Omg I have so much to tell you and so little time (because I’ve left it late to write down my brain juice)… I’m going to need to bullet point so that I don’t forget anything… here goes:
First up – I hope you all had a cracking Easter (pun not actually intended but I just realised my own hilarity so let’s pretend it was strategically thought out).
Second, so the wedding celebration on Saturday evening was lovely - it was great to see so much happiness in one room. I didn’t last that long because I get totally overwhelmed and exhausted at this sort of thing (which makes me feel incredibly guilty and useless when I then have to leave early) but it was wonderful to see family and catch up a bit.
My preparation on the other hand was predictably comical. I decided my fringe desperately needed a trim about half an hour before I left the house, so I got hacking… let’s just say a job in topiary probably isn’t for me (there was major panic before I managed to iron it into a semi-uniform state). Next up I grabbed a (very old) bottle of fake tan that on application came out green, but having committed I couldn’t very well back out. Oh, and I didn’t have one of the mitt things to rub it in, so I used my naked hand which meant I had green calves (didn’t bother with the thighs as they were out of eyeshot) and a green right palm – excellent! Finally, I chose a pair of shoes that first required some superglue to reattach the heel, but also exposed my grotty toenails SO… I decided a lick of paint would work wonders… and it did… but I left this task until the 11thhour which meant I tumbled out of the house bare footed, green legged and with a cropped fringe - #class.…then there was the JET LAG from changing the clocks – one hour less in my day = EXHAUSTION… I’m still suffering.
I read my horoscope on Sunday morning – I don’t strictly believe in Horoscopes, but having read that Mercury was in retrograde and that the sun is in ‘hyperactive Aries’ – which apparently meant that ‘I couldn’t afford to get things wrong, and if I did, I’d have to start them all over again’… I imagined my week would be littered with doomy-ness – super!
… especially ‘super’ because, on Tuesday I had to* Bake a cake for the next-door neighbour’s 80th birthday. There was a lot of pre-stress which centred around whether the recipe was perfectly, 100%, precisely correct, followed by ‘in the moment’ stress – I shook the whole time because I don’t trust myself to measure out all the right ingredients – and finally the post stress of ‘what if they don’t like it/what if I poison them’. There was also a meltdown moment when I tried to do an arty buttercream smear around the outside of the cake (like they do at Violets cakes) and really didn’t pull it off. Thankfully it wasn’t TOOO offensive, and the recipient of said cake seemed delighted but… oh the trauma – looking at pics of it still makes me want to cry a bit!
(*when I say had to, I obviously ADORE baking but the main reason I haven’t managed to realise my dream of having a little baking business, is that I have zero confidence in myself, particularly when it’s for someone’s special occasion, so the ‘had to’ is predominantly related to fear... I very much want to properly overcome this fear so I can be ‘Miss Cake’ one day – I guess this week’s effort is a step in the right direction)
I made Sophie Bamford’s Lemon curd on Wednesday with some of the leftover egg yolks from the Swiss meringue buttercream I made for the cake… 1. I will never not marvel at the magic of making curd! 2. It’s the kind of thing you will want to eat by the spoonful, straight from the jar… I have proof of this – half a jar… straight into my mouth.
Finally, some bread content. OK so last week I got this MEGA craving for a pretzel. I’m talking a super comforting, ultra-soft, pretzel – chewy and bronzed on the outside, airy, and light in the middle, topped with crunchy sea salt and sesame seeds because #FLAVA.
I made sure my dough was a reasonably high hydration for a guaranteed airy crumb, I also included a little butter, for tenderness, and a spoonful of barley malt extract to enhance browning and complement the slight bitterness of the crust. I kept things super simple, just shaping the dough into chunky round balls, they had a quick dunk in a bicarbonate of soda water bath (this step is responsible for the pretzels iconic flavour and chewy exterior), before being baked in a hot oven to yield a beautifully burnished roll with a thin chewy crust and airy light interior. The double win here is that you can fill the rolls with your favourite sandwich filling – which I did on 3 consecutive days this week - absolute GOLD! The rolls freeze really well – just defrost at room temp and enjoy – once defrosted, you can also sprinkle them with water and pop them back in the oven at 180C Fan for 5 minutes for that freshly baked bread vibe. Recipe below - hope you like it!
…. AND BREATHE. Right, I think that’s everything… I hope you’re all doing well.
Sending love and hugs as always,
Steph x x x
Soft, chewy, sesame and sea salt pretzel rolls
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Comfort Chronicles to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.