I have been on a bread baking journey since March of this year. It has become a weekly ritual in which I bake sandwich bread for our lunches during the week. Some times I succeed, sometimes I fail. Each time I learn something new.

I have had Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” in my Amazon Saved Items to Buy Later queue for months. Although it is highly rated, I was intimidated by the idea of pre-ferments and the commitment that true bread artisanship takes. However, I decided the time was right and purchased it two weeks ago.

It is a great book with several chapters about the art of making bread. Making bread is something you have to love or it is not worth the effort. You can buy bread inexpensively in any store. You may not want to eat store bought bread, but that’s another story. (Whole Food’s Organic Sandwich breads are awful.) Good bread can be purchased from local bakeries or even chains like Panera.

Hand crafting your own loaf is something that is worth the effort even if things don’t always go perfectly.

Today I tried Reinhart’s Potato Rosemary bread. I started yesterday by creating a biga which is a pre-ferment added to the bread to fully develop the flavor. It is a mix of water, flour and a small amount of yeast that is allowed a long, slow rise and a chill in the fridge overnight. The biga I made is enough for several loaves, so I froze the rest. He said you can refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for 3 months.

Today I removed my biga from the fridge and let it rest for one hour to come back to room temperature. I followed the recipe but found that my dough was a little slack. I’ve made potato sandwich bread before and have found that to be the case with bread made with potatoes. I’m afraid I didn’t quite get to the “window pane” test, which I will try harder for next time.

The bread dough came together nicely and rose well. I did run into problems with the doughs slackness when trying to form my boules. The dough stuck to my hands and I had a difficult time getting the tension on the top of the loaves. I believe this is the reason the loaves rose out instead of up. I did get some vertical lift, but not as much as I had hoped for. I’ll try to make sure I get the gluten formed well in the mix next time.

The one good thing about homemade bread is no matter what goes wrong, it’s always tasty. My loaves may not be as tall or pretty as I had hoped, but I’m happy with my first attempt at using a biga. The flavor is complex not only because of the rosemary and roasted garlic, but the full flavor of the wheat flour was developed creating a delicious bread.

Potato Rosemary Bread

Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

• 1 1/2 cups (7 oz.) biga
• 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons (14 oz.) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (.38 oz) salt
• 1/4 teaspoon (.03 oz) black pepper, coarsely ground (optional)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons (.14 oz) instant yeast
• 1 cup (6 oz.) mashed potatoes
• 1 tablespoon (.5 oz.) olive oil
• 2 tablespoons (.25 oz.) coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons to 1 cup (7 to 8 oz.) water, at room temperature (or warm if the potatoes are cold)
• 4 tablespoons (1 oz.) coarsely chopped roasted garlic (optional)
• Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
• Olive oil for brushing on top

Remove the biga from the refrigerator 1 hour before you plan to make the bread. Cut it into about 10 small pieces with a pastry scraper or serrated knife. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour to take off the chill.

Stir together the flour, salt, black pepper, and yeast into a 4-quart mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Add the biga pieces, mashed potatoes, oil, rosemary, and 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water. Stir with a large spoon (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) for 1 minute, or until the ingredients form a ball. Add more water, if necessary, or more flour, if the dough is too sticky.

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin to knead (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook). Knead for approximately 10 minutes (or 6 minutes by machine), adding more flour if needed, until the dough is soft and supple, tacky but not sticky. It should pass the windowpane test and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees F. Flatten the dough and spread the roasted garlic over the top. Gather the dough into a ball and knead it by hand for 1 minute (you will probably have to dust it with flour first to absorb the moisture from the garlic.) Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 equal pieces for loaves, or 18 equal pieces (about 2 oz. each) for dinner rolls. Shape each of the larger pieces into a boule, or shape the smaller pieces into rolls. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment (use 2 pans for rolls) and dust lightly with semolina flour or cornmeal. Place the dough on the parchment, separating the pieces so that they will not touch, even after they rise. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours (depending on the size of the pieces), or until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Remove the plastic from the dough and lightly brush the breads or rolls with olive oil you do not need to score these breads, but you can if you prefer.

Place the pan(s) in the oven. Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking. The loaves will take 35 to 45 minutes total to bake. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes, rotate the pans, and then bake for 10 minutes longer. The loaves and rolls will be a rich golden brown all around, and the internal temperature should register at least 195 degrees F. The loaves should make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. if the loaves or rolls are fully colored but seem to soft, turn off the oven and let them bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to firm up.
Remove the finished loaves or rolls from the oven and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour for loaves and 20 minutes for rolls before serving.

