(no subject)
Don't they look cool! Who'd have guessed that they start out little puddles of almost completely liquid dough?
But something went wrong.
I would guess, from this, that several things went wrong. The first is that I live in goshdarned wet climate. The batter was too runny to make sufficiently think walls, and therefore, when I tried to get the little puffs off the sheet, they sort of splintered. This is also one of the reasons why it didn't rise evenly or well. The second thing that went wrong, and the other reason why it didn't rise well, is that the recipe called for brushing the tops of the dribbles with water or milk before popping them in the oven. Neglected to do this. The third thing and the other reason why they have huge gaping holes in the bottom is because I got interrupted by the UPS man in the miiddle of taking them off the sheet and they got a little stuck on there. Oopsie. However, it was worth it because exciting birthday present! Thank you, masterofmidgets ! It was very exciting and I love it to bits.
So next time I make these - tomorrow, and I'm not bothering to fill these little losers with cream and pudding yumminess - I'm going to cut out some of the water and cook the paste a little longer. The recipe is already halved, and we have really big eggs which makes figuring out exactly how many eggs to put in a bit of a problem - two eggs should not make more than half a cup of egg! This is deeply wrong! So yeah. Less liquid. And I shall not get distracted midway through taking them off the sheet.
In other news, have read one of three plays for the day and also Diane Ackerman's Rarest of the Rare. Rarest of the Rare is one of those few ecologically focused books that does not feel like preaching. She talks of her various adventures in pursuit of and to help with endangered species with a particular sort of enthusiastic charm, and acknowledges the, mm, less savory aspects of humanity without going on in the whole 'woe is me, doom to our kind, we are a blight upon the planet' sort of fashion such books are prone to indulge in. She also uses the word 'cute' with abandon, despite occasionally being lectured by various nature people. Golden Lion Tamarins are cute. They just are. There's no way to disagree with that. And while monk seals are not quite as cute and short-tailed albatrosses are more like really awesome, they're certainly interesting. Mostly, as she usually does, Ms Ackerman talks about how awesome the outside is and how wonderful and fascinating life is and it's altogether a very cheering read, especially since between the period it was written and now, things seem to be a little less bleak than she was saying they might be. I think my favorite part in this was when she went with her ornithologist friend and his ornithologist friend to Torishima to see the albatrosses, and fell in a hole in the rocks and broke her ribs but was still like 'wow, this trip is awesome and today was really fun anyway despite getting my ribs broken'. During this trip, several other Tales of Adventure Upon the Naturalist's Path were told, and the sheer joy these people got out of being in life-threatening situations while seeing animals was a pleasure to read about.
And now, back to Shakespeare and my geisha essay!