12. the perks of being a housesitter
or whatever Stephen Chbosky said (the perk is two recipes for ya!!)
Hello hello!
Coming to you live from Lavender Place!! AKA the home of the ever amazing, Rose Wilde. I’ve been house sitting for Rose and her partner Guy for the past week and I’ll be here a majority of this month. Watching and walking the dogs, collecting eggs from the chickens and admiring the butterflies that flutter past the kitchen window. Very dreamy, so romantic. Literally living my urban homesteader DREAMS here!
The last time I long term hose sat for a friend, I had a fucking terrible experience, for lack of a better term. About a week into the stay someone BROKE INTO THE HOUSE WHILE I WAS INSIDE. It was this whole traumatic ordeal that involved calling the cops, barricading myself in the back bed room and so much adrenaline I was able to pull a massively heavy dresser in front of the bedroom door for protection. Despite all that, when Rosie asked if I could watch her garden oasis of a home- I obviously said yes- purely for the perks.
Rose is an incredibly talented baker, with over a decade of experience under her belt. A whole room in the house converted to being a home bakery (a great option for all your cake needs when I close up in December♡). A pantry stocked with every spice, grain and ingredient you could ever thing of? A collection of specialty equipment I could only DREAM OF with the limited space in my home kitchen. Like the compressor ice cream machine I’ve been dreaming of purchasing (more on that later). THREE FRIDGES! I REPEAT, THREE FRIDGES!!! It is so nice to have fridges for baking ingredients + cakes and still have a space for normal food for myself?! It’s the small luxuries.
So, while the thought of home invasion lingers in the back of my mind constantly, the kitchen perks out weigh the highly unlikely worries. Because, there’s also chickens. Who are pretty self sufficient and have been providing me with 6-7 eggs daily. Which, is kinda a shame because I hear fresh eggs are top tier but, I hate eggs- in all preparations. Well, aside from in cake, but you know what I mean. Fret not- the eggs are not going to waste! I’ve been sending eggs out with anyone who comes to visit and making pancakes.
On pancakes:
I don’t like a thick pancake, I like ‘em thin. Not crepe thin though- I actually don’t like crepes at all. A happy medium between crepe and fluffy buttermilk pancake. Something tender.
So with the eggs from the chickens, I’ve been messing around and making my ideal pancake: The recipe is adapted from Shilpa Uskokovic’s Easy, Fluffy, Pancake Recipe over on BA.
I use a bit of Sonora flour in the recipe- because well Rose has some on hand and it adds this light, creamy, corny flavor to the pancakes- totally not necessary. You can use all AP flour but drop the total weight of flour from 275 grams to 250 grams.
Makes about 15 pancakes, minus one sacrificial dud pancake
Ingredients:
200 grams all-purpose flour
75 grams sonora flour
4 Tablespoons baking powder
75 grams granulated sugar
1 teaspoons salt
100 grams egg, about 2 large eggs
115 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
475 grams whole milk
150 grams plain yogurt
Directions:
In a bowl combine the all-purpose flour, sonora, baking powder, sugar and salt.
In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and melted butter until combined. Add in the milk and yogurt-whisking to combine. The addition of cold milk might cause the butter to seize and create lumps. Fret not- this is totally A-OK.
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients. Whisk to combine. You don’t want to over the mix the batter. It should actually have a few dry lumps- pancake better doesn’t need so be super smooth.
Heat a skillet over medium heat.
Spray the skillet down with non stick spray. Add about 1/4 cup of batter to the skillet- which is about a ladle full or a green disher scoop!
Once the top of the pancake is covered in bubbles (sorry, to you trypophobia babes) the pancake is ready to flip! About 2 and half minutes
Flip and cook for another minute.
The first pancake never comes out right, adjust accordingly to how the first one bakes off.
Keeping them stacked will keep them warm.
Serves ‘em up however you’d like- best with thick schmears of butter and hefty drizzles of syrup!!
There are a few draw backs to working in someone else’s kitchen. Things are set up in an unfamiliar way- at home my silverware is in the drawer next to the sink, here the forks and spoons can be found on the other side of the kitchen. My natural instinct is to open the draw by the sink but, oooops that’s an immersion blender. Rose’s kitchen is obviously set up in a smart and efficient way but it still feels so foreign. A week in and I’m still trying to get a lay of the land.
Another big one- actually the BIGGEST drawback. Working in a new oven… No two ovens are created equally. At home, I know my oven in and out. It’s a part of me and I understand it’s hot spots, that when it’s set to 350F it’s actually running under at 335F. So there’s been a lot of baking mishaps trying to figure out this oven. The hot spot is the entire back half of the upper rack. So yeah, I over baked a few batches of cookies while getting situated here.
Over baked cookies are my favorite problem to have though- because then I get to make cookie milk for ice cream. Cookie milk is exactly what it sounds like. You soak these tough cookies in milk for 45 minutes to extract the flavor. BOMB. I love to use the milk for ice cream but it also works great in pastry cream, too.
On ice cream:
For every downside to this kitchen there is two upsides. In exchange for over baked cookies, I am awarded with the fancy Made In saucier1 I’ve been eyeing for a while. And, my ultimate dream come true, a compressor ice cream machine. Because, i love making ice cream. Ice cream is my go-to sweet treat. I have a little Cuisinart ice cream machine- the kind when you freeze the drum overnight. It’s affordable and gets the job done. You can almost always find one at a yard sale, thrift store or being sold second hand online. I got mine at Goodwill for $8. But, because you have to freeze the drum at least a day in advance- it can take some planning to make ice cream. I’m a spur of the moment kinda gal- so when the mood strikes for homemade ice cream, I want it as expeditiously as possible!!
Some other cons I find with these smaller ice cream machines is the ice cream freezes down really hard to drum. The blades never fully reach the sides to effectively scrape every bit of ice cream up. So, theres quite a bit of product loss, as it’s also kinda a pain to scrape it off with a rubber spat as well…
Enter, compressor machines. While much bulkier and needing ample counter space- these bad boys are self freezing. You just plug ‘em in- press start and they begin to freeze on their own. No 12 hour freeze time needed. So ideally you could make the ice cream base in the morning, chill it down a few hours, spin it, freeze it and have ice cream for dessert. The canisters are also usually made of aluminum, so the scraping problem from the smaller machines is quelled. You just gently warm the sides and all the ice cream slides right out.
I’ve made ice cream three times this week and the only reason I haven’t made more is I’m too lazy to go pick-up more heavy cream… and lactaid. I’ve personally been eyeing the Breville Smartscoop or the Whynter in Champagne Gold. When I’m done with my house sitting stint I’ll probably look more seriously into getting one.
Without wasting any more time- because I know you’re here for recipes and nOt ThE bLoGgERs LiFe ST0rY…. Here’s a great recipe for cookie milk stracciatella!!
