THANKS FOR LOOKING!

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Instant Cocoa Mug Cake

For this recipe, you make "The Mix" and then whenever you're in the mood for warm, soft chocolate cake, you use it to make the batter, right in your mug. One minute later, you've got mug cakes! No eggs needed and if you use a milk substitute, it's completely vegan. Oat and almond milk are delicious partners of chocolate!

The Mix

1 1/8 cup of all-purpose flour (or a heaping cup)

3 packets of instant hot cocoa (the cheap kind from the supermarket)*
2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 t. baking powder

1/8 t. salt

optional: 1/4–1/2 c. chocolate chips

The Mug Cake
Blend in a small mug or ramekin:
1/3 c The Mix (a heaping 1/4 cup)
2 Tbsp milk (or milk substitute)
1 Tbsp oil
Top with 1 large marshmallow or a handful of mini marshmallows (optional).

Microwave for 60 seconds. You can make multiple mug cakes at a time and it doesn't affect the microwaving time.

Here's a printable recipe that you can wrap around your container or premade The Mix.

 

𝕄𝕒𝕪 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪𝕤 𝕓𝕖 𝕘𝕠𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕟 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕥.💛

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If you want a more from scratch recipe or vanilla mug cakes, here's a link: https://iamafoodblog.com/2-minute-chocolate-mug-cake-recipe/

Vanilla Honey Fudge

Alternate post title: Me vs. the Everlasting Can of Milk.

It's two days before Thanksgiving, and I am at the supermarket stocking up for the impending snow storm. There's a display with everything you need to bake a pumpkin pie. Hmmm, which to buy… Libby's canned pie filling or canned pumpkin? I read the labels. I don't want to pay to have a bunch of sugar premixed in, so I go with the straight pumpkin. I read the recipe on the can, because I know it's a common mistake to buy the wrong kind of canned milk. Recipe read. ✅ I grab a can of milk from the display. From the refrigerated section nearby, I grab four bricks of cream cheese. I'd been waiting months for it to go on sale, and 99¢ each is as good as it gets these days.

Next day. The dilemma. Do I make pumpkin pie or cheesecake? It's just the two of us, and I don't want to have too much dessert. Plus there's the, "How am I going to fit it all in the storm-ready, very full fridge?" problem. It's Thanksgiving, so I opt for pie. It's traditional.

The recipe's pretty standard. Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. In other words, add the 3/4 cup sugar first, and the milk last. As the thick, thick milk is going in, I realize… I bought the wrong kind of canned milk. Dang my feeble brain! Dang the person who stocked sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk! Evaporated is milk that had most of the water cooked out of it. Sweetened condensed is chock full of sugar… the primary reason it's so thick… so I stop adding it immediately.

New dilemma. I have a very sweet pie custard that doesn't have enough liquid in it. If I add the rest of the can, it'll have enough sugar in it for the pie PLUS a 10" cheesecake. Do I just bake it as is? What if it's nasty? Then I'll have ruined my pie crust, too. I decide to bake off a small amount of just batter in jars. It worked out! 👇

Reconstructed pumpkin pie-in-a-jar. Now you have a legitimate excuse for saving all those Oui™ by Yoplait® yogurt jars.

I didn't feel like baking off a whole bunch of jars so the remaining 3 cups of pumpkin pie filling became a 7-inch pumpkin-cheesecake. Pie batter taken care of, I turned my attention back to the can of sweetened condensed milk. I still had the majority of the can left, so I found a cheesecake recipe that called for sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar. A no-bake recipe! But, dang it Martha Stewart, your recipe failed. After sitting overnight, the custard was gelatinous but not set. I scooped it out of the crust, added an egg (1 per brick of cream cheese is the standard ratio) and back in the crust it went. A short 30 minute bake and yay! Cheesecake with the texture of a Sara Lee's! 😋 

Classic Cheesecake — Smooth and Creamy

Being more sugar than milk, a single 14-ounce can goes a ridiculously long way so I still had some condensed milk left. And, I confess, more in my freezer from a previous goof. (The stuff freezes extraordinarily well.) On a day when there was 11 inches of snow to shovel, I made No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream. It was also just 24°F that day, so into the freezer the ice cream went to ripen and be forgotten about for a while. Most people don't need a warm day to eat ice cream, I know, but winter started in October and we feel chilled to our very soul. We didn't actually eat the ice cream until Christmas dessert, and boy was it good.

