Gift Guide, Day 8
Sunday, December 5, 2010
An Entire Wardrobe of Flours
There are a few things I always have in my freezer, and Anson Mills grits are one of them. A big bowl of grits is perfect comfort food, and this hand-milled corn is the best I’ve found. And I don’t even think about making polenta unless I’ve got some Anson Mills on hand.
But as I was trolling through their website a few weeks ago (the recipe section is impressive), I came upon a few more must-have products. For one thing, they sell ni-hachi sobakoh buckwheat flour to make fresh Japanese soba. They also have old-fashioned sesame flour for benne cakes, semolina for pizza and pasta, rye flour for bread, and wonderful hand-milled cake flour. The result: This year my baking friends are all getting entire wardrobes of flours, (along with their recipe for Angel Food Cake). I can’t think of a single baker who won’t be thrilled.
Anson hand-mills and ships its products only on Tuesdays.
Goodness! I wish I was one of those friends! Those baking flours sounds wonderful! I try to use a lot of alternative flours in my baking, but I have never had a chance to use sesame flour. It must impart a wonderful flavor!
Sadly my pantry is now overflowing with flours. I keep on talking about building a specific shelf on my wall for them, with jars neatly labeled, but as of right now, I have to huge bins of ziplock bags full of flours under my cabinet. *sigh* One of these days...
A lesser cousin might be the eau de vie Slivovitz made from plums in Croatia. My Romanian father keeps a bottle of it in his bar.