Triple Ginger Cookies

Triple Ginger Cookies

Hey y'all! So, I wasn't going to do a post, but @pwdcreative requested the recipe for these cookies, so, I have to share. I've been baking these cookies during the holidays over the past few years and they are amazing. They are super chewy, spicy and addictive. Super simple to make (ugh, this is why I never make baci di dama, I love them but they are a pain in the butt). It's Thanksgiving today, and I have loads to do, as you can imagine. I have a couple of doughs fermenting in the fridge, the sidewalks are slick with last night's rain, and I'm about to put on some Bill Evans because, I don't know, he's just so good for cozy, rainy days.

Here is the recipe. I won't bore you with more blabber. I mean, Instagram has allowed us to streamline our thoughts, yeah? Who even keeps up on their own blogs anymore?? 🤷🏽‍♀️

TRIPLE GINGER COOKIES

Use all organic ingredients when possible.

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 TB cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
a few rasps of fresh nutmeg
pinch salt
150g candied ginger, chopped into small bits
1 cup Turbinado sugar

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as it whips. Add the egg and beat thoroughly. Coat the inside of your quarter measure with oil, then pour your molasses in. Great. Now get this into the butter mixture (oiling the cup ensures that all of the molasses comes out) and beat.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, soda, salt and spices. In 3 additions, add it into the butter mixture. I do this by hand to avoid overmixing the dough, which toughens the cookies. When almost all of the flour is incorporated, toss in the chopped ginger and mix to combine.

Tear off a pice of parchment paper, about 12" long. Plop the dough into the center of it and shape it into a log. Once it's shaped, sprinkle the Turbinado sugar over the log and roll it back and forth to coat. Wrap the log in the parchment. Place on  a cookie sheet. Place in fridge for at least an hour. At the last half hour, preheat the ov to 350.

When the dough is chilled, take it out of the fridge and unwrap. Slice into 1/4" thick slices and place on a cookie sheet lined with Silpat or parchment. They will spread a bit. I think I get 15 cookies per sheet? I can never remember.

Bake till the edges are just starting to go goldenish. I never time, because suggested times are meaningless when it comes to cookie baking, in my opinion. The tops will start to crackle a bit, and the edges will round nicely like this:

You have to use your baking prowess for the timing. Go for a little under rather than over. I watch my cookies like a hawk. Light golden is what you want. Anything more than this is too far gone. With these, golden goes out the window because the dough is already so dark. But trust me, you'll know when it's time.

xo

(adapted from The View From Great Island)

Always A Little More

Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e Pepe 

I have so much going on so I am going to keep this brief, but I wanted to do a post so that you could add this to your bread arsenal. If I post it on Instagram, it's bound to get lost.

I'm gearing up for holiday baking season y'all! My boyfriend is moving to a new house in a few weeks and our new neighbors/good friends are cookie monsters, so I'm really looking forward to being in the kitchen loads this year. The new house has a fireplace too, so I anticipate lots of cozy nights around a roaring fire eating sweetie things and celebrating our good fortune. Hooray!

I've been thinking of this bread for a while. Cacio e pepe is a classic pasta dish from Rome. It translates to 'cheese and pepper', so, you can see why this would be as good in bread as it is in pasta. The pasta recipe is very simple and it's always the same: pecorino, parmesan, olive oil, butter and coarsely ground black pepper. I ate a quarter of the round this morning 😳, and man alive! Is it good! The crust is shattery the first day and tender after. The crumb is tender and savory/spicy. This would be a lovely addition to your holiday table. One note: I grated the cheese for this bread. I usually add cheese in chunks, but I find when I do that it creates large holes, which, as you know, I'm not a fan of. I've discovered that grating the cheese keeps the crumb in tact so you can actually use it for sandwiches (OMG. A prosciutto sandwich on this...), makes it über tender, and flavors the bread more evenly.

I have loads to accomplish today, not much new to report, so I will leave you with this week's Roman bread.

To the staff of life!

Cacio e Pepe

THE DAY BEFORE DOUGH DAY

Make your levain by mixing together the following:
12g 100% dark rye, 100% hydration starter
75g h2o
75g freshly ground organic spelt flour

Ferment for at least 7 or 8 hours.

DOUGH DAY

All of the levain
362g h2o
450g BRM or Giusto's artisan flour
50g freshly ground organic spelt flour
65g pecorino cheese, grated
55g parmigiano-reggiano, grated
10g good quality extra virgin olive oil
8g kosher salt
3g coarsely ground black pepper (I toasted whole pepper corns until they began to wiggle around in the pan, then milled them coarsely into the dough)

When the levain is at its peak, mix it with the flours and h2o until you reach a shaggy mass. Autolyse for 1 hour.