Peanut Butter Brownies à la mode.

Here it is January and, being ever so frugal, I just couldn't bring myself to throw out the last remaining tablespoons of condensed milk. So when this month's Food and Tools ingredient challenge was presented, I was thrilled to find a recipe calling for condensed milk.

Every month, Moya throws down a challenge to follow a recipe that uses a specific ingredient, using only the cookbooks you own. January's ingredient is honey. I had to do mind-bending math to scale the recipe down to use the finally small amount of sweetened condensed milk left, but here it is. I present to you Vanilla Honey Fudge.

Vanilla Honey Fudge

The original recipe gives metric/Imperial and weight/volume options but the conversions were all sorts of wrong. I'm giving you the safe bet of metric only. You will need a scale to make this recipe (and I happen to be selling one on eBay!).

Vanilla Honey Fudge recipe from HONEY by Jenni Fleetwood

Makes approximately 60 pieces.

In a heavy sided pot (at least 3qt size), melt together:
150ml water (I used water left over from rinsing honey cappings.)
175g butter

Add and stir 'til dissolved, over low heat:
675g light brown sugar (I used dark; it was all I had.)
STOP STIRRING, increase the heat and boil until the mixture reaches hard crack.

Off-heat, add:
400g sweetened condensed milk
60ml honey
2.5ml vanilla extract (I used a mix with less expensive almond extract.)

Beat with a wooden spoon until glossy, then pour into a prepared pan. That could be a buttered or Silpat-lined shallow pan. Leave until completely cooled before cutting into bite-sized pieces or turning out of your mold. Alternately, you can use a silicone honeycomb and bee-themed one from Amazon like I did. It's just the thing, don't you think?

Bee Stuff at Sur la Table and a Recipe

Why, oh WHY, didn't they sell this stuff while I was an employee and enjoyed a 40% discount?! My seasonal position at Sur la Table ended mid-January but I still found myself in the store last Friday, taking advantage of my last employee perk: one free cooking class per month. As soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted by a full display of temptations.

Two items on display are hot items that I've been waiting for to come back into stock. I left the store $50 poorer.

OMG too cute! but I resisted. House rule is, if something comes in, something has to go out.

SCORE! Use NEWYEAR17 in-store or online through 2/27 for 20% off.

The recipe that comes with the pan makes enough batter for 4 pans, but at $36 a pop, one pan is all I splurged for. Instead of scaling down the recipe ('cuz it hurt my brain to quarter 2 3/4 c. flour, 1 1/4 c. sugar, etc.) for you, dear readers, I developed one that not only yields just 6 cakelets, it proves that baking is not always a precise science experiment with strict rules. The following recipe produces six tender yellow cakelets in under an hour, start to finish.

Beehive Cakelets

High Altitude Baking? Use the lesser amount of sugar and salt. If you want.

Sift together into a medium bowl:
1 c. flour (See NOTE below.)
1/2-2/3 c. sugar
1/4-1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda 


Stir together in a separate bowl:
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. veg oil or 6 T. melted, still liquid butter
1 t. extract, whatever's your favorite

Add the wet to the dry ingredients along with 1 egg. Whisk until smooth. Divide among the wells of a greased and floured NordicWare beehive cakelet pan. Bake in a preheated 325°F oven until done (~18"). Cool in pan 5" then trim the cupcake domes. Cool completely before turning out, then decorating with royal icing.

BREAK THE RULES and make this a ONE-BOWL RECIPE. Put all the liquid ingredients into a bowl. Stir the dry ingredients in. A big cake might show unevenness but you'll never see the difference here.

Royal Icing
Stir together in a small ramekin:
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. liquid honey
1 t. lemon juice
Add drops of water/milk/more lemon juice (liquid of your choice) to thin or more powdered sugar to thicken. It needs to be thick but pourable. As soon as it's smooth, drizzle over the cooled cakes.

Serve with a nice cup of tea with lemon and honey.

Honeycomb stamped Faux-reos sound good to you? Check 'em out here!

