Quarterly baking report [Q1 2023]

My cooking is best described as edible, so I wouldn’t entirely trust anything I have to say about dinner recipes, but people at least tell me they like my baking. Here’s a review of what we baked in the first three months of 2023 with some notes.

Linzer cookies – King Arthur Baking – This was a post-Christmas bake (hence the Christmas tree shapes). I’m pretty sure I would have reduced the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, we may have used one whole egg instead of an egg yolk, and we substituted almond extract for the lemon zest/cinnamon and vanilla. The almond extract we had was quite strong, so maybe be aware of that if you do a similar switch. The cookies come out like a crisp sugar cookie with a finer crumb, and I used jam for the filling. Our cookies turned out well, though very almondy. The dough works nicely, so the rolling/cutting out isn’t too tedious. Would bake again.

Clockwise from top left: Linzer cookies, filled wool roll, Nutella/chocolate babka, cranberry apple galette

Filled wool roll – King Arthur Baking – We may have baked this partly (mostly) because it looked interesting. It’s a sweetened bread, so I think we followed the recipe exactly this time. The base is a Japanese milk bread that’s then filled, rolled, cut, and shaped to give it its form and the filling is a mixture of cream cheese and freeze-dried fruit. This was a fun and tasty bake, but as usual I’m reminded of why I don’t bake bread that often because why does proving take so long?

Coconut shortbread cookies – Not sure on the recipe for this bake, which was done mainly to make a dent in some expired coconut flour. I liked the cookies, though the coconut flour definitely does something to the texture.

Prinsesstarta – The Great British Baking Show: The Big Book of Amazing Cakes – I picked up the book at the library, wanted to make something from it, and had a birthday cake to make: enter, Prinsesstarta. For those unfamiliar, it’s a cake layered with jam and pastry cream, then covered in whipped cream and marzipan. Going in to the bake, I knew it would be a long process, and after having done it, the cake is good, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort for me. I can confirm I’m in the pro-marzipan camp though.

Prinsesstarta

Cranberry apple galette – The Pioneer Woman – For pie day we went slightly off script with a galette. My pie crust is still a work in progress so I can’t say too much about the recipe. Overall, it was more or less edible, and the fruit was great.

Nutella/chocolate babka – Again, I’m not positive which recipe we ended up using. I do know we made a Nutella variation on a babka, and as long as your bread turns out, it’s bread and chocolate so assuming you like bread and chocolate there’s not much to complain about. Same comment as above about proving but otherwise I have no grievances against the recipe.

911 Trail [May 2023]

The 911 Loop Trail is located behind the 911 Memorial field in Southborough, MA. The 911 field is an artificial turf field used for youth soccer, football, and lacrosse that’s been in use for at least a couple of decades. I believe the 911 trail is a newer development, possibly a result of a Covid-induced renewal of interest in the outdoors, but don’t quote me on that.

The trail is a 1.2-mile loop on a peninsula in the Sudbury Reservoir. One side of the loop goes along a Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) access road while the other follows the shoreline more closely. The access road portion of the trail is wide and flat, probably accessible to strollers and mobility devices, but near the reservoir and on the other side of the loop the trail is narrower and rockier. The whole trail travels through forest and provides view of the Sudbury Reservoir.

We hiked the trail in mid-May when the leaves and ferns had reappeared after another New England winter. Lily of the valley, wild geranium, and starflowers were in bloom, and we also found a number of oak apples (oak galls). Turns out oak galls are formed by chemicals from some gall wasp larvae to protect them as they grow, so that was a fun discovery. No wildlife sightings except a possible double-crested cormorant to report, but there were a lost umbrella and multitool.

Clockwise from top left: Oak gall (cross section), lily of the valley, wild geranium, starflowers

As far as hiking trails go, the 911 Loop Trail’s on the shorter side, with minimal elevation changes, so it could be fairly easily covered in 30-60 minutes depending on how many botanical/environmental tangents you get sidetracked by (all of them, if you’re hiking with me). It’s a pleasantly wooded trail with some nice views of the reservoir, so a good easy trail with decent payoff. Quick post for a quick trail today; I’ll be back later with a report from the kitchen.

Fern land

Go Out Doors and MacCallum Wildlife Management Area [May 2023]

Ellsworth McAfee Park in Northborough, MA was hosting an outdoor art event called Go Out Doors where local artists painted, as you might have guessed, doors, that were then displayed in the park. There were nine doors in total, placed along one of the sidewalks through the park. I liked the landscapes and the goats, and the second door from the left below (A Walk by a Pond) had a bunch of local wildlife sprinkled throughout the painting, including a frog, Canada goose, wild turkey, skunk, deer, groundhog, and raccoon.

 

Doors (from left to right) (click to enlarge) - Kids at Play (Brittni Laquidara), A Walk by a Pond (Rose Herrmann), Local Getaway (Lisa Hayden), No Place Like Home (Suzanne Cox), Purple Guitar (Jill Strait), What's your Dream (Anne Plaisance)

The park also has courts for pickleball, volleyball, and basketball, as well as soccer fields, a playground, and a walking track. When we were there, it was fairly busy with youth soccer, kids on the playground, people playing pickleball, and parents and families walking. After admiring the doors, we headed down the street to the Wayne F. MacCallum Wildlife Management Area (MacCallum WMA).

Massachusetts Wildlife Management Areas are managed by the commonwealth through MassWildlife and are intended to provide land for wildlife. They may be used for hunting and fishing as well as hiking and bird watching, and are typically less developed than parks, with parking lots and trails that may be unpaved. MacCallum WMA covers 906 acres in Northborough and Westborough and contains Lake Chauncy and Little Chauncy Pond. Until 1971, the Lyman School for Boys, a reform school established by the state, ran the school and a farm on the now WMA land.

Hole in the trees

We hiked a ~3.5 mile loop to Lake Chauncy, up the lake, and back to the west parking lot. Trails were not paved but main trails to and around Lake Chauncy were wide and easily passable, varying from dirt and gravel to grass. Side trails through the woods were narrower though still easy to follow. There are maps available but there is no signage in the WMA itself and trails don’t always appear on the maps. You probably won’t get lost, but you may not end up exactly where you’re intending to go the first time.

Pond by the west entrance

The landscape varies from ponds and lakes to forest and fields leased for corn growing. Wildlife sightings were plentiful and included a red-tailed hawk, a goose, red-winged blackbirds, frogs, turtles, and a coyote(?!). The weather was nice, the trails were pleasant, the surroundings were interesting, and we didn’t get eaten by a coyote, so all in all, it was another successful hiking trip.

Eastern coyote (according to Google Lens)