UNO Pixie’s Comments (group member since Feb 13, 2016)

UNO Pixie’s comments from the The Perks Of Being A Book Addict group.

Cosmic Affogato Recipe

You will need...
-1 pint of vanilla ice cream (See note on how to make ice cream below)
-1 1/2 cups coffee beans sourced from the interplanetary base Affogato, sourced only at the full moons of Europa and Callisto on Jupiter
-1 cup sunbeams (Please use ethical suppliers, not slave sun-ships)
-Grand Marnier or Frangelico (optional, but really, optional?)
-Whipped cumulus clouds, for garnish (optional-these can be found at Trader Joe's, but usually only on Tuesdays, and use sparingly, they are a bit sweet)
-Stardust (for garnish) from Alpha Centauri - must be sprinkled on through an emptied out telescope that has been blessed by a female astronomer born on a quarter moon in Cancer. (optional)

-Biscotti, for serving (optional)

*For ice cream
-Introduce yourself to a cow, ask for 4 to 5 cups of fresh milk. (Terran cow milk is the best to use, but the Affogato space station cows are friendlier, and if you add a bit more time to the churning, this milk will work.)
-Vanilla beans from Saturn’s Vanilla purveyor - Cosmo’s Vanilla.
-6 eggs (from chickens please. Yes, the blue yolk from the eggs of the Horned Catterbownder are pretty, but they will not taste right.)
-2 cups regular sugar

-Mix sugar, eggs and 1/2 of the milk in a pan. Heat, stir until thickened. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and the remaining milk.
-Chill. Two seconds in deep space will be fine. Or, in the refrigerator for three hours.
-Place in ice cream maker, churn for twenty minutes. (thirty if using Affogato cows' milk.)

To make...

Grind beans and brew to your liking. For this recipe, the darker the better. Cool slightly. Add liquor to espresso. Stir together.

Divide ice cream evenly between four serving dishes. Pour a cup of the espresso over ice cream. Pour about 1/4 cup sunbeams over each dish of ice cream. Garnish as desired. Serve with Biscotti.

For best flavor. make during a full lunar eclipse on Earth.

Serves: 4

Team Spearhead Sorbet Recipe
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Below is the created recipe for Team Spearhead Sorbet for those extra bonus points. Thanks.

Sorbet Space Sandwiches

1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons lemon zest 2 cups lemon juice
1 package Ready to Bake sugar cookie dough
1 container stardust (blue or yellow edible glitter)
1 container moondust (edible silver leaf)
Star shaped cookie cutters
Bring water and sugar to a boil until sugar dissolves. Stir in lemon zest and juice. Pour into a large bowl or pan and place in freezer. Freeze for 4 hours or until desired sorbet consistency.
Prepare sugar cookie dough per package directions and cut out the cookies in star shapes. Bake according to package and allow cookies to cool completely.
Brush stardust on one half of the cookie and allow to set. Place one scoop of lemon sorbet between two star cookies and lightly press together. Sprinkle with moondust and serve for an out of this world treat.

recipe Interplanetary Biscotti
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Ingredients

🌟1/2 cup oil extracted from meteor showers
🌟1 cup white rocks from Venus
🌟3 1/4 cups stardust flour
🌟3 dead stars
🌟1 tablespoon Halley's comet extract

Instructions

Preheat the Sun to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease the huge cookie sheets or line with asteroids .

In a medium bowl, beat together the oil from meteor showers, dead stars, white rocks and Halley's comet extract flavoring until well blended. Stir the stardust flour into the dead star mixture to form a heavy dough. Divide dough into two pieces. Form each piece into a roll as long as your cookie sheet. Place roll onto the prepared cookie sheet, and press down.

Bake for 25-30 minutes next to the preheated Sun, until golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack. When The interplanetary biscotti are cool enough to handle, slice each one. Place the slices cut side up back onto the baking sheet. Bake for an additional 6-10 minutes on each side. Slices should be lightly toasted.

Interstellar tarte tatin
made with starfruit instead of typical apples.

Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons star anise
1/4 teaspoon allspice (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 starfruit, thinly sliced
blue and purple ice cream, for serving
galaxy-coloured star sprinkles, for serving
space dust sherbet, for serving

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone liner.
Unfold the puff pastry sheet when it's thawed but still cool and smooth out the creases and press them together.
Whisk the egg and brush it over the pastry sheet.
Mix the sugar, star anise, allspice, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle half the star anise sugar over the pastry. Arrange the starfruit slices over the top. Sprinkle with the rest of the star anise sugar.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the tart is puffed and golden brown.
Allow the tart to cool at least 5 minutes before serving. Top each slice with a scoop of the blue and purple ice cream, a handful of the galaxy-coloured star sprinkles and a sprinkling of space dust sherbet and serve.