BAKING TIPS: In case you didn't know, King Arthur Flour declared 2017 the #yearofthebundt. While not technically a bundt pan, the cakelet pan is made by NordicWare, which is famous for its bundt pans. They're my fave, and I have at least half a dozen. Customers at Sur la Table always asked about their cakes sticking or not being flat-bottomed like in the picture, so here's what I told them:

1. CAKE STICKING:
   • Prepare even nonstick pans with a smooth paste made of equal parts shortening, oil and flour.
   • Do not use butter and flour to prep the pan. The solids in melted butter can actually lead to sticking. Same with canned sprays.
   • Use a pastry brush to get the fine details. Rotate the pan 180° to ensure even coverage; pay extra attention to the central tube, if there is one.
   • If the cake seems like it won't release after cooling in the pan, cover the cake with foil and pop back in the still-warm oven for 10".
2. DOMING happens because the batter sets on the outside while the interior is still rising. To lessen the amount of doming:
   • After prepping the pan, pop it in the freezer while you make the batter. Expect a longer bake time.
   • After loading the batter in, use the back of a spoon to make a divot in it.
   • Use a sharp knife to cut the dome off while the cake is still in the pan. In cooking school, we called the trimmings Scooby Snacks.

NOTE> All-purpose is fine. For smoother details and a finer crumb, use cake flour.

#makeitmonday: Spoon Butter

I traded my extra tomato seedlings and ALL my mason jars — HURRAY — for some beeswax. It's pretty rough, having only been rendered from the comb. I'm 99% sure this wax was processed through a solar wax melter but the beekeeper's method differs from mine. Mine comes out cleaner ;)

At the moment, it's too wintry to use the solar wax melter, but I've got a project I want to do now, so I'm using a lined crock pot to melt and clean the wax. The pot has a couple of inches of hot water in it, so trapped honey can dissolve out. Bits of brood comb are too light to sink, so don't expect them to precipitate out. At best, they'll be at the bottom of the block where they can be scraped off. I'm adding only about a pound of wax, in chunks, to the pot. The goal is to melt an amount that, when cool, is manageable. Most recipes call for pretty small amounts, and if you're serious about crafting, it helps to have a digital scale that measures in grams.

Reynolds liners are awesome, because you can still use your crockpot for cooking food afterwards.

Spoon Butter

If you have butcher block in your kitchen, use a wood cutting board or wooden spoons, then you need spoon butter. Also known as wood cream, wood wax and board butter, it will lengthen the life or all your pieces by hydrating the wood fibers and providing a protective coating. It takes just two ingredients to make spoon butter: beeswax and a carrier oil. And you can make it in under a half-hour.

The wooden spoon is from World Market.

I am a ServSafe® certified chef and have a kitchen philosophy that goes something like this. It's okay for me to kill me, but it's not okay for me to kill you. Safety first. A lot of DIYers use food-grade mineral oil (and then sell 2-ounce jars of spoon butter for $6). There's some hub-bub about FGMO but I really don't have the inclination to find out what the controversy is. I'm just showing you the technique, really. When you make yours, please educate yourself on the ingredients and use what you are comfortable with. If you're going to make spoon butter to sell, just remember: When it comes to your customers, it's okay for you to kill you, but it's not okay for you to kill someone else. Always safety first. 

If I had it, I would use fractionated coconut oil. It is a liquid form of coconut oil that is extremely stable (doesn't go rancid). My bottle of sweet almond oil was down to the dregs, the perfect amount for this demonstration. Normally odorless, it was at the end of it's useful life and needed to be used, which is alright because I'm not selling it and it's okay for me to kill me. For a butterlike consistency, a good ratio is 1:3.5 by weight, beeswax to carrier oil. Use less oil, just 1:2, and you can put it in a twist-up container. Handy! You can also use 76° coconut oil, trés trendy, in which case a good ratio is 1 part beeswax to 3 parts oil (use a scale). When I do get my hands on fractionated coconut oil, I'll show you how to a lotion-like wood cream.

I love how the beeswax gives the water white almond oil a golden glow.

For small-batch production, heat the ingredients directly in the jar, set in a pan of simmering water. Stir to distribute the beeswax evenly. When completely melted, remove from the water bath. Do not remove earlier thinking you can heat the oil less and let carryover heat finish melting the wax. Yes, heat speeds up rancidity but, especially with a small jar like this, there may not be enough thermal mass to do the job. Beeswax melts at about 145°F and it needs to be melted completely to ensure it is evenly dispersed.