After the autolyse, squish the salt, pepper and olive oil into the dough so that it is thoroughly incorporated. Time for the 4-hour bulk fermentation, during which time you will perform 3 series of turns. At the first series of turns, fold in the cheese, trying to keep it in within the dough as much as you can to avoid excessive burning at bake time. Do a couple more series of gentle folds within the bulk fermentation. I usually only do a few series for the first two hours, then leave the dough to do it's thing for the final two.  You will know when it's time to stop your turns when the dough really starts to expand. If you fold during the total bulk fermentation, you risk knocking the gasses out of the dough making for a leaden loaf. No bueno.

After the bulk fermentation, scrape the dough onto a worktable that you have dusted with brown rice flour, gather it into a loose round and let it rest for a few minutes.

After it has rested, shape it into a taut boule, and pop it into a banneton or a bowl lined with a linen that has been dusted with brown rice flour (which is what I do). Get it into the fridge and ferment 18 hours.

BAKE DAY

One hour before you plan to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 500 degrees, installed with a baking stone and both halves of your combo cooker.

After the hour preheat, remove the dough bowl from the fridge, place a piece of parchment over the mouth of it, then a pizza peel on top of this, now flip the whole thing over so that the dough ends up on top of the parchment and peel. Remove the linen.

Snip or score the dough, the slide it into the shallow end of the combo cooker. Cover with the fat end and steam the loaf at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Now turn the oven down to 475 and bake for another 15. After the steam, remove the lid, nestle the shallow end of the pan holding the bread over the mouth of it to create a buffer between the bread bottom and the hot stone (this prevents burnt bottoms), and turn the oven down to 450 degrees. It will be cognac brown because of the cheese, much more brown than you are used to seeing after steam. During the last half hour of the bake, keep your eye on the loaf, spinning the pan for even baking, and you may even need to lower the temp to 425 for the final few minutes because the cheese makes the crust brown quickly. Take the internal temp to 210 degrees.

Allow to cool for at least an hour, preferably two, before slicing.

Making Bread in UFOs

Dear Reader. LORD! Have I a discovery for you! I've been avoiding using a clay bread maker for, like, ever. I was always under the impression that you can't heat them over 400 or something like that. Well, that doesn't do us a lot of good, we, the bread bad asses with our cast iron implements and renegade ways. Clay is for bowls, not for bread baking. Pshaw on those bakers then!

Well, I happened upon a nice one from Emerson Creek Pottery, like a reeeeeeaaaalllly REALLY nice one. And the best thing about it is that it's totally lead free, eco-friendly and locally made (well, United States local). My giant cloche arrived a month ago on my birthday. I remember that much because I was shocked that UPS was working on a holiday. No, I'm not kidding. It took me a minute to realize that the whole universe didn't take the day off for my birthday. When I yanked it out of the box, I was immediately impressed by its weight, this thing has some serious heft, and the fact that it looked like a flying saucer. It is absolutely big enough for our standard loaves, as you can see from the photo above...

Emerson Creek Pottery Bread Cloche

And it's so, I don't know, smooth, yeah? With its high dome like an old man in want of youth. The shallow part of it is gorgeous, thick and round with tall sides. I figured if it cracked I could Crazy Glue it back together and use it as a cheese plate. Or a plate to deposit wallet and keys and crap upon entering the house. Or a hub cap, should my life continue down this path of destitution.

All of that was very fine indeed, alas, all that I had read about clay.... thus, it sat on my table and I would eye it suspiciously when I passed, shoving it back further and further into the corner with the shriveling pomegranate and cobwebby lamp, maybe I even said some mean things to it. But forget about that. This weekend I decided to just do it. F it. If it cracks, SO.WHAT. Life is short. Crack some stuff without apology.

Onward.

I set about some dough. For good measure, on bake day, I soaked the contraption for a couple few hours, though I don't know if you need to do that. I lost the pamphlet it came with, and I didn't want to log onto the net to see if that was an appropriate thing to do. I just thought: naked clay, water absorption, instant steam oven, and went with my hunch. I also put another combo cooker in the oven just in case the bald man's flying saucer head exploded or disintegrated.

