In the kitchen: Black Currant and Wild European Blackberry sauce

(I accidentally posted this at the farm page first and I'll leave it there for now - hopefully you won't be bombarded by doubles!)

Today I'm mixing up several cookie doughs and other sweets but what I am most excited about are the fillings for my tartlets.

This week's tartlets will be extra special as I'll be cooking down a rich and earthy fruit paste made from local black currants and locally foraged wild blackberries (European variety, naturalized).

I expect these to be super flavorful with hints of summer wines. I may yet put them over a chocolate or other base when they're in their final tartlet form. I'm hoping for now that they'll stand alone just fine, as I expect them to.

In the kitchen: Chocolate Chip Cookie Trials

I'm experimenting with posting while baking here. The trouble is that I can't place photos mid-post via phone. If anybody has a good iPhone app for blogger, let me know!

Anyway, when I test a recipe (or do a series of trials, like today) I carefully keep weight measurements of my recipes scrawled out in a little moleskine notbook.

I test the cookies by making up a half or quarter batch of the current recipe and I spoon out small, weighed balls onto a sheet. I then do a series of three per test. One balled, one slightly flattened, and one squished. This lets me see the way the dough spreads as it bakes. It's also a guarantee that for every one cookie I'm happy with, there are two less perfect that the husband and I get to snack on. Heh.

Morning Prep: Chocolate Chip Cookie Trials

I've done this before, and it resulted in tedium and mediocrity, but today I will be mad with joy as I create the perfect chocolate chip coooookie!!

Mwahaha.

I intend to make a protein punched chocolate chip cookie using almond meal, hard red wheat flour and duck eggs. Mediocrity better watch her back!

This was my last attempt at Chocolate Chip cookies. It was tasty, sure, but it wasn't the kind of cookie I would return to a bakery for. Typical and wheaty, it seemed too bland to be something I'd like to sell at the market booths.