When fully liquid, it's definitely too hot to add any essential oils, which are optional. Rather than by aroma, choose an oil that provides antibacterial, antiseptic or antimicrobial properties. Orange oil is popular, as it's an antibacterial, antifungal and smells great, but it is delicate and volatilizes at 153°F/67°C. If you don't have an instant read thermometer, a visual gauge for when it's safe to add your EOs is when you see the bottom start to set. (If you're making a larger batch in a heatproof pitcher to pour into several individual containers, wait until the edge of the mixture starts to set before stirring in the EO then pour immediately.) Work quickly to ensure the EO is evenly distributed before the butter sets.

To use, rub a small amount of spoon butter into the wood. Some people use a soft cloth but I like to use a nitrile glove. The warmth from your hand helps the butter penetrate better, and it's 100% lint-free. Dry ashen wooden will darken in color, and take on a little shine. It's not necessary to treat the entire handle of your spoons. I actually prefer the grippy feel of dry thirsty wood, but it's good to treat at least a few inches up from the bowl, any part that gets submerged in hot liquids. Let the spoons sit for a few hours, a warm spot will encourage deep hydration, then buff away any residual butter. The next time you use your spoons/cutting boards/butcher block, you'll find them water-repellent and just a pleasure to cook with.

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Available in my Etsy shop.
www.etsy.com/listing/265525114/pure-beeswax-sunflowers-and-queen-bee

Peach Cobbler for Two

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Aug 14, 2015 at 7:54pm PDT

1. Put 2 T. butter in a small baking dish (or 2 good-sized ramekins) in a preheating 350°F oven.
2. Make a smooth batter with 1/4 c. self-rising flour, 1/4 c. milk and 2 T. #honey.
3. Stir in a sliced peach or about 1 cup of any fruit.
4. Spoon onto the beurre noisette.
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake 'til it puffs up and is well browned ~20.
6. Dust w/confectioners' sugar and serve à la mode. My preference is, of course, Honey Ice Cream.

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Need self-rising flour? Whisk together:
 1 c. AP flour + 1 t. baking powder* + 1/4 t. fine-grained salt
  OR
 1 c. AP flour + 1 t. Bakewell cream + 1/2 t. baking soda + p. salt

*altitude adjusted. Use 1 1/2 t. bp if at sea level.

 

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The comment below is in reference to the city code banning ice cream trucks, at one time mentioned on this site's footer. Apparently, one person on the council had childhood trauma that they couldn't separate from their civic duty.

Honey Dulce de Leche: Milk and Honey Caramel Sauce

This recipe is very American. It calls for a jar, a can, and a stick.

Why use a fork when you can dunk? #freshmade #waffles #dulcedeleche #breakfast #foodie

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Sep 9, 2015 at 10:51am PDT

Bring to a boil in a heavy-sided pot (3-qt minimum size):
1 jar of honey (a 1# Queenline is 11 oz. by volume)
1 can of evaporated milk (a big 12 oz. can, not the little one)
1 stick of butter (that's 1/2 c.)

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir to prevent scorching. Cook for 10 minutes after the mixture reaches a furious boil. Turn the heat down if the caramel is threatening to boil over no matter how much you stir. (Will not be a problem if you use a 4-qt pot.)

Off-heat, stir in:
Make a slurry with a pinch baking soda, 1/4 t. cornstarch, and 1 T. vanilla or almond extract. Expect some foaming when you stir it in gently. Return to heat and cook until the sauce coats the back of a spoon – another 2 minutes or so. Strain and rapid chill using an ice bath if you want to use the caramel right away. (NOTE: the cornstarch is to prevent syrup from precipitating to the bottom, as it has in the photo.)

To package for gifting, strain the hot caramel into prepared jars and boiling water process for 10 minutes.*

YIELD: Makes 2 half-pints with some leftover for immediate use.

To serve, stir before use, then simply pour or spread it over anything you fancy: filled crêpes, on warm biscuits, sliced pears or apples, on ice cream or cheesecake. For warm goodies, be sure to pull the dulce de leche from the fridge while you prepare your pancakes, waffles,… so it's not too chilly on your teeth.

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CHEF TIP: Toss your sliced pears and apples in honey water to prevent browning before serving, about 2 T. honey to a cup of water.