What happened next is a clay miracle. Wait, what's better than a miracle? There has to be something. This thing, this flying saucer made the best bread. Ever. The crust was thin and shattery as Christmas ornament glass, the crumb lofty and light and it tasted exquisite. Some of the best tasting bread I've made all year. And, drumroll, the thing did not crack nor turn to ash when I slid it into the oven and preheated it to 500 degrees.

I'm hooked. I've graduated from bad ass iron pan girl to smooth bald head baker girl and I'm thrilled that I put aside my prejudice and tried something new.

Never mind the bread that I baked. It was just the standard weekly loaf that we all make. The most important things for you to know are that, as I mentioned, I did soak the thing, and even if it doesn't need it, how in the world can extra steam hurt our bread? I slid it into the cold oven, as we do our combos, and heated it for an hour at 500 degrees. When I overturned the dough onto the hot plate, I did so with several layers of parchment paper, instead of only one layer as per usual, just to safeguard against possible shock of cold dough on the hot plate. I did the steam for 15 at 500, turned the oven down to 475 and steamed for another 15, then took off the dome for the remainder of the bake at 475.

I must also note that the bottom stayed golden as well. No burning. As you will agree, there is nothing better than a golden bottom to our perfectly baked loaves.

This thing is about to get some serious mileage. You can pick up yours here. I think they're around $65. Yay! A fun new bread toy! Lemme know if you get one and what you think of it. If you've ever had any doubts about using clay, banish them. I can't speak for the other brands, but Emerson Creek Pottery is the serious hookup for bread cloches that won't crack at 500 degrees. Their website says 425 is the max, but losing the pamphlet/not going to their website to look up how to operate this contraption were the best moments of laziness and disorganization I've ever had.

Here's hoping for many more cosmic bakes with my new baker 🛸. I couldn't be more thrilled! (p.s., I've eaten a half a bar of chocolate writing this post. Note to self: write more blog posts).

To the staff of life!

THE X-FILES

12 grams

12g bread

Hey everyone. So, first I want to say thank you to all of the people who took the time to send me sweet notes of sympathy. Losing my baby girl has been the single hardest thing I have ever had to endure (and I have endured plenty). Thumbelina was my partner for 16.5 years, and losing her has changed my life profoundly. Rather than simply feel shattered for her loss, I've gone inward to look at our time together and extend my absolute gratitude to her for being a teacher, a guide, a best friend and the love of my life. It has been an honor to be her custodian, and frankly, now that she's no longer here, I wonder if, rather, she has been mine. I have needed her as much as she has needed me, make no mistake. She was a beautiful ray of light, my little bean, and I wish for one more day, just one more, to tell her what she has meant to me, because 16.5 years just didn't seem like enough time.

These days I'm a zombie half the time. I went to the farmer's market Sunday and I swear I couldn't tell the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber, my mind was so occupied with thoughts of Thumbelina. I have been keeping myself busy with my clothing line, which has helped keep me from descending into total despair. A few days ago, I decided to bake bread. This is where you come in, dear reader, and in a moment you will see why I needed to share this post tout de suite.

How many of you, in a slumber, have gone to mix up your levain, only to realize that you've actually mixed up the dough instead with your 12g nugget of starter? Show of hands. I can't lie. I have done this on more than one occasion, and in the past, I have just scraped the dough mistake into the trash. But this time I decided to see what would happen if I just went ahead. Let me clarify: on levain day, I plopped 12g of starter into my bowl, with 360g of water and 500g of flour (50g of spelt + 450g BRM all purpose). As soon as I started squishing up the mass, I caught myself. Seriously, Francis-Olive!? Wake up girl! I was about to toss it in the bin and just mix up a batch of levain, but instead, I decided to let it ride. Why not? I just lost my best friend. I'm floating on fumes, what have I to lose? A few grams of flour and smidge of time?

Here's what happened next: bread. Honest to god, BREAD, and a damn fine loaf at that. This loaf, from 12g of starter. That brings me to the power of your starter. Love it well, friends, I know you do. This loaf is a testament that it can do amazing things if you love it and take care of it.

Here's what I did:

I erroneously mixed up 12g of starter with the flour and water as mentioned. I let the dough go for 7 hours, room temp, untouched. After 7 hours, I added my salt -- oh, and here's what it looked like before I added the salt (10g):

As you can see, this showed serious promise. I thought, with a very big smile, a rare sight these days, I must forge on!

Then I did a 5 hour bulk with turns, lets say, every half hour for the first 3 hours, and refrigerated for the last hour and a half or so because it was warm here.

