Monthly Archives: November 2025

Good Food

Polpette di melanzane.

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From giallozafferano.it. Surpringly lovely to eat, crunchy little delights, even Florek said he’d have them again. Iza on the other hand announced they were her biggest nightmare, all they needed was an olive on top and it would be an ultimate schifezza! 🙂

I roasted 2 whole aubergines for about an hour in 200 degrees, cooled them slightly, peeled off the skins and then placed on collander to get rid of the excess water. Mashed them with a fork and then added an egg, 2 mashed garlic cloves, a generous amount of both breadcrumbs and grana padano, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. When eating them in the evening I thought a nice, crunchy green chili, not super hot, but flavoursome, will be added next time. Or a raw shallot. Or both!

Once formed in cute little polpette I rolled them in breabcrumbs again and they waited in the fridge for dinner. Deep fried until golden, sprinkled with salt before serving, also a fresh green salad and a dip made of Greek yoghurt, cucumber and mint went well together. I’m thinking they would make a great antipasto, maybe even with guacamole!

Baking

Croissants, second proper attempt.

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Yesterday morning I thought how nice it would be to have a lovely, fresh, crunchy croissant for breakfast on Sunday. I looked at recipes, picked one from the net and got busy. I’ve done half a portion not only because they are super calorific, but also because they’re delicious when fresh and warm, also wanted to make sure the recipe worked.

I used 250g of flour, a mix of plain and bread flour. 30g of sugar. 5g of salt. 140g of cold water mixed with milk. 25g of soft butter. Right before I went to bed last night I realized that I’ve messed up the amount of yeast I was supposed to use. The recipe called for dry yeast, but I like fresh, so as usual when they say 7g of dry, one is to use 21g of fresh, so I did, but I didn’t half it, like with the rest of the ingredients. In the end it wasn’t some super cock-up, but it made me wonder towards the end of the rolling out and folding process, just why is it puffing up so much!? 🙂

So, with all these a nice dough was created with the help of KA, it was left to rest and rise for over an hour, then once risen I rolled it out into a rectangle and I had my flat and pretty 125g of cold butter ready. And throughout the afternoon I rolled, folded and chilled it. Done it 4 times then left in the fridge overnight. It puffed up!

Last night I binged on “Heweliusz” on Netflix, this morning woke up aroud 7 and was done sleeping, so I got on with my dough. Rolled it out once more, cut into triangles and rolled into croissants, before leaving for an hour’s final proving.

When I was happy with the rise, I brushed them with beaten egg and milk and baked for about 22-25 minutes in 190 degrees. Together with an excellent cup of coffee they were fantastic. All 3 Bankses were very happy. I think what could have maybe made them even better, next time, if they were just a bit more salty and less sweet. Maybe salted butter next time? And less sugar?