Yoghurt and Patisseries

A few years ago, we tried making yoghurt (using our usual off-the-shelf 'live' yoghurt as a starter). It wasn't very successful, turning out very runny and a bit grainy, although it tasted fine. Having found better instructions, and obtained a thermometer (also useful for wine making), we thought we'd try again.

Accordingly, we mixed 900 ml of whole milk with three tablespoons of milk powder (semi-skimmed); warmed it to 46°C; and stirred in a few tablespoons of live yoghurt. We poured the lot into a pair of half-litre vacuum flasks, and left it until this morning (about 15 hours), when I decanted it into a plastic tub and moved it to the fridge.

The result? Considerably more yoghurt-like. It's a bit gooey, I suppose, and not quite the same consistency as the commercial stuff. However, it tastes good, and, hopefully, is good for us. Certainly it works out cheaper: about 60p per litre, compared to £1.70—though I should add a little bit to that for the gas (negligible, seeing as a whole year of cooking gas is about £45) and milk powder (about 8p per litre, I estimate). Probably about a 55% saving, and that can only be good, especially when combined with the satisfaction of making it.

On the topic of making things, I spent a couple of hours during our last days of holiday (Monday/Tuesday) making a new chopping board. When the kitchen sinks were installed, corresponding pieces of worktop had to be cut out, which I saved. I smoothed (chisel) the sides of the smaller, which was about 40 x 30 cm, and gave it a thorough sand, before applying a couple of coats of oil. It'll need more oil, but it's come up really nicely. Obviously, it perfectly matches the sides, and is a nice size for use (though it's pretty heavy, as the sideboard is a really dense oak).

The larger piece (about 60 x 40 cm) will need slightly more preparation (less neat sides), but I'll try to do the same to it when I can. It will, of course, be even heavier, but a big board will be useful. I should also sand and re-oil our old butchers block, because that's badly worn now, after considerable use.

Next weekend, we have a number of friends coming to stay, for a belated Christmas/New Year get-together. It seemed an ideal opportunity to bake stuff, so we had a try at croissant and Danish pastries. We made a foray into pâtisserie a few years ago, making some croissant from a recipe in my big book of bread. They were very tasty, but—as anyone who's tried them will tell you—a labour of love. The traditional 'construction' recipe has several iterations of folding, butter spreading, and refrigerating to build up the 32 layers of butter and 33 layers of pastry/dough that is considered optimal (a process that always makes me think of Damascus steel, but that's my metallurgy background for you). This takes hours, frankly.

However, we—or, I should say, Liz's dad—came across a far better way of making them, which has only a brief refrigeration, one application of butter, and is far more feasible. Basically, after making the dough, and chilling it once, you apply a single slab of butter, and through cunning folding, achieve the 32 layers needed in one session of rolling and folding. No further chilling required. Once the laminated slab is made, it's a 'simple' task to cut into squares, and form into croissant or Danish pastries (we cheated and used the same dough, but encased a blob of marzipan, and adorned with an apricot). We tried one of each, and they're delicious: they'll now be frozen, and brought out for breakfast next Sunday (brief warming through optional, but recommended).

This week, we're having the oil boiler replaced, as the old one has a number of inadequacies, not least that it is non-condensing, and probably about 40% efficient. The new one is a big, high-efficiency condenser (97% nominal efficiency), which should mean less oil use. Unfortunately, this means a couple of days without heating, but the forecast for the week is much less bitter than it has been.