#so I'm essentially “on” from about 9 to 2 right now and really truly glad that tomorrow is my day off

[grison-in-space]

btw I did start drafting the dopamine post but got almost immediately derailed by whether octopamine is a better invertebrate analog for dopamine or for norepinephrine. I mean, I got back to it, but first I have to make sure y'all remember about ligands from bio 101 and understand how fast you can change a tissue just changing receptors: how many of them, what kind, what they're hooked up to, that kind of thing, and why that means that basically all your hormones hook into lots of things that are only kind of related to each other.

also my head hurts a lot and ugh I finally remembered that pain medicine exists but I'm mad about it. anyway lil miss sick flips needs some frisbee time first and then I'll go back to poking stuff.

[spooniechef]

Admiral's Gingerbread (3 spoons)

It's been a rough last couple of months and I haven't really had the spoons to try new recipes for the most part, plus I was running out of interesting ones in my few cookbooks.

Thing is ... now I have new cookbooks. My bestie pre-ordered me a copy of B Dylan Hollis' Baking Yesteryear the moment we all learned about it. So I thought, "Hey, how about I pull a 'Julie and Julia' with this, and with Exquisite Exandria when it comes out, and cook my way through it to see how spoon-friendly it is?" So that's what I'm going to do the next little while.

(Well, insofar as I can, anyway. A lot of these are American and I'm not sure exactly how we find Velveeta here in the UK.)

Now, a lot of those recipes (hell, most of those recipes) involve flour, so I did some research to find a good brand of gluten-free flour that wasn't going to break the bank. The brand I found is from Middleton Foods, by the way, and it actually mixes in the xanthan gum so you don't have to do the measurements etc yourself. Plus it fits a lot of the parameters I have for the ingredients you find in good gluten-free pasta, so I had high hopes. I also had a yen for gingerbread.

Though Admiral's Gingerbread is honestly more gingercake, but ... bread in the "banana bread" sense. Thing is, however glorious the result, this is a recipe that, for someone with chronic pain issues, is made of no. Like, entirely no. Unless you own a hand mixer, do not do this one. ...But do get yourself a hand mixer because the results are great. The end result is this moist dense cakey bread with ginger tingling on the tongue and just a bit of that not-quite-bitter flavour of molasses. So I'll provide the recipe and then give the list of Things I Wish I'd Had When I Started This Mess.

Here's what you'll need:

225g (1 cup) butter (at room temperature)

1.5 cups self-raising flour

2 tbsp ground ginger

3 tbsp molasses or dark treacle

5 eggs (separated, yolks and whites both kept)

1.5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp baking powder

It looks so simple, from the ingredients list. But the fun is just beginning.

Here's what you do:

Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C, 160C fan assist - and, after a bit of a Google to confirm for those in the UK with a gas oven, gas mark 4); grease a 9" by 5" loaf pan

Cream the butter; slowly beat in flour, ginger, and molasses

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and powdered sugar together

In another separate bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff (they should form peaks that don't fall over when you lift the whisk out of the mixture) and then beat in baking powder

Thoroughly mix the egg yolk mixture, and then the egg white mixture, into the creamed butter mixture.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

My stomach and taste buds do not regret what I put myself through to make this gingerbread. The gluten-free flour was a huge success (seriously, Middleton Foods; if you've got gluten issues, it comes recommended), and I have now had two servings of it - with my evening hot chocolate last night and as breakfast this morning. My arms and shoulders, however, are telling me a tale of woe right now. That's mostly because (with the sole exception of beating the egg whites stiff) I did all of that by hand. So here are my tips and hints.

DON'T DO THIS BY HAND. Get a hand mixer. I do not know how people in the 1910s did this. I mean, I should have known better. Hollis states in the damn cookbook that hand mixers are essential. I'm honestly just glad that my hand blender has a whisk attachment that I could use for the egg whites or I'd be truly boned.

Double-check your loaf pan dimensions. It turned out my loaf pan was just a liiiiiiittle bit smaller than 9" by 5". Thankfully the overflow was only a couple of drips and not Vesuvius, but still, nobody needs that aggravation.

A very flexible rubber spatula is going to be your best friend, particularly when it comes to the molasses. Molasses is a bit of a mess to pour, so unless you're good enough to be able to measure approximately three tablespoons by eye (which some people are, and maybe I will be one day but I am not there yet), having something flexible to help scrape the molasses out of the spoon is a big help.

Another household appliance that feels essential in this one is a dishwasher, especially if doing most of the mixing by hand. Honestly, even with a hand mixer, the mixer attachments are going to need cleaning, and it's still the same number of bowls. If you don't have a dishwasher, it's helpful to keep the sink full of warm sudsy water so that you can at least pre-rinse everything before washing. This especially helps with any implement that's been involved with the molasses. ...Actually, if you have a dishwasher, put everything in warm sudsy water when you're done with it anyway; pre-washing is generally a good idea.

I still recommend that everyone who's interested in baking buy Baking Yesteryear by B Dylan Hollis, no matter what I write here. He's all about the beauty. (Even if that beauty is to be found in horror - HE INCLUDED THE SPAGHETTI-O JELLO RING I DON'T WANT TO MAKE THAT ... actually I don't think I can do that because we don't have Spaghetti-Os here and our equivalent is thickened with wheat flour. First time I've ever been glad to be gluten intolerant. Anyway.) I am just the accessibility person behind the scenes. He's on the Magic Baking Road Trip and I am in the works truck behind him putting up warning signs.

Today, the warning is "Hey, see this, what I did? Don't do that. Do it smarter". I'm doing a Wacky Cake next time, swear to god.