Man alive. Bread. From a bit of starter the size of a brazil nut. Incidentally, the final fermentation was 18 hours, and the bake as usual, 500 deg. lidded for 15, 475 deg. lidded for 15, and without the lid for the final 30, also at 475 deg. This cuts out 7 or 8 hours of levain time, and makes a mild loaf with a shattery crust. I actually baked two loaves so we could do a side-by-side taste test, the second loaf I did up the usual way with a proper levain and the same weights of flour and water as our 12g bread. The proof, we all know, is in the flavor and texture, and honestly, we could not tell the difference between the two, and my BF actually said he liked the 12g best. Both had super tender crumbs, shattery crust and gorgeous flavor. Neither sour. And no one would ever be the wiser if I presented them with this 12g loaf.

I have to admit, Thumbelina ate half of the bread I've baked this past 9 years, probably more. I never bought store-bought dog treats. Ever. She got bread and peanut butter or just plain bread for her snacks, and she loved it. Feeding her was a joy. The bread would come out of the oven, I would slice it, you know, the sound of that first crunchy slice, and she would come charging from the deepest slumber and stand at my knee in satisfied anticipation. She always got the first slice. Always. A huge slice. The best slice. The heel. And she would go tearing off with it, devouring it in moments. In less than an hour, she and I would have absolutely gone through half the loaf. These are memories of her. My Thumbelina Bean. My precious girl who had cancer for 8 long years and never knew a moment of pain despite. She died in my arms naturally, and she rests on a gorgeous ranch in Santa Barbara with wonderful friends and their dogs and horses and chickens running amok. She lived in heaven on earth here with me, and she is living the dream of all dog dreams for the rest of her wiggly little eternity. I miss her so. I love her more than I could ever describe. Make this bread. She made this accident happen. If I had not been so tired, so overwhelmed by grief for losing her, I would not have this to share.

Be well, friends, and love those in your life more than you think you can bear. I hope you have the same happy accidents with your 12g breads.

xo

To the staff of life, and to Thumbelina Bean, who made mine a life worth living for as long as she could.

THE OUTTAKES

Yin and Yang

Yin & Yang

Y'all. This post is more of an update than anything. I know you all come to the net to look for new breads to make (Yin & Yang recipe below, and OMG, it's simple, but it's AMAZING), but also as a means of connectivity. None of us know each other. In the internet age, one has to wonder how much of one's own self we really know. We get lost in putting up this persona, giving the world what we think it wants and in this, we lose ourselves. This is what I've been contemplating for a while, and I've come to this: the net can be used to hone our creative selves, or it can suck us into a meaningless abyss. S'up to you to decide where you want to be.

I stopped posting so long ago because I felt the pressure of having to produce. For whom? That's the thing, and that's what my hiatus brought me to. We don't have to do anything for anyone at all. Ever. Well, except if you have kids, right, then you have to take care of them. I say this with certainty because I was one of those kids who was not taken care of by her parents, and it sucked (I doubt if you are baking bread that you would be the kind of person who would neglect your own kids, but the insight might be worthwhile nonetheless). Barring parental responsibility, we don't need to post daily or weekly to appease anyone at all. Our exchanges are little gifts to one another: my posts to you, your comments and viewership in exchange. It's very Buddhist, that. Non-attachment. No expectations. Finding joy in being without desire. There should be zero expectation, right, if you are doing something out of kindness, then the kindness extends beyond unreasonable expectation. This is what I have had to remind myself of because I've been busy and I don't have so much time to post regularly. If I'm not careful, I'm at risk of feeling guilty, or that I'm letting you all down.

Here's what. I'm in two schools pursing two completely separate educations. I am going to school full time for fashion design, and also full time to get my Classical Pilates certification. When I say that this is difficult, it's an understatement. My day begins at 2:50 a.m. and I go to bed around 10 to achieve all that I need to in order to realize both of these passions (my father said that I always did things the hard way). Pilates is the single most challenging thing that I have ever experienced in my life, fashion design demands more still. I have had to cram 5 levels of classical Pilates training into my body in 8 months, training to that level takes people YEARS to achieve. Fashion design is full time. The school that I'm going to is a 'fast track' school, which means that we cram 4 years of college into 2 years. I was not going to return to school for fashion, but my favorite instructor, Mr. N., is teaching draping, and he is, hands down, the single most inspirational educator that I've had the privilege to learn from. I could not miss this class, though by all rights I should not be doing fashion at all, what with Pilates and the demands of it. Short story: I. Am. Busy. I operate on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. So, I apologize if my posts seem spotty. Not that I need to explain myself, but I want to, because you, dear reader, though I don't know you, are important to me. Humanity is important to me. Sharing simple things that I have learned, things that have made my life sweeter (baking bread), is important to me. If I can help relieve you of any tedium (and bad bread days are so tedious, I know this well), then I am happy to be here for you. Being open and kind and connected is important to me.