*I can't tell you that canning the caramel sauce will make it shelf-stable for a year, but it does give that satisfying POP when you open the jar, the POP that tells you, "This product was carefully made and is Good to Eat."

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While this recipe is very American, I favor ones that are given in grams. Like this one! Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake

Recipe: Honey Cheese Cake

The Crust – press into a 9" springform:
2 c. crumbs (your choice: vanilla wafers, ginger snaps, graham crackers, etc.) combined w/ 1/4 c.  melted butter

The Custard – combine successively:
(3) 8 oz. bricks of cream cheese
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1/4 c. honey
3 eggs
2 t. vanilla (or van-almond) extract - do your best to get rid of all air bubbles as you fold this last ingredient in thoroughly

Bake from a cold start:
325°F for 50 minutes
Turn off the oven. Place an inverted plate on the springform (to trap humidity) and "bake" another 10-20". (Three or four inches in the center should be a little jiggly.) Leave in the oven with the door ajar until the oven is cold. Cool on the countertop until room temp. Remove the plate. Use a pairing knife to free the edges of the cake from the springform before refrigerating, wrapped well. All of this will help prevent cracks.

Serve the next day. A garnish of lingonberry sauce is picture-perfect for Christmas and it compliments the richness of this cake very nicely, but it will mask the delicate honey flavor somewhat.

Serves 10-12.

Strawberry Syrup

So. I brought home a pound of strawberries and then did nothing with them. For a week. At least. I kept looking at them thinking, "I'll get to you in just a minute." The plan was to make A Small Batch Recipe and snap a pic for the blog. But September is a crazy month for me at work and, to be honest, I really have no idea how long the berries have been in the fridge.

Overripe fruit tends to make runny jam and strawberries lack natural pectin in the first place, so I had to use a different recipe entirely. And here it is.

The now very sweet strawberries are destined for drop scones.

An Even Smaller Small-Batch Recipe: Strawberry Syrup
1 pound of overripe strawberries
1 lb. jar of honey
1/2 lemon, quartered

Clean and quarter the berries, discarding any brown bits of fruit. Place the good fruit and lemon pieces in a nonreactive bowl and pour the honey over. Don't mash the berries or squeeze the lemons. The honey will draw the juices out. Let macerate for several hours or overnight.

Transfer everything to an 8x8 Pyrex, making sure to scrape the honey that has sunk to the bottom into the dish. Put into a cold oven. Set the oven to 400°F and come back in 30 minutes; the entire dish should be simmering. It's okay to swirl the pan, but don't stir the mixture if you want a clear, ruby-toned syrup. Reduce the heat to 200°F and cook another 30" to thicken the syrup and intensify the flavor. Let cool completely then strain. Again, for a jewel-toned syrup, don't mash the solids. The candied lemon pieces make a great addition to hot tea if cold weather has arrived, or to lemonade if it's Indian Summer. In Colorado, lemonade and hot tea are both likely on any given day in October.

The syrup itself is best served cold poured over ice cream or oatmeal/pancakes/waffles if you like. I like to pour some into a glass then fill with soda... it's refreshing and delicious.

Makes 1 syrup jug. Keeps refrigerated, three+ months.

Strawberry Preserves: A Small-Batch Recipe

Forget the white sugar. Use honey instead!

Strawberry Preserves

From Putting It Up With Honey: A Natural Foods Canning and Preserving Cookbook by Susan Geiskopf

Yield: 4 half-pints

1 qt. stemmed strawberries
3 c. light honey
1/2 c. lemon juice

Combine berries and honey. Let stand 3-4 hours. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally until honey fully dissolves. Cook rapidly until thick, about 20 minutes. Add lemon juice and cook 10 minutes longer. Spoon into hot sterilized jars. Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

French Vanilla Ice Cream

In a small bowl, whisk vigorously to lighten the yolks (both in color and consistency):
4 egg yolks
1/4 c. sugar
pinch of salt

In a small pot, heat 'til steaming:
1 1/2 c. cream (half-n-half if you must*)
1 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. honey
1/2 vanilla bean, pod split

Pour about a third of the steaming hot cream/milk mixture in a steady stream over the sweetened yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the tempered yolks into the pot and heat to nappé. In other words, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Off heat, stir in:
1 t. vanilla extract (optional, in case you don't have a real vanilla bean)

Rapid chill and refrigerate overnight to ripen. The next day, strain through a sieve and churn. (Don't use a fine-meshed sieve; you want to catch the pod but not the seeds.) My Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker takes about 30" to bring the custard to soft-serve consistency. Containerize and freeze at least 3 hours before serving. This ice cream matures in the freezer and tastes best after 48 hours.

