cooking

We sometimes find ourselves staring down a banana past its prime. No longer pretty or desirable they get tossed, some put them on the freezer added to the mental note of baking them into something…someday.

This week two bananas have taunted me. Every time I passed the fruit bowl they silently mocked and seem to liquify before my eyes while throwing shade and over ripe banana scent to intimidate me.

I binge watch YouTube. Vlogs,documentaries and crafty videos are my jam. A while back I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole and landed on a channel called Bigger Bolder Baking. Gemma Stafford, the host intrigued me with her videos that showed how easy it is to bake with clever tips, hints and tricks. Some of her recipes have one base batter or dough that allow additives for several different tastes from one batch. That is soooo bueno!

I’ve studied Gemma’s “One Dough, Endless Possibilities” muffin video and this morning I put it to the test.

I started with the ingredients list on her Bigger Bolder Baking website. You can sign up to receive free email updates on her latest recipes.

Here I have the dry and wet ingredients ready to have a fine howdy doo meeting.

I was pleased to find how easy the batter came together and looked like the batter from her video. Yay!

Even though I used the same amount of ingredients per the recipe, I think using 3 ripe (2 of them overly ripe)bananas and 2/3 cup of walnuts & pepitas May have increased the amount of batter.

With the first batch cooling, claiming success, I lined the tin with baking paper to avoid having to wash the tin, before spooning in the remaining batter. I decided to go bolder😀 with the leftover batter adding raisins and peanut butter to some of the cups.

I am happy with the end result and look forward to playing with this recipe in the future. Wilty bananas beware!

Thanks again to Gemma Stafford of www.BiggerBolderBaking.com for making cooking FUN!

Katsy

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September brings fall in all its glory and the soap challenge has returned. This month the technique we’re going for is the mini drop swirl or the advanced mini suspended drops swirl.

To allow for play time with the required squeeze bottles I knew I had to change up my recipe with larger amount of soft oils. The batter needed to stay fluid longer to lay the strips of soap just beneath the surface and gently on top of the soap batter.

Here in photos shows my try at the advanced mini drop swirl technique.

My recipe was 37.50% olive, 31.25% sunflower, 18.75% coconut and 12.50% Shea butter. I use the full amount of water suggested for this batch and scented with burbon geranium and rosemary essential oils.

This soap took 2 days to saponify and slid out of the mold like a greased egg!

Here are some of he cut bars.

The colors remind me of fire balls raining from dark skies. So I’ve named this soap Fiery Night Skies.

This was my first try at the mini drop swirl. My 2nd try was a mini drop fail but a nice swirly soap nonetheless.

The second batch turned to soap stone practically, right before my eyes. I did the best I could using a spoon and chopstick to move and mix the thick colorful soap batter around in the mold.

Here is the end result.

This batch over heated as is evident. Notice the bars with cracks in the top. The recipe was different allowing for larger percentage of hard oils, plus I added sodium lactate to help the batter stay loose longer. I think the culprit might have been the kaolin clay I added to the lye water in effort to achieve a lighter color soap base. This batch is scented with bourbon geranium, basil and grapefruit essential oils.

Good soap crafting time was well spent!

Let me know what you think and Thank you for reading my blog.

The Qrafty Qomic

mylifewithpieces

Finally! An EASY Muffin Recipe for ME!

Mini Drop Swirl Soap Challenge Sept 2018