Bread is a sanctuary that during busy times, I have to fight for. For instance, today I had to bake Deanna's bread, go to draping class for 5 hours, go to pilates at 4am, do homework, walk the dog, clean the kitchen (forget about the laundry today, please, let there be one more clean shirt to wear tomorrow), run some errands, put oil in my car, dash out to buy thread... To write a post in order to keep an audience is, well, overwhelming. I bake weekly, but I don't alway have time to share what I've done. And now there are things that I want to share, but because I am putting new recipes into a book, I can't, and it seems as though my bread life is tenuous if you check my blog. Crickets here, I know. But there is a reason why things have been so quiet on my end, and now you know.

So I say this to you, dear reader, the ones who have my back, the ones who returned after my long break, the ones who don't 'unfollow me' because I haven't thrown up visual evidence of my baking life on Instagram this week, those who privately email me and ask me for help or let me know how much my blog means to them: this is for you. The bread book that I'm writing (on top of all the aforementioned) is for you. You are the die-hards that make me keep pushing on. You are the ones who make me realize that what I write about is important, even if only for a small audience. If I can touch only a few of you, David, Daniel, Alex, Argh128, Matt, Michalis, Alexandra, Joe B. Jr., Maurizio, and the 225 'followers' on my Instagram page, this blog is for you, and a small audience is fine by me. In an era of rapid expansion and increase, I am happy to keep my circle small and intimate, connected and real.

I wanted to post today to tell you that I'm busy for a reason. I've never had a chance to do something just for me. My whole life has been given over to others. I won't go into detail, but I will say this, what is left of my precious life is my own. My time is my own. My interests will be pursued. I have found love and light, purpose and peace. I have fought hard and won a battle that damn near took my life. But I am here at the page when I can be, and I am happy for it. Baking and sharing with you is so special and I love it beyond reason. This blog is one of my passions, and I have loved it for coming up on 9 years. I thank those of you who are, like me, living for connectivity and significance when the world demands that we give ourselves over to externalities that prevent us from living viscerally, intentionally, and authentically.

Here is your yin & yang bread. A simple one, but one that is feeding my good friend Deanna who has given me a little treasure that will change my life. Thank you sister. And thank you dear reader, for meeting me back at the page no matter how seldom, for supporting me and being my ear. If it was not for the little thank you notes for posting silly things like digestive biscuits (Alex!) and humble loaves, I would have no presence on the net at all.

xo

YIN & YANG

This formula makes one loaf

MAKE YOUR LEVAIN

3 or 4 days before you make your levain, kick it into high-gear by feeding it 2x a day. On levain day, you will need:

12g 100% hydration dark rye starter (I mill my own flour for this, but you don't have to)

75g freshly milled rye flour

75g h2o

Mix the levain ingredients together until you reach a paste. Mine fermented for 8 hours.

levain, fully realized

DOUGH DAY

You will need:

400g h2o

400g Giusto's Artisan flour (BRM artisan/all purpose or even KA bread/all purpose are fine stand ins)

100g dark rye flour (again, I mill my own, but you don't have to)

10g kosher salt, I used Diamond

All of the levain

70g toasted hulled white sesame seeds

25g black sesame seeds

15g toasted sesame seed oil

For the linen:

lots of black sesame seeds for coating the yin half of the loaf

lots of brown (unhulled white) sesame seeds for coating the yang half of the loaf

When your levain is properly fermented, mix together the levain the flours and the h2o until you reach a shaggy mass. Autolyse for 1 hour 30 minutes

After the autolyse, the dough should have expanded a bit. Squish the salt and oil into the dough until it's fully incorporated, then fold in the 70g toasted white sesame seeds and 25g black sesame seeds. Work the dough into a smooth mass. Now it's time for the 3.5-hour bulk fermentation.

Every half hour, perform a series of turns, taking care not to deflate the dough as you near the end of bulk. You will likely stop your turns somewhere around 2 hours into the bulk. For the remaining bulk, leave it untouched. If it's super warm where you are, feel free to pop it in the fridge for the last hour of bulk to slow the fermentation. 

When bulk fermentation is accomplished, turn the dough out onto a workspace dusted with brown rice flour, and shape into a loose round. Let it rest. Mine rested for 10 minutes. 

