What did you make today?

[ZenGum]

Cool indeed. Now go bury it near some ancient Indian ruin and in ten years read about some hapless archeology postgrad who has discovered proof of ancient Mesopotamian trade routes to Florida.

It'll probably run on Fox.

[JBKlyde]

lol but what ever you do don't crush it up and let the wind blow it away or you might start a war...

[Clodfobble]

First I made foil molds, then I made these coconut flour hot dog buns in them. Turned out perfectly. The kids are going to flip their shit when they see them...

[glatt]

Those look awesome! I don't care for coconut, but they look so good, I'd try one.

[Clodfobble]

They don't taste coconut-y to me, but I have an admittedly dull palette. To me the closest flavor match is kind of a sweet, moist cornbread.

[Griff]

Nice, I assume you have some not nasty hotdogs?

[Clodfobble]

Yeah, they're officially sausages made on site at Whole Foods, but they're in a lamb casing, which is a whole lot skinnier than pork casing. Same size and diameter as hot dogs, but filled with nothing but ground meat and fresh seasonings. Ketchup and mustard are touch-and-go (I do have some that they can eat, but they don't taste that great,) but sauerkraut is all good.

[orthodoc]

I've never come across coconut flour ... does it rise better than, say, rice flour?

I remember the days of trying to find substitutes for all the unhealthy 'fun' foods when my kids were little. It was tough. I'm grateful to have reached a stage where I can eat fresh, whole foods and not be criticized or considered crazy. And the irony ... after a childhood of complaining and accusing and raging, my kids now prefer whole foods and rarely or never eat the stuff they clamored for when younger.

[Clodfobble]

Oh yes, it's vastly superior to rice flour. The thing is, aside from being more expensive, coconut flour sucks up a TON of moisture, so the typical baking ratios are completely different. Most coconut flour recipes have at least 4-6 eggs and relatively little flour, a cup at the most. But somehow the end product is completely bread-like, not the souffle you would expect.

[Griff]

I always found myself adding more and more water. I'll change the egg flour ratio next time. I like the flavor anyway.

[gvidas]

Not for my camera (Lumix LX7 -- I had an LX1 for four years, loved it, got this one after only a few moments of research, and have yet to fall in love with the interface.)

Also, the bike shop was open today, and of late my motto is something like: "strike while the iron is hot or probably you'll forget you ever put it in the forge to heat up until two years from now when you're doing deep cleaning and trying to remember why that shit is sitting around."

The trigger end is a few pieces of silicone tubing over the brake cable, for grip; and a spring between two washers on the pre-finished (brake lever) end of the cable. Total functional length is just over 8'.

The camera end is a bent piece of aluminum, drilled to fit the tripod mount, with a tiny hole to align the brake cable with the camera's shutter. The brake housing is held in place with a few cable ties and a piece of copper wire.

[monster]

The design for the State Team yard signs



Gonna move the eagle down a smidge, but these will be hand painted with stencils, so no need to fix this version (actual signs are 32" * 48")

Oh and this came out of the kiln today:



Now I just have to glaze it -wasn't happy with the test tile, so put another one in to fire today. Looking at the pic, it doesn't seem all that impressive, but that sucker is approx. 6" diameter and hollow. it's a replica of the ancient d20 recently unearthed in Egypt.

[glatt]

Six inches is pretty big!

I'm impressed. It came out really well. For a handmade item to look so geometrically perfect is impressive.

[orthodoc]

So many eggs ...

[Clodfobble]

Griff, the exact recipe for those hot dog buns (which I've also used for hamburger buns) is:

1/3 cup coconut flour*
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil (I used grapeseed, but canola or whatever is fine too)
2 TBS honey

Blend dry ingredients. Add oil, and mix with a fork until all lumps are gone. Then beat in eggs and honey. Batter will be very wet, and needs some sort of form to make an appropriate bun/loaf/whatever shape. For hamburger buns I use one of these. Bake at 375 for 12-13 minutes.


*It's really a much better idea to weigh coconut flour rather than measure it. The amount of compaction in the measuring cup is going to dramatically alter the dry/wetness of the batter. 100 grams of coconut flour = 1 cup, so for this I weigh out 33 grams.