Anya and I made hot chocolate to warm up after spending a day shoveling snow — it’s a quick recipe. For each serving, add a cup of almond milk, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder. Put the milk in a pan. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Once warmed, whisk in cocoa powder. Serve. Ideally with some homemade marshmallows — I need to make some honey marshmallows, we ate all of the homemade marshmallows I made last year.
Category: Cooking
DigiBoil Saga – Conclusion, more or less
We’ve had a horrible time using the DigiBoil we ordered some four or five months ago. The temperature is way off. The manufacturer says there’s no calibration on the unit — and, if we want to be able to calibrate the unit, we should pay the money for a Brewzilla. A quote from their latest e-mail:
“The Digiboil is primarily designed (and marketed) for other purposes – we sell a great many for use with stills or as HLTs, typically. To that end, the granularity of temperature control of the Brewzilla is not typically needed for the Digiboil.”
In my opinion, that’s a little disingenuous. We ordered a DigiMash — a package to turn the DigiBoil into an all-in-one electric brewing system.
We were considering the iteration with a pump included
I’d totally believe it was originally designed as a HLT, accessories packages were put together to make it a brewing system but those accessories were discontinued because the thing doesn’t work well enough to be a brewing system. But my opinion is that it was certainly was marketed as something fully functional. And the extra couple hundred bucks for the Brewzilla got you more advanced features like step mashing.
The strangest thing is that the problem seems to be the controller — building up a NodeMCU-based controller would make something better than a Brewzilla (you can flash your own firmware if you want the logic to change — we got put off the Brewzilla because v3.1.1 units weren’t available in the US when we were looking to purchase something. The v3.1 logic started the timer when the elements kicked in. You’d have to buy an upgraded 3.1.1 board to get the new logic that starts the timer when the target temp is reached (and sixty minutes at 155 isn’t the same as sixty minutes spent going from 135 to 155 then holding at 155).
Hogie / Sub Roll Recipe
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup warm water (may need to add more water to get proper dough consistency)
- 2 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 Tablespoon cold butter, cubed
Method:
- Add the yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup of warm water in a bowl of a stand mixer.
- Mix and let sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast is bubbling.
- Add in 2 cups of flour and remaining water. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
- Add in the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes. If needed, add water a tablespoon at a time.
- Add in the butter 1 Tablespoon at a time and mix until almost fully incorporated before adding more. Mix for 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and shiny. Cover and allow to rise for one hour.
- Punch the dough down and place on a very lightly floured board. Divide into 4-8 pieces and shape.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Place on a baking tray lined with a silicone baking mat. Allow to rise again until almost doubled. ~30-45 minutes.
- Slash bread using a lame.
- Bake for 16-23 minutes or until golden brown.
DigiBoil Saga
We ordered a DigiBoil (well, we really ordered a DigiMash, but it turns out that’s a DigiBoil with the mashing kit) in November. We’ve still not managed to brew beer. Our first unit looked like it got mangled in manufacture. I rather question KegLand’s quality control process — the two fermenters we purchased had the butterfly valve handles installed backwards. Easy enough to take a wrench and turn them around, but it’s an odd oversight. And upside down doesn’t work since the handle would turn up into the fermenter plastic and stop before being fully turned.
We got a replacement DigiBoil, We washed the unit, then dumped in a few gallons of water to test it out. No leaks – great. Turn on elements — all three work, also great. Water boiling … awesome, except the temp readout was 203 degrees F. I know the temp at which water boils, so the temp reading was obviously wrong. We measured the resistance on both thermistors and found the original one read lower than the one on the replacement. And the resistance went down as the temperature warmed up … so possibly the original one was better. We swapped the thermistor from the dented up unit — and water boiled at 206 degrees. Scott tried contacting KegLand to see if there’s some calibration on the controller (sealed behind the big sticker with a logo … not something we’d want to pull apart on a whim), but it seemed like they blew him off. We got a third DigiBoil and it, too, either has a bad thermistor or a miscalibrated controller. This is getting silly. They cannot/will not send us a thermistor or provide details about calibrating the controller. That would be a lot less effort for everyone involved. Three out of three thermistors report different, significantly wrong, temperatures at boil.
Maple Candied Almonds
Maple Candied Almonds
Course: Snacks, DessertCuisine: AmericanPrep time
10
minutesCooking time
1
hourIngredients
4 cups raw almonds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup olive oil
Method
- Preheat oven to 250 F.
- Mix maple syrup, olive oil, and salt. Stir in almonds and mix to combine.
- Line a baking tray with a silicone baking liner. Spread almonds in a single layer.
- Bake for 30-60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool before packaging.
Notes
- Make sure to check every ten minutes while baking to avoid scorching maple syrup.
Cinnamon Candied Almonds
Cinnamon Candied Almonds
Course: Dessert, SnacksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: EasyPrep time
10
minutesCooking time
1
hourIngredients
2 lbs raw almonds
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 egg whites
Method
- Preheat oven to 250 F. Beat egg whites until soft-peak stage.
- In a bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, and salt.
- Mix almonds into egg whites and stir to coat. Add sugar mixture and stir to combine.
- Line a baking tray with a silicone baking liner. Spread almonds in a single layer. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Let almonds cool before packaging.
Garlic Knots
I made garlic knots to go with broccoli cheddar soup tonight — it’s just a basic dough like pizza crust (I made a half recipe — ~2 cups of flour). After the first rise, I cut the dough into eight pieces and rolled them out into long strands. Anya tied the knots, then we let them sit and rise for half an hour or so. Basted the knots with garlic butter before and after baking them at 400F for about 15 minutes.
Anya’s 8th Birthday Cake
This year, Anya wanted a chocolate brownie for her cake …
Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
Servings
4
servingsPrep time
10
minutesCooking time
20
minutesIngredients
2 lbs Brussels sprouts
1-2 Tbsp butter
1/4 c honey
1-2 Tbsp Sriracha sauce
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Clean and trim sprouts. Cut in half. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper.
- Place sprouts face-down on metal tray and bake for 20 minutes.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in honey until melted. Add sriracha.
- Toss hot spouts with sauce and serve.
Rübæus Clone Recipe
We picked up a six-pack of Rübæus this evening and both love it. It smells like raspberries, it tastes like a nice cream ale blended well with a lot of raspberry flavor (reading that they use 3,000 lbs of raspberries in a batch … even without knowing the size of “a batch”, I think there are a LOT of raspberries per ounce of beer produced). So I’m working on synthesizing a clone recipe from a few clone recipes out there. This is sized for a 5 gallon batch
Grain Bill:
| Quantity | Grain | Color |
|---|---|---|
| 7 lbs | Marris Otter | 3°L |
| 1 lb | Honey Malt | 25°L |
| 1 lbs | Wheat | 2°L |
| 1 lbs | CaraMunich | 50°L |
Brew: Mash at 153°F for 60 minutes. 0.5 oz Magnum at 60 minutes. 1 lb whole raspberries at flame-out.
Yeast: WLP060 American Ale Yeast Blend
Secondary:
| Quantity | Ingredient | Addition | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 lbs | Whole raspberries (crushed?) | Secondary | 2 weeks |