During the bench, spread out a thick layer of raw sesame seeds, black and white, to form a yin and yang pattern on your linen (see picture below).

After the bench, shape the dough into a taut boule. and carefully place it onto the yin/yang decorated linen. Fold up the sides carefully and pop into a bowl seam-side up.

Pop in the fridge and ferment. Mine fermented for 20 hours

BAKE DAY

Preheat the oven to 500 with a dutch oven and baking stone inside.

Unearth the dough by placing a sheet of parchment over the mouth of the dough bowl, then place a peel over this and quickly invert the bowl so that the dough ends up sitting on the paper and the peel, seam side down.

Slash the dough at the perimeter of the boule, taking care so that you don't mar the yin & yang sesame pattern, then slide it into the shallow half of the hot dutchie. Yes. A crap load of sesame seeds will come pouring out of the bowl. Try to collect as many as you can and put them in a bowl. Eat them. I do. they are high in calcium.

Cover with the fat half, slide it into the oven, and steam for 15 minutes at this temp, then turn the oven down to 450 and steam for another 15 minutes.

After the steam, remove the fat end of the dutchie, then stack the pan over its mouth to create a buffer between the hot stone and the bread. This will help keep the bottom of your bread from blackening.

Toggle the oven between 425 an 450 until the boule is baked to desired darkness, or between 210-220 degrees.

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

Eat any excess sesame seeds that slide off the loaf after the bake. They're amazing.

To the staff of life!

Pictorial Evidence of Real Time Things

 toasted

 yin and yang on linen

 20 hour final fermentation

 on the parchment, ready for the bake

 a successful steam

 will ya look at that crumb?

yin/yang/balance/love/light/authenticity/wholeness

Sidebar Sunday: Digestive Biscuits

Digestive Biscuits

Wait. Are you like me? Sunday rolls around, you tumble out of bed and twist the oven knob to some middling temp, 325? 360? you don't know what you're baking yet, but you know you're baking something. It is Sunday after all. And it's a chilly one too. All the better.

I have been dying, DYING to make digestive biscuits. You know what they are? Scotch things, wholemeal and just sweet enough. Thought to aid in digestion because of the baking soda, which, oddly, this recipe has none of. Nevertheless, they taste exactly as you would imagine: wheaty, nutty, simple and amazing, if you like that sort of thing. Here's what, sweet eaters fall into two camps, the gooey sticky lovers, and the slightly sweet and simple fans. I fall into the second. Caramel and frosty things are not my cup of tea. Things like that magic cake that was running wild for a while? Yeah, no. Too sweet and rich and makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. I should clarify, this does not include ganache, which is not really frosting at all, rather, spreadable truffles and should be its own food group.

Here is the recipe for these wheaten things. They come together in 5 minutes and bake in 15. Unlikely that they will aid in digestion but tasty nonetheless. This is one for second camp folks. Feel free to dip them in ganache.

Digestive Biscuits

100g oats, coarsely ground (I ground rolled oats with a coarse setting on my Komo, but you can blitz them in a food processor)
100g whole wheat flour
105g unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
50g coconut sugar
1 - 2 TB milk (I used homemade almond milk, worked a treat)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the ov to 350. Whisk together the flours, sugar, b. powder and salt, then work the butter into the flour mixture by pinching and rubbing between your fingers till you arrive at a crumbly mass. Add the milk and incorporate into the dough just until it comes together, and only use as much milk as you need to pull it all together. Don't overwork. You don't want tough digestive biscuits.

Wrap the dough in plastic and stow it in the fridge for 20 minutes. After the 20, spread wholemeal flour on the counter and roll out the dough to about 3/16" thickness.

Using a 2 1/2" round cutter, cut out rounds and lay them onto a sheet pan that you've lined with either a Silpat sheet or a piece of parchment paper. They don't spread much. You can get 15-20 on a sheet pan.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden. You'll only get 2 sheet pans out of this recipe. I think I got like 33, but I was eating them as I was laying them out too cool and may have lost count. Plus I rolled mine too thinly.

You can pull together the scraps, refrigerate and re-roll them once. After the second rolling, you can bake up the scraps for nibbling as you putz about the kitchen this lovely, lazy Sunday.

Happy Sunday y'all!

 pinch, pinch, pinch till crumbly

 just pulled together

 roll, not too thinly, the thickness is a cross between a shortbread cookie and a cracker. I feel mine could have been a wee bit thicker...

they really dont spread much at all. I could easily have added another row in here

Adapted from Little Loaf Blog.