Back on Track

Fortunately, posting about not having the will to knit actually gave me a little spark, so that was a good thing.
Unfortunately, I waited too long to really be able finish knitting the special secret game hat that I wanted to give away.
Fortunately, I am still on track to be able to finish the mittens I'm working on.
Unfortunately they have little puckers that I was unable to block out of the first one.
Fortunately I changed techniques after that realization and still have hope for the second.
Unfortunately I've been sitting on a lot of stories and updates because I couldn't get my photos onto the computer.
Fortunately I figured out the problem so here are some pics!

This is the first mitten, pre-blocking.

The contrast between yarns could have been better

Here is the front pre-blocking.
I still need to do duplicate stitch to add detail.

The first has been blocked, but the puckers still remain.
The second has a very different palate, even though it's the same yarn.

In other news, I've been trying to make a home made panettone.  My first shot used the recipe from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  My family usually prefers the pandoro variety (no candied fruits) but I tried to make one with home made peel and I figure if I can create a ratio and include ingredients that are suitable to our tastes I may as well try it.

I sent this pic to my family and they all thought it was going to be huge!
It's actually only 6" across.

 

The flavour was pretty good, but I'm wondering if the called for, but optional, fiori di Sicilia extract would really make it.  As it's hard to come by and I don't feel like paying $15 shipping for a $5 bottle of extract, I used vanilla and some of the liquid from soaking the fruits.  I probably should have also included some orange oil or zest as was recommended, but I added peel to the fruit mixture, and didn't want too much citrus.  

Speaking of which, I also need to soak the fruits longer (the original recipe did not specify doing this, but as I'm making it with my family's tastes in mind... well, the only question was which booze to choose.)  I soaked roasted chestnuts, raisins, candied ginger and candied orange, lemon and lime peel in straight Benedictine, but I'm going to do half Benedictine and half Grand Marnier for the next one.

The other thing is... this:

The cake was VERY moist, which is great!  There is really nothing worse than a too dry panettone, but the texture was a little too dense for me.  I let the dough rise for a very long time, so I don't think that's the problem, I just think the recipe isn't loose enough to really be a light and fluffy cake.  R.L.B admits in the intro to the recipe that this is just a variation of her brioche dough, which all panettoni are I guess, but I feel like it just needs to be lighter.

I have another recipe lined up and another test bake planned, so we'll see how it goes.  If all else fails, this recipe is very yummy, so no one should feel too put out come Christmas.