Babkatopia

Woke up to Edie hollerin' at 6am. Sore from a good lifting session yesterday, and stuffed up and sore throat from an annoying cold. Got a lot done today, meeting with tax attorney, laundry done, babkas cooked, a nice walk with Edie, thought I was feeling ok. When B got home, she was feeling rough so I decided to cancel my evening's plans and while she was playing with Edie, I laid down to close my eyes for a second and...all of a sudden it was 9pm! I guess my cold got the better of me.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Babka:Oy. I haven't made babka this season yet, and the warm weather reminded me that yes, this season will be over eventually (and at work, I go back to Mondays on a regular basis on March 21st.) So this weekend's project was babkas.

I looked at the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food's recipe and was unimpressed (not as rich, not as chocolaty, sweeter) so I stuck with the recipe I've been using, but for a change up I did two things: I did make a batch of cinnamon filling from the book (mostly brown sugar, spiked with cinnamon, butter and a few tablespoons of corn syrup to give  a good mouth feel) and made the strusel at the end of the recipe.

I made a double recipe of dough, and my 5 quart mixer could  barely contain it, what a mess. I should have done two batches. And I ran the chocolate through the food processor to chop it quick, but while incorporating the butter, sugar and spices, it started melting a little and seizing -- should have froze the chocolate first. And never having topped the babkas with strusel, I assumed it would spread and look a bit like icing (as it's confectioner's sugar, butter and flour), but did not spread and turned tan -- I should of piped it into a nice pattern, instead it looks like my babka have cancer.

But 9 medium loaves and 5 mini loaves were produced. I started the dough around 8:30am, and the actual babkas exited the oven a little before 5. One fell on the floor while being removed, so I ate a few slices of that one, and when B got home, she killed it with cream cheese (!). That's like slathering an eggy, sugary stick of butter riddled by dark chocolate with fatty dairy spread!

AM SNACK: 7:15am, half a glass of green iced tea

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, organic wholegrain chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Usually not that hungry this early, but it came on me.

AM SNACK: 11am, snippets of chocolate babka filling (dark chocolate ground with sugar and cinnamon)

LUNCH: 1pm, small green salad, 2 fish sticks, large amount of angel hair pasta with oil & garlic, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 slices of babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, small amount of wholegrain gold fish


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, hotdog with extra kraut, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5