VanGuard Sabayon
Makes 12 small or 6 medium servings

INGREDIENTS
6 eggs, (Yolks only)
60 grams shredded coconut
80 grams Pure Sugar
120 Grams – Dry White Wine
½ cup Thickened Cream
1 tsp cornflour
1 Vanilla Bean, seeds scraped
300 grams fresh Berries – Blueberries, Strawberries (cut diagonally)
Juice of 1 orange
270 grams of diced starfruit and Kiwifruit
2 passion fruit (Keep cold in airtight container)
Zest of 2 meteoroid limes (ask your local NASA)
2 Lady finger bananas, sliced 1 cm thick circles
Lemon juice (optional)

Garnish
Touch of Full Moon Sea Salt
1 mint leaf

KITCHEN TOOLS
A sharp knife
A large bowl made from asteroid or nickel
A medium glass bowl (24cm in diameter minimum)
A large saucepan of simmering water
A balloon whisk or Electric beater
Dessert goblets or large martini glasses
A Plate
A Spatula
A Spoon

Optional
A Pen (Mark off steps as you go)
Food handling gloves (Hygiene)


METHOD

1. About an hour before serving the dessert, rinse the berries and drain them on a plate and paper towel. Slice off the stems and halve or quarter the strawberries lengthwise, depending on size, into the glass bowl. Add the starfruit, kiwifruit and bananas. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of the sugar, the meteroroid lime zest and the orange juice; fold gently together to blend well. Taste and add more sugar or orange juice if needed, set aside to macerate.

2. Whisk the egg yolks, wine, vanilla, cornflour, cream and sugar in the asteroid/nickel bowl. Rest the bowl in the saucepan over hot water. Whisk constantly for 4 to 5 minutes or more to cook the sauce, until it has the consistency of lightly whipped cream and peaks start to form. Clear the bottom of the bowl constantly with the whisk so that the eggs do not scramble and adjust the heat as needed. Taste the sauce — the sabayon should never get so hot that you can't stick your very clean finger in it — and whisk drops of lemon juice or more sugar if you want. When thick, foamy, and tripled in volume, remove from heat. It can be served hot as is, tepid, or cool.

3. Spoon a portion of the fruit mix from the glass bowl — 1/2 cup or more — into each goblet or glass. Sprinkle a thin layer of shredded coconut on top (to your stomach/taste) then top with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of warm or cool sabayon.

4. Remove the pulp from the passionfruit.

5. Garnish with passionfruit pulp, full moon sea salt and a mint leaf

Astronaut Pie


Ingredients
Cookie Crust
25 Gingersnaps
5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
4 pinches of meteorite dust

Pie Filling
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 ½ cups astronaut ice cream (freeze-dried)
1 cup Tang

Orange Whipped Cream
1 ½ cups very cold Milky Way cream
1 teaspoon Tang
1/3 cup star dust
Zest of 1 orange

Instructions
Crust
Place cookies in a food processor and process until cookies are finely crushed.
Place the crushed cookies in a medium-sized bowl, add the melted butter and meteorite dust, and stir with a fork until crumbs are thoroughly coated.
Press crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of a 9” pie plate. Place in refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Filling
Combine the ice cream, astronaut ice cream, and Tang in a blender and blend until smooth. If necessary, stop the blender and stir the mixture as needed to ensure the mixture blends evenly.
Pour the mixture into the prepared chilled cookie crust. Carefully transfer to outer space for several hours, or until firm.

Orange Whipped Cream
Chill mixing bowl and beaters in refrigerator for at least 1 hour prior to mixing.
Add whipping cream, star dust, and Tang to chilled bowl. Beat with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.
Fold in the orange zest, then mound the whipped cream over the ice cream pie. Top with additional orange zest if desired.
Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes, or until thawed just enough to easily slice.

Futurity Parfait
Serves 4

Ingredients:

PARFAIT
4 cups yogurt
4 tbsp space bee honey
4 egg whites
1 cup heavy cream, semi whipped
1 tsp Venus vanilla extract
1 tsp. pure Andromeda almond extract

BERRY MIX
½ qt snozzberries
½ qt temporal berries
2 lemons, zested
1 cup star sugar
2 cups anti-grav granola

pixie dust, for garnish (optional)
4 large glass tubes, for serving

1. In large bowl use a wooden spoon to stir snozzberries and temporal berries. Stir in lemon zest and star sugar and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

2. Put the egg whites into a mixer bowl. On slow speed, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. While it is mixing, drizzle 2 tablespoons of space bee honey over the eggs. Increase mixer speed to high, and continue to whisk for 10 minutes. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, using a spoon (not a mixer!) stir the remaining 2 tablespoons of space bee honey, Venus vanilla, and Andromeda almond extracts into the yogurt until thoroughly combined.

