Bread machine Panettone

recipe

At work, i was trying to impress some Italian co-workers  with a Panettone. To do a proper one you need a special pan and the matching paper liners. They are all available at amazon but it seems overkill so i looked for a bread machine