A Work in Progress
Making bread, nut butters and telling half-truths
Friends, I’d like to introduce you to Tammy, my KitchenAid stand mixer.
Everyday, she sits there all regal and poised, silently judging me, asking “Why haven’t you been using me?”
Tammy is a Christmas present from my husband. I love this KitchenAid so much I will probably die with it. However, if there was a fire at my house and I needed to grab some valuables, obviously I wouldn’t be able to take Tammy with me, but I will cry for days afterward. For a baker, nothing beats a KitchenAid stand mixer. Nothing.
But because Tammy acts like a high school drama queen, I want to tell her, “Hey Tammy, if you’re going to sit there and be judgy, then I’m not taking you to the grave with me. You can go to hell.”
I can give you a variety of reasons why I haven’t used my stand mixer, things I’ve evolved into truths in my mind, but here’s the real truth: Tammy is big and heavy and tough, like a soccer coach who keeps telling you to do more drills because it’ll help your game, but all you want to do is hide from her. She’s that intimidating.
Sooner or later, you have to face her and face her I did. So on a recent afternoon when I had some time on my hands, I tried out a bread recipe I found on a YouTube channel called Cinnamon Swirl Bread. It’s a simple recipe but requires some serious kneading of dough, which a dough hook on a stand mixer could do.
The result was…shall we say, not 100% there.
Confused, I texted my husband a photo with the caption, “Why does my bread look like a detached [insert name of male genitalia]?!” Like a good husband, he ignored my ridiculous pondering and replied, “I think it looks good!” Still, the bread tasted kind of stiff. As someone who grew up being a picky eater, I have high expectations for myself, and if you know me well, you know that a small failure is just a reason to try again.
I allowed myself a day to recuperate, so two days later, I tried again.
Taste-wise, it was better. It also looked better, less like male genitalia and more like a fluffed up rectangular roll.
Feeling emboldened by my efforts, I also tried making my own nut butter on the same day.
Now, why make nut butter when you can buy it at the store, you ask?
The answer is: because I wanted to. Specifically, I wanted to recreate this Cinnamon Snickerdoodle spread from Ground Up, a local nut butter company located right here in Portland. But at $12.791 each, it was more than what I was willing to pay for a jar of nut butter. I figured I could make it at home for much less.
To say that a 40-year-old woman could be so naïve would be an understatement.
Friends, I’m here to tell you that making your own nut butter is hard. You should probably opt to purchase it instead. But please wait until it’s on sale.
After 10 minutes of wrestling with the food processor, I gave up on making my homemade cashew-almond butter. The result was a soft, dough-like mound that smelled and tasted great. But it didn’t have the consistency of nut butter. So what’s a girl to do with that result?
She turns it into dough balls. Or bites. Then rolls it with a generous amount of sprinkles and gives it to her kids to try.
Was it healthy? Probably not. Was it delicious? Absolutely.
I told my kids that I created the recipe myself, which is 50% true. The recipe is inspired by the Ground Up product but the amounts are all my own.
In the car, I asked them for a ranking. “Between 1 to 5,” I said, “One being the worst, five being the best.” Lily gave me a 4 and James gave me a 5, which averages out to be 4.5. I’ll take that as a win.
Without further ado, I’m sharing this recipe for your nutty pleasure. Keep in mind that I am not a professional recipe developer (that’s only a dream) nor am I an expert at making nut butters. Take what you will and adjust to your liking. The amounts below are what I consider to be tasty.
Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Snack Bites2
Inspired by Ground Up
Makes 10
Ingredients
1 vanilla bean
1 cup of roasted & salted almonds
1 cup of roasted & salted cashews
1/3 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp honey
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup of rainbow sprinkles
Special Tools: Food processor
Combine all ingredients in a food processor for about 15 minutes (or 10 if you’re impatient like me) until it reaches a dough-like consistency. It should be a little crumbly but not fall apart when you squeeze them in your hands.
Shape the dough into the size of golf balls and roll it with a generous amount of sprinkles. Freeze for at least 1 hour. Then serve with a side of love and affection.
Delightful Discoveries of the Week
Every post, I’ll share a few delightful things that totally made my week. Here’s a few this week:
Lamb pie by Stacey Mei Yan Fong
Anyone want to take a stab at this delightful recreation of a lamb cake?
A cute, packed lunch by Molly Yeh
This is what I aspire to do. I’ll keep you posted.
This is the price at Whole Foods. Other retailers may be priced differently, but regardless it is not cheap.
I started calling this “snack balls” but it didn’t sound right. Also, I wanted to stay away from referring to my foods with names of body parts.
Looks like you’re making good use of that stand mixer—and it does look beautiful, Hoang. I use mine all the time to knead dough for challah and cream butter and sugar for various cakes and cookies. I haven’t named it, however. I also find there are many things it’s just easier to mix by hand—like muffins, scones and pie dough. The cinnamon snickerdoodle snack bites are adorable. I think they might even be kosher for Passover—unless you’re very strict and avoid peanuts. Nice post!