Roasted Strawberry and Balsamic Jam

The Inspiration ↑  Forget the white sugar.
Use honey instead!

Yield: 3 half-pints

3 c. strawberries, stemmed and mashed
3/4 c. honey
1/2 c. water
1/4 oz. agar-agar powder (or the big half of a stick)
1 T. balsamic vinegar
a pinch of salt

Combine the water and agar-agar in a heavy-sided 2-qt. saucepot; let soak 15 minutes. Meanwhile oven-roast the berries and honey at 400°F. (A square Pyrex works well.) When the berries have softened, add the vinegar and salt, stirring to distribute. Transfer the berries to the pot, stirring to combine with the soaked agar-agar. Over medium heat, bring to 211°F* then cook for another 5 minutes. Spoon into hot sterilized jars. Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 25 minutes.*

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NOTES: the agar-agar sets up fairly firmly, so this recipe is great for using overripe berries, which normally produce a too soft set.

This recipe is a small-batch adaptation of "Strawberry Jam with Agar-Agar" from Putting It Up With Honey: A Natural Foods Canning and Preserving Cookbook by Susan Geiskopf. I found the original recipe too "clean" on flavor and short on color. Roasting the berries intensifies both the flavor and color, and the balsamic vinegar amplifies it even more. If you don't have balsamic, just use lemon juice and you'll still have a delicious strawberry jam.

*adjusted for high-altitude

Bee Sting Cream

A MOISTURIZING HAND & BODY LOTION for use before and after a visit with the bees.

"Calendula flowers rubbed into beestings are said to relieve the pain."

– Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs

• Made with light, moisturizing oils and cooling distilled water – feels great even if you haven't been stung. 
• Pure beeswax and vitamin E for skin repair.
• Barely scented with essential oils of lemon, lemongrass, rosemary and clove bud.

Clove oil is reported to both prevent stings and numb the pain of a bee sting. Some associate the scent with a trip to the dentist, where clove oil has historically been used to numb pain, so upon request, I make this cream with other aromas or unscented.

State of the Hive & a Recipe: Honey Whole Wheat Pain d'Épi

The bees look to be occupying six combs.

It's too cold for much to be going on in the apiary, but it's perfect for baking. This recipe is one of my favorites, not only because it makes great loaves for sliced bread, but it's versatile enough to shape into épis, or "shafts of wheat." Also called Wheat Stalks, épis make impressive pull-apart rolls, perfect for that holiday dinner you're planning. Don't be intimidated... this is a very easy recipe and it makes delicious honey-flavored bread.

Honey Whole Wheat Pain d'Épi                                                       Yield: 4 Shafts of Wheat

The flavor of the honey is assertive in this loaf, so choose your favorite and let it shine.

Combine in a mixer bowl:
2 1/4 c. scalded, cooled and skimmed milk*
1/3 c. honey (about 3 1/2 oz. by weight)
2 1/4 t. instant yeast (one packet)**
Stir in, beat 3" then let the sponge rest 30"-60":
3 c. stone ground whole wheat flour
2 T. vital wheat gluten (optional)
1/4 c. vegetable shortening or softened butter
1 T. salt
Stir in and knead until a soft, smooth and elastic dough is formed:
3-4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it, and let it rise for 45"-1 hour.
When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down, and let rise a second time (45"). If you don't have the time for a second rise, that's okay!
Go ahead and pre-shape your épis.
Divide the dough into 4 portions. Form each portion into a small baguette. Place on 2 prepared sheet pans and brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise, about 30". Preheat the oven to 375°F now.
Baking:
For a nice artisan look, dust the baguettes with flour. Then, using a pair of scissors, cut the dough deeply but not all the way through to the bottom. Gently nudge each roll immediately after each cut. The illustration makes it look like you do all the cutting first and the nudging after. I guess I should redraw that. It's better to move each roll right away, before the dough reattaches itself. As soon as the épis are formed, slide the pans into the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.