o

Continued from Page 5

of as my grandmother's blue bowl is not blue
at all. Its outside is a nondescript colour
between buff and tan. Inside, though, where I
look when I work, it is a glorious, up-cheering,
robin’s egg blue.

Deceptively plain from outside, beautifully
glazed and purpose fit inside, it isa bowl youd
never look at twice or imagine is in any way
special, or particularly strong, or suited to long
journeys, or serious work, or an extremely
long and very useful life. It is a happy bowl,
a happy colour, and when I work with it, it
makes me happy too.

Recipe: Mandel Brott
Mandel brott is crisp enough to satisfy
a craving for texture but is neither rich nor
filling. It keeps indefinitely, can be refreshed
in an oven that is cooling down from other
baking, and its preparation requires no special
equipment.

* Zeggs

* 1cup sugar

* 1cup oil

* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 3-3’, cups flour

* 2teaspoons baking powder (3 if gluten free
flour)

* 2 teaspoons xantham gum (a binder) if
using gluten free flour

* % cup whole almonds

* 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) or grated
rind of 1 lemon (optional)

Toast the almonds and chop them medium
fine in a food processor. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and cinnamon, if
using, in processor. Reserve.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a fork or
whisk. Add sugar and beat well. Add oil and
vanilla and beat until the mixture is thick and
creamy. Add flour mixture a little at a time.
Start with 3 cups of flour and add more as
needed. Dough should be soft. Add almonds
and cinnamon or lemon rind if using. Dough
should pull away from the sides of the bowl
but should not be stiff.

Cut the dough into 4 portions. To make
portions the same size, weigh each and
redistribute as necessary. To make the loaves

Discovery
Art_Travel

2013-14 CERAMICS EXCURSIONS

Sicily
Oct. 1-18, 2013

Morocco
Oct. 28-Nov. 18, 2013

Burma
Jan. 8-24, 2014

www.denysjames.com TEL: 1-250-537-4906

from which the Mandel Brott takes its name,
form each piece of dough into a ball. With the
palms of your hands, and without additional
flour, roll the dough on a counter or table top
using the same motion as with a rolling pin to
form a rope of uniform thickness. Make the
rope at least an inch shorter than the length
of your pan. Put the rope on an ungreased
and preferably parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Cover the dough with waxed paper, and with
a rolling pin or your hand or another pan,
flatten the rolls so they resemble loaves 2 2 -
3 inches wide and 4 - 34 inches high. Allow at
least an inch for expansion between loaves.
Bake at 350° until light brown, 15-20
minutes. Remove from the oven as soon as
loaves are firm and lift easily from the pan.
Do not brown. Cool on the pan only until the
loaves are barely cool enough to handle, then
move one by one to a large cutting surface.
With a sharp knife, slice each loaf into pieces
Y% - 34 inch thick, then lay each slice on its
side on the cookie sheet. Bake a further 10
minutes or until just starting to colour. Cool
on racks. Store air tight in a tin lined with

waxed paper.

Note: Mandel
traditionally made without cinnamon or

Ingredients Brott is
lemon rind. These additions make it more like
its Italian cousin, the biscotta.

Equipment Note: Cookie sheets are much
easier than jelly roll pans for this recipe
because the loaves come off the pans hot and
break easily. With cookie sheets, the rolls
can be pushed rather than lifted off. Baking
parchment provides a completely clean, non-
stick surface and insures easy clean-up.

Sharon H. Nelson cooks and collects functional
pottery in Montreal, where she writes about food,
spiritual hunger, and cultural identity, A long-
time friend of Walter Dexter’ late wife, writer
and critic Rona Murray, Sharon connected to
the PGBC via Amy Gogarty’ review of “Walter
Dexter: The Torso Masterworks”.

© Sharon H. Nelson, reprinted with per-
mission. Originally published in Letters
e Pictures from the Old Suitcase, ed. Jaffe
and Blume, Pinking Shears Publications,
Hamilton, 2011.

GUILD ee
of BRITISH

COLUMBIA
a

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - February 2013

6