Reinhart’s commentary: You can attractively garnish this bread by embossing a sprig of fresh rosemary in the top of the loaf. Mist the dough just after the final shaping with water and lay the spring flat so that it adheres fully. Don’t leave any of the needles hanging in the air, as they will burn during the baking stage without the protection of the dough.

There is something to be said for making someone’s eyes roll to the back of their head as they bite into something you have lovingly crafted. The closed eyes and quickened breath revealing the joy they are experiencing so publicly.

It makes the hours spent in front of the hot stove in our record breaking heat wave worthwhile to witness that kind of ecstasy.

It’s birthday month again at my office. It’s been one full year since I started baking cakes for my colleagues, wanting to make their birthdays a little more special with a homemade treat made just for them. I work in a large office and had limited it the folks in my group. However, word is getting out and it’s hard to have enough cake for the people who want to partake. I may need to move this to once per month and make a couple of larger cakes to satisfy more people and include more birthdays. The downside is that it makes it a little less special to not have a cake made special for you, but the positive is that I won’t exclude anyone, either.

This cake was mainly for my colleague Steve. However another Steve shares his birthday and one of our student employees has a birthday this week, too. So this German Chocolate Cake hybrid is for the three of them.

I took Ina Garten’s lovely chocolate cake that has become my gold standard and Cooks Illustrated’s topping for German Chocolate Cakeand combined them in a decadent, succulent cake that pleased all, even coconut haters. The cake is delicate, so splitting the layers was a bit of a challenge. I experimented using a flexible cutting mat to slip the cut layer onto. This worked very well and I’ll use that again.

I was even able to shave off a small slice for Dave. Poor thing had to suffer me heating up the house, he deserves a little sugar.

I’ve been a subscriber to Cook’s Illustrated, both print and online for a few years. I watch America’s Test Kitchen faithfully and own many of their cookbooks. Their claim to fame is that they test recipes to perfect them so you don’t have to. For the most part this has been true. I’ve mostly had success with their recipes with the occasional failure upon which I usually blame my own novice cooking skills.

I’ve been baking bread regularly for six months now. I’ve gained some skill along the way, understanding the look and feel of a good dough, how it should rise and taste, how to shape a loaf, and how to get even slices. My weekly bread has been Cook’s Illustrated’s Oatmeal Sandwich Loaf which after a few tries has been a consistent standard. It’s moist, yet light and slightly sweet. It’s fantastic with both sweet and savory fillings and keeps well at room temperature for almost a week.

I wanted to try something new, so I looked through CI’s bread recipes and decided to give their Multigrain Bread a try. I braved the new Whole Foods in Tustin just to buy a bag of Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal, the grain part of this recipe. I had all the other ingredients. By the way, the new Whole Foods market is huge and amazing, but far too crowded this holiday weekend. I get a bit anxious when trying to fight my way through the Orange County yuppie hoards. I’ll miss our small but charming Whole Foods that was within walking distance of our house. We still have our Trader Joe’s so I can’t complain too loudly. Maybe a Mother’s Market or Henry’s will fill the void left by Whole Food’s departure? One can dream, right?

But, I digress…

I followed the recipe for Multigrain bread exactly. I knew from the start that this dough was different. The oatmeal dough is rather slack and generally requires that I add more flour than the recipe calls for. This dough was the opposite. The only moisture comes from soaking the hot cereal in boiling water. The dough was stiff and a little dry and definitely cleaned the sides of the mixer bowl. The first rise went fine, but the second had just a little lift. I popped the loaves in the oven hoping for oven spring, but alas the little buggers were squat and dense. Not the light, fluffy bread the recipe claimed. It tasted fine, however.

I went to the Cook’s Illustrated boards on their web site only to find a 21 page thread on this very recipe. Some people had great success with light and fluffy loaves. Others had the exact same problem I did. I read through all 21 pages gleaning knowledge from those who succeeded and those who failed. One main thread was the dryness of the dough.

Armed with this new knowledge I decided to give it another go. So this time, I held back on the flour only giving the dough what it needed, I measured temperatures and weighed my ingredients for accuracy. The dough was much easier to handle and rose beautifully on the first rise. The second rise also did better, cresting the tops of the pans at least one inch. I dutifully put the lovely loaves in the oven only to pull out squat little bricks once again. Not only did the loaves have no oven spring, they had oven shrinkage.

