I just remembered there's a REASON I don't bake.

[gurdymonkey]

All my foodie friends are invited to laugh now.

 I thought I'd make some kabocha manju for Estrella, using this recipe. http://www.grouprecipes.com/15474/kabocha-manju.html

The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of kabocha. That means that I had enough kabocha for more than four times this recipe, so I sliced it up, steamed it and used about half of it with the amount of sugar, salt and cinnamon called for. That's right, 1 pound of kabocha to the sugar, salt cinnamon needed for half a pound of kabocha. Kannon the merciful on a pogostick, it's a good thing I did. It's plenty sweet at this mixture .In fact it's a religious experience.

The dough, well, the dough is a f****** disaster. Make that a f****** disaster twice over. Proceeding on the logic that rice flour would be the right thing to use, I started with that. It would not become dough, not with that amount of water. After struggling with the rice flour with just turned into strings in a bowl of powder, I tried the same proportions using plain old white flour. It started out looking like dough, it even acted like dough, but it went tough on me way too fast and wouldn't stick to itself.

Roll them into balls, it says. Hah. Right. Like the goo is going to stay in the middle. I ended up making little gyoza-like dumplings, which, wouldn't stay pinched shut! There are ten ugly bastard stepchild embarrassments of kabocha gyoza sitting in the steamer cooling right now. I have no illusions about the dough even being close to right. It can't possibly be.

I should add that my work surface consisted of my ironing board, my postage-stamped counter and my sink. I was rolling dough on a board in my SINK using an old sake bottle as a rolling pin, OK? Sue me, I  live in an apartment.

I feel like crying and kicking things. Instead I threw out half a bag of perfectly good flour and half a box of perfectly good rice flour because it makes me feel better.  There's a pound of steamed, chunk kabocha in the fridge that may get ground up for soup. But what do do with the rest of the filling? A Pennsic memory of eating syllabub with 'Nilla wafers come to mind. I'm thinking kabocha goo would taste damn fine on graham crackers or digestive biscuits.

I have wasted enough of this damn day on kabocha f****** manju. Teryaki chicken is doing its thing in the oven, rice is soaking and I'm gonna make onigiri.

EDIT. I pried a cooled monstrosity off the steamer. It came apart in my hands. The dough is nothing to write home about and only contributes to the wrongness of concept of this recipe. Every other sort of manju I have ever actually had is cakelike. This thing is not.

Comments

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

hahahaha. oops, I mean *puts on sympathetic face* bring some gyoza wrappers and the goo. I'll bring my gyoza press and we can steam some for you onsite. they won't be _right_, but they'll probably be delicious.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

If time permits, I may look for some dough alternative recipes. If not, it's goo and graham crackers, baby!

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

It's something wrapped in dough and cooked. That's close enough to baking for me. I don't do dough. I'm a cook not a baker.

That being said. Bottles as rolling pins are a great solution, especially if you need to keep the dough cold since you can fill it with ice water.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Clearly, I don't do dough either. My onigiri, however, came out so well, I looked at how much rice is still in the package just threw two more chicken breasts slathered with teriyaki sauce into the oven.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Honey, you may not bake, but this recipe doesn't count as baking, it is steaming, so it *should* be something that people who think of themselves as "non-bakers" can manage.

Advice: If a recipe says "flour" and doesn't specify the grain, it means ordinary white wheat flour. Rice flour, as those people who are on a gluten-free diet know, is difficult to get to stick to itself, and does not roll out very well.

Looking at the picture with the recipe, it looks like you are meant to fold the edges of the circle of dough and overlap them to create a flat base which is slightly thicker than the top or sides. Think of it as origami--fold flap A over, then flap B, then flap C, then flap D, then set it down such that the overlapping folds are on the bottom.

Good luck with your next attempt!

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Actually I tried that. If the dough doesn't want to sculpt, it won't sculpt.

I seriously doubt there will be a next attempt. I don't have the kitchen or the patience for it.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Should you change your mind, come to my place sometime and I'll see if I can help. While I don't know this particular item, I do have a pretty good command of all things dough related. :)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Meant to respond a little earlier. I may take you up on the offer at some point. I freely admit that I do not have much experience at dough and pastry. I also need to do a bit more digging for manju recipes....