unclutter | Pantry Uncluttering Continued

... Finally back at the baking to clear out the pantry's generous flour shelf.

I decided to prep dry ingredients for later tonight. The recipes I'm using mix all their dry ingredients first, so everything could go into one bowl.

The whole wheat made it easy for me. I unrolled the top and bugs came out. The bag went into the trash.

Instead I used the last of the Rye to double a recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies. There will be a lot of them, so hopefully they'll be edible.

Next up for the running are spelt and bread flour.

At this point, the surplus flour has been reduced by 50%. Most of what's left are specific-use items (like glutinous rice flour for mochi, and okonomiyaki mix) and local mixed flours. The two remaining big items are masa flours.

- Cobalt Amber (he/him)

Update with recipes and cookie tax

Everything has been made! There are two new packaged, labeled hunks of dough in the freezer. Tasting portions of each batch were baked per how this goes.

A small strawberry print plate with four cookies, with two the same kind each placed diagonal to each other. Two are small, round, and flattened with slightly golden edges, and specks of spice visible on the pale dough. Two are the same diameter, but are large and round. They each have three sliced almonds arranged on top, with a golden halo of eggyolk wash.

A small strawberry print plate with four cookies, with two the same kind each placed diagonal to each other. Two are small, round, and flattened with slightly golden edges, and specks of spice visible on the pale dough. Two are the same diameter, but are large and round. They each have three sliced almonds arranged on top, with a golden halo of eggyolk wash.

The recipes are Chinese Almond Cookies, with sunflower oil and rye flour subbed out for the regular, and Lavender Lemon Shortbread with different spices (ground rose petals, rose water, cardamom, grains of paradise, and hibiscus powder).

I cheated a bit with the shortbreads - I was not going to roll and cut them. That is a whole mess. Instead, I laid a sheet of parchment paper over a plastic cutting board, rolled tiny balls of dough, placed them, and then smooshed them with a measuring cup and a strip of wax paper acting as a non-stick intermediary between them. Works so much better than dealing with sticky dough on wide surfaces. The entire sheet went into the freezer, and then slipped off onto a baking tray with the parchment paper.

If you're like Cobalt and don't read the directions about using cold butter... Literally do not worry about it. I used the room temp stuff he set out, ended up with a very paste-like dough, and the cookies did not die. Just freeze it first.

The only thing left (apart from a remaining mixing bowl to wash) is to put the bread flour into the newly-vacated AP flour container.

- MK (he/him)