Some determined folk on the boards kept trying failure after failure. Not me, I want a recipe that is consistent and this one is not it. So please, Erika Bruce, go back to the Test Kitchen with this one and find a better recipe. She actually commented about 2/3 of the way through on the thread so hopefully they’ll come up with a better recipe and pull the old one.

If you are interested in trying this, I wish you all the success in the world. Bob’s Red Mill publishes the recipe on their web site if you are not a Cook’s Illustrated subscriber.

Growing up in Anaheim, I spent a lot of time at Disneyland. In high school, my best friend and I saved up our allowances to each buy an annual pass. This was better than our previous method of panhandling at the Disneyland Hotel to try to get enough money for a one day pass.

We targeted the tourists who jingled change in their pockets and we asked to borrow money to call our moms. One savvy man, didn’t buy our story. He asked why we really wanted the money. When we confessed our real intent to go to Disneyland, he gave us the entire price of a ticket, which in those days was only $13 for a ticket for teenagers. He was cool.

For slightly less than one year, I also worked at Disneyland. I worked in the shops on Main Street. One bit of advice, don’t ever work somewhere that you really enjoy going to. It ruins it. Disneyland is a fantastic theme part, but it sucks working there. The pay is terrible, the hours are long and everything is tilted in their favor.

One thing I never tried in all my years of going to and working at Disneyland was a Monte Cristo sandwich. The Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square is famous for them. The only time I went to the Blue Bayou was when I was working for Wyland. He was doing a book signing and we had lunch there. Wyland had a Monte Cristo. It looked wonderful, but by this time I was a vegetarian. I had a salad. Vegetarian options were slim to none.

Recently, Dave and his friends at work were talking about Monte Cristo sandwiches and how good they are. Chris, one of his friends, found a vegetarian version on Recipezaar.com. Dave has been asking me to make them, so last night I gave it a go.

I did modify the recipe slightly, as deep frying caused each sandwich to top out at over 800 calories apiece. That’s a bit rich for my waistline, so I tried cooking them on my Cuisinart Griddler using cooking spray to crisp them up a bit.

They were really good this way. Maybe not quite the indulgent deep fried southern original, but then again I’m using Tofurky and Veggie Ham.

Vegetarian Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Jelly Sauce

• 6 oz raspberry or strawberry preserves (I didn’t have the currant jelly the recipe calls for.)
• 1 tablespoon of milk

Batter

• 1/3 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of egg whites or 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon of ground pepper
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Sandwiches

• 8 slices of white bread (I used homemade oatmeal)
• 12 slices of Tofurky Deli slices
• 8 slices of veggie ham
• 4 slices of swiss cheese (I used cheddar as I did not have swiss in the house.)

Directions

Jelly Sauce

Combine jelly and milk and stir until a smooth consistency.

Batter

Place water, egg, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk or using an electric mixer, mix until well combined. Gradually add flour and baking powder while mixing and mix until batter is smooth. Chill the batter.

Sandwiches

Preheat Griddler using the flat griddle attachments using the High/Grill setting. Spray each side with cooking spray.

Make four sandwiches, putting cheese between the tofurky and veggie ham. Cut the first sandwich into fourths and dip each piece into the batter. Carefully place each piece on the griddle and close the lid. Do not press down like you would for Panini. Lift the lid after 3 or 4 minutes. Remove when cheese is melted and batter has browned. (Note, I tried both cutting the sandwiches and cooking them whole. The cut method seemed to work better to crisp up the side and make the cheese ooze out.)

(Note, you can also deep fry them by immersing the quartered and battered sandwiches in 6 inches of oil heated to 340º. Make sure to put a toothpick in each piece so it won’t fall apart in the hot oil.)

Serve with Jelly Sauce and powdered sugar.

Since mid March I have been making bread weekly. I even purchased a new KitchenAid mixer for the new spiral dough hook. I am proud of the fact that I have used it so regularly and that we have been enjoying luscious homemade bread. Somehow it justifies in my mind the unneeded expense.

The one thing I didn’t realize was how dependent I was becoming on good bread. Last week we were deprived. First I got sick with a summer cold and then I was out of town on a business trip. We had to resort to buying our bread.

We went with an old stand-by at Trader Joe’s, the Organic Whole Wheat, which used to do quite nicely. Now, it seemed bland and stale. It was fine for toast, but naked on a sandwich it tasted like sandpaper.