4. With a spatula, carefully fold the heavy cream and the beaten egg whites into the yogurt mixture. Do not stir. The result should like light, creamy and somewhat fluffy.

5. Now it is time to put the ingredients together. Place 1/3 cup yogurt mixture into the bottom of each glass tube. Next add ¼ cup anti-grav granola and then quickly top with ½ cup of the berry mixture before the granola floats out of the tube!

6. Repeat those steps, adding another layer of parfait mix, granola, and berries. Top with the remaining yogurt and berries. Add a pinch of pixie dust on top to garnish. Serve immediately

Note: if you use the optional pixie dust garnish, be sure the room in which you are serving has no sharp corners, as guests may start flying if they are particularly happy – and with this delicious parfait, they will be!

Science Brioche

Baking is all about the chemistry! From mixing compounds to various the chemical reaction via heat and yeast.

Team Science Brioche is all about the Pi, because you can't do Science without math. So, our Brioche is arranged in a circular disk, but don't forget to organize your dough balls in the molecular bond of our choice. Some options are pictured below:



Ingredients
Dough

500 g bread flour
2 eggs large
140 g milk
160 g 100% hydration SD starter
4 g active dry yeast
100 g sugar
5 tsp orange blossom water
2 tbsp orange syrup optional
zest of 2 lemons
10 g salt (NaCl)
1 ½ sticks unsalted softened butter

Egg wash

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

It is important to have your butter properly softened, but not melted. The structure of solid butter is made of little crystals that interact with other ingredients and are essential for developing a nice gluten network. When you melt butter, those crystals are destroyed, so the structure of the butter is different, therefore, the way it interacts with other ingredients it’s also different.

Although the role of solid fats is not fully understood yet, scientists have agreed in a three-parts mechanism to explain what happens when we add butter or shortening to bread dough:

Wheat proteins have bound phospholipids in their structure which are essential for gluten elasticity. These lipids interact with the crystals found in the butter to create gluten-fat complexes (structures) that strengthen the gluten network and give it more elasticity.
Butter (or solid fats) can act as a lubricant between the gluten structure and starch matrix, improving the gas retention capacity of the dough. As a result, dough that has a higher content of solid fat has the ability to rise more due to an improved gas retention capacity.
Solid fat melts during baking and seals pores that are present in the dough through which the gas would, otherwise, scape. CO2 eventually leaves the dough, but the butter retards this process and, again, helps the expansion of the dough during baking, the famous “oven spring”.

You can see that a proper redistribution of the fats within the dough is very important. And the way to achieve it is…. By kneading! Of course 😉

Developing the gluten network of enriched dough consists of two major steps: One is the development of the gluten-starch matrix the other is the development of the gluten-butter complexes.

First, we need to develop the gluten-starch matrix, so then, the butter has a place to start forming the complexes I mentioned before. That’s why we don’t add the butter at the beginning, we knead the dough a little bit until it has a good consistency.

After that is when we start adding the butter.

However, how many times have you tried to develop the dough and it looks as it will never come together?

That’s because the long strands of gluten proteins, as they form, they get all tangled. If you force them too much (knead too much) you might end up breaking them, or in other words: over-kneading the dough. There’s a simple solution though… Let the dough rest!

Letting the dough rest while kneading can go a long way and reduce the kneading time. Whenever you have troubles to bring the dough to full development stop for 5-10 minutes so the gluten strands have time to detangle.

As you can see, breadmaking is pure science. And I hope that by understanding better what goes on when you mix the ingredients, you can succeed and make better and better brioche!

Instructions
Day 1 – late afternoon
1. Thaw 160 g of your sourdough starter (if you keep it frozen) or take 160 g a few hours after you fed your starter.

2. Add the eggs, milk, sugar, salt, dry yeast, orange blossom water, orange syrup, and your starter to your stand mixer bowl and give it a good whisk.

3. Sift the flour and add it to the wet ingredients. Combine until there are no dry flour particles.

4. Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes to allow the flour particle to hydrate.

5. Start kneading the dough at low speed for about 10 minutes or until the dough gets a bit elastic

6. Add the butter in 3 or 4 batches, making sure it's completely incorporated before you add the new batch.

7. Knead the dough at low speed until it's very elastic, shiny, the surface has blisters and it's not sticky. You shouldn't need to add more flour. It should pass the windowpane test

8. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature until it doubles in size

9. Place the dough in the fridge for a cold fermentation for at least 15 h. You can leave the dough in the fridge for up to 2 days

Day 2
1. Remove the dough from the fridge and gently deflate it. Cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes

2. Take 8 pieces of 130 – 140 g (4 – 5 oz) from the dough in equal pieces, shape them into balls and place then into your round baking pan.