I also missed the sensual sensation of kneading the last bit by hand. There is nothing quite like the feel of dough squishing up through your fingers.

So be warned if you head down the road of making your own bread. You may never be able to go back.

My sister invited us to an impromptu barbecue for the July 4th holiday. As the only vegetarians, she asked us to bring something we could eat because the main dish would be ribs. The vegetarian burgers we had in the freezer seemed like a good choice.

Instead of buying hamburger buns, I decided to try making them. I found a recipe in the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion that claimed to be the “Best”. The description read, “soft, yet vaguely sweet and golden yellow from the butter and the egg, these simple buns are perfect for burgers, but also for any kind of sandwich.” I decided to try this recipe out. I could always stop at the store if they didn’t turn out well. Also, we would be the only ones having burgers so the pressure for perfection was off.

The dough came together nicely. It had a soft, supple texture. I used all-purpose flour, but I would imagine some whole wheat would work nicely as well. The book also described a method of rolling out the buns by cupping your hand around the dough and rolling it on an unfloured surface. I had to flour the table slightly or the dough stuck and wouldn’t roll. Although the dough balls were not perfect they baked into beautiful buns. My nephew was a little surprised. He said, “You MADE hamburger buns? That’s crazy.”

Crazy or not, these buns are worth the extra effort. They should freeze nicely, if you have any left. We didn’t. These have become a big hit with Dave. I have a feeling I’ll be making them often.

Beautiful Burger Buns

• 1 cup of warm water (110ºF)
• 2 tablespoons of butter at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 3 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried onion (optional)

Mixer Method

In bowl of standing mixer, whisk the flour, salt, sugar and yeast together to combine. Attach dough hook and bowl to mixer. Turn to speed 2 and add water, butter and egg. Mix until dough comes together clinging to hook and cleaning sides of bowl. Add more flour if needed. The dough should be smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a covered bowl or other container and let rise for one hour.

Bread Machine Method

If you have a bread machine, this is even easier. Just add the ingredients in the order recommended by your machine and turn to the “dough cycle”. Continue with the next steps…

Both Methods

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll dough in cupped hand to form a ball. Place dough ball onto a greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for 30 - 40 minutes until puffy.

Bake in a preheated 375ºF oven for 12 - 15 minutes until golden. Cool on wire racks.

My friend, Caroline, has a lovely yard full of mature fruit trees. Last weekend, Dave was visiting her and the peaches were literally falling off the tree. He brought a sack full of tiny, luscious peaches home for us to enjoy. There were almost too many of them to eat right away, so I decided to make a fruit crisp to use up the remainder before they became over-ripe and inedible.

I looked through my cookbooks and found a recipe for Apple Crisp that I’ve used before. It had directions for peach crisp, so I decided to use that variation. I only had 1 pound of peaches left, so I used apples to make up the remainder.

It was 94 degrees here today, so I wondered if turning on the oven was a good idea. However, I love crisps and I had all the ingredients available without having to go to the store. I wasn’t sure how to peel a peach but found that quartering these little beauties and gently peeling the skin away worked very well. I had some Fuji apples in the crisper drawer, so they were peeled and diced and added to the peaches to round out the fruit component.

It turned out very nicely. I precooked the apples a bit in the microwave so that they would cook at the same rate as the ripened peaches. The natural sweetness of the peaches and apples contrasted nicely with the salty-sweet crumb topping. I’ve tried oatmeal versions of crisp toppings, but prefer this one made with nuts.

Peach - Apple Crisp

Topping Mixture

• 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar , packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
• 3/4 cup pecans or whole almonds, chopped coarse (or chopped fine if mixing topping by hand)

Fruit

• 2 1/2 - 3 pounds apples , nectarines, peaches, pears or plums (6 cups cut)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest from 1 lemon

1. For the Topping: Place flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in food processor workbowl fitted with steel blade. Add chilled butter and pulse until mixture moves from dry sand-like appearance with large lumps of butter to a coarse cornmeal texture, about three 4-second bursts. Add nuts and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly sand, about five 1-second bursts. Do not overprocess or mixture will take on a smooth, cookie-dough-like texture. (To mix by hand, allow butter pieces to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in medium bowl. Add butter; toss to coat. Pinch butter chunks and dry mixture between fingertips until mixture looks like crumbly wet sand. Add nuts and toss to distribute evenly. Do not overmix.) Refrigerate mixture while preparing fruit, at least 15 minutes.

2. Toss cut fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and zest (along with 1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca if using plums as fruit) in medium bowl.

3. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Scrape fruit mixture with rubber spatula into 8-inch square (2 quart) baking pan or 9-inch round deep dish pie plate. Distribute chilled topping evenly over fruit; bake for 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees; bake until fruit is bubbling and topping is deep golden brown, about 5 minutes longer. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I often take living in Southern California for granted. I live within 10 miles of the ocean, yet I rarely go. I live within an hour’s drive of the mountains, but I go there even less.

This Saturday, started out like most with errands to run and chores to be done. After breakfast, Dave and I went to the bookstore to look for a Father’s Day gift. I was making lunch for his dad on Sunday.

After we left the bookstore, Dave asked me where else we needed to go. I suggested the grocery store to get items for the lunch. “No,” he said. “Let’s go somewhere fun.” He suggested driving to Laguna Beach and going to our favorite taco stand, Taco Loco. It sounded perfect. I put aside the dirty floors and piles of laundry waiting for us. It could be done later; a day of frivolity was needed.

It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot. Both the sky and the ocean were a gorgeous blue. This can be rare here as often the sky has a hazy brown hue from all the pollution.

We found parking and walked to Taco Loco. Taco Loco is a small taco stand on Pacific Coast Highway just south of Laguna’s Main Beach. The food here is a lesson in simplicity and good taste. We ordered the Blackened Mushroom and Tofu tacos. Sliced mushrooms and small squares of firm seasoned tofu are grilled and blackened. Warm blue corn tortillas are the vehicles for the filling and topped with a fresh salsa with large chunks of avocado and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.

After lunch we walked down to the beach and stepped in the calm surf. It’s literally been years since our toes touched the water. We walked up the beach and through Wyland Galleries. Both Dave and I used to work for Wyland more than a decade ago. The gallery and residence next to his first Whaling Wall mural were just being remodeled when I left eleven years ago. We walked around the small beach town reminiscing about working down there.

It was a fun day. It was a micro-vacation that was sorely needed. Sometimes you need to put responsibilities aside and just have fun.

The afternoon at the beach was followed up by a nice nap at home before we went out to dinner and to an art reception with some friends. Oh, and the dirty laundry and floors got cleaned the next day.

Like many home cooks, I collect an over abundance of recipes, either in the form of cookbooks, magazine articles, Web sites, and food blogs. One problem I have with cookbooks is that they’re hard to keep clean and keep open to the correct page.

The first time I make a recipe, I use the cookbook. If the recipe is a big success and I know I’m going to make it again, I prefer to have an electronic version so I can add any tweaks, weight measurements, or notes. Having an electronic version also allows me to print it again if someone wants the recipe or if I lose it. Not that I’m disorganized at all.

I’ve tried different methods of printing recipes, including index cards. The method I like best is to print the recipes on regular letter-sized paper and store them in sheet protectors in a 3-ring binder. When I’m using the recipe, I can remove the one I need and stand it in a handy little item, called a “Page Up”

The Page Up has a footprint of about 2″ x 2 1/2″. It has a Muppet-like smile into which you insert a piece of paper. Originally, they were meant for offices, to hold documents that needed typing. They even have a line for cooks, called Cuisine. The Page Up base is clear and filled with dried corn, lentils, green beans, rice or mustard seeds.

Look for the Page Up at an office supply store, or you can find them online at Amazon.com.

I have two at home. One I nabbed from my husband’s desk. He’s a dear and gave it up willingly. He’s willing to help with anything that keeps him well fed.

I feel very fortunate that I’m not allergic to peanuts. I really love nuts of all types, although technically peanuts are legumes and not nuts. Who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate with peanut butter? After all, they’re “Two great tastes that taste great together.”

My best friend requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for her birthday last month. I have already found a perfect recipe for chocolate cake and started searching for one for peanut butter frosting. I have found that I prefer ones without a lot of sugar. 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar seems to work well. I found an easy recipe that is quite tasty. It called for 2 cups of sugar, but I cut back as I don’t like things too sweet. This frosting goes very well with the Mocha Double-chocolate cake recipe.

I made cupcakes for a birthday at my husband’s office this week. I frosted half the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and half with chocolate. I topped the peanut butter ones with shaved chocolate and the chocolate ones with chopped, toasted almonds.

Peanut Butter Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (4 oz)

DIRECTIONS

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes or until fluffy.