3. Divide the rest of the dough into 2 equal pieces, flatten them with your hands and with a rolling pin roll them into a rectangle twice as wide as your rectangular baking pan.

4. Make a log with both pieces of dough, with a knife or a bench scraper divide them into equal halves, and place them in your rectangular baking pan.

5. Cover the two pans and let the dough rise to the rim of the pans.

6. Preheat your oven at 350 F

7. Before baking, whisk the egg yolk and the milk together and brush the brioche with it.

8. Bake the brioche for 45 minutes or until it's golden brown

9. For best results, let the brioche cool down to room temperature before cutting through it.

Recipe Notes
Let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes before performing the windowpane test.
You can shape the brioche in any way you prefer. Just make sure that the dough fills half of the container you use.

(Recipe composed/science explained with help from the All You Knead is Bread blog
https://allyoukneadisbread.com/brioch...)

April Countdown

April starts on Wednesday April 1, 2020 at 7pm AEDST (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time). To see when this is in your time zone, use this countdown

Main cities, FYI:
Tokyo: 5pm, 1st April
London: 9am, 1st April
New York: 4am, 1st April
San Francisco: 1amt, 1st April
Check out other cities here

IMPORTANT, WITH THE CHANGE OF SOME COUNTRIES TO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS, THE TIME IN YOUR CITY MAY HAVE CHANGED SINCE MARCH!

Please welcome new team member Susan!

Questions?

Check with your captains who can take them to the captains group

Tasks


Some more things other than food need to be gathered.
1. Read a book with a drink on the cover.
2. Read a book with a blanket on the cover.
3. Read a book with a character who goes shopping.
4. Read a book that is tagged adventure.
5. Read a book with a character who starts something new.

What it takes for you to get ready.
6. Read a book with a character who wears a suit.
7. Read a book that is tagged (cozy) mystery.
8. Read a book by a new-to-you author.
9. Read a book that was first published in 2019.
10. Read a book that is tagged sports.
11. Read a book where a character has a dog.
12. Read a book with a character who takes a risk.
13. Read a book with an overprotective character.
14. Read a book with a character who goes to school.
15. Read a book where someone is on a mission.

What it takes to ready your ship.
16. Read a book with any kind of ship on the cover.
17. Read a book with stars on the cover.
18. Read a book that is tagged science-fiction.
19. Read a book with work tools on the cover.
20. Read a book with a character who builds something.

Ready for the launch party!
21. Read a book where someone leaves (going away for a long time, break up, death....).
22. Read a book with glasses (for drinking) on the cover.
23. Read a book where someone prepares (lots of) food.
24. Read a book with lights on the cover.
25. Read a book where characters go to a party.

                        

Perky Space Travel! March Mini Challenge

This is an optional mini challenge for our UNO players. This month we are readying ourselves for a voyage through space!

In February, you have assembled your space treats already. Now it is time for everything else to come together.

Readying yourselves for space travel takes a certain amount of discipline and preparations. Complete the given tasks and by the end, you will be ready for perky space travel!

◈ Every book read, i.e. every task completed, is worth 10 points. (tasks are listed in the post below)
◈ If you complete all your travel preparations, your team will receive 30 bonus points.

                        

Once you have everything you need to get ready, tell us a little story, why don't you?
A little anticipation on what you expect to encounter in your preparations, or your travels. Maybe a crazy mishap during your travels, maybe a totally wonderful yet incredibly unbelievable romance....

Use the titles of 15 books to tell us your memoirs. Be as creative as you like. You can use as much or as little of a title as you see fit.

◈ Books can be used either for the tasks or for the story.
◈ Every book used for the story will be worth 10 points.
◈ Finishing your story will earn your team an additional 30 points.


                                


◈ Books can be started at any point since the start of the UNO challenge (Feb 1)
◈ Books need to be finished after the start of this mini challenge on March 15, 7pm AEDST (countdown is here) and before April 1 at 7pm AEST (Countdown to April is here)


◈ Books used for this mini challenge do not need to be separate books for what you are claiming for your UNO hands
◈ The usual book length rules apply
◈ Team spreadsheets will be updated with a mini challenge tab so that you can track your books and claim your points


Are you ready to launch?


                        

Please welcome new team members Kayla and Tiarra!

replacing Dima and Melissa

Congrats on your recipe!

Great work. 30 points has been added to your spreadsheet!

Please welcome new team member megan

replacing Karla

Congrats on your recipe!

Great work. 30 points has been added to your spreadsheet!

Congrats on your recipe!

Great work. 30 points has been added to your spreadsheet!

Congrats on your recipe!

Great work. 30 points has been added to your spreadsheet!

Congrats on your recipe!

Great work. 30 points has been added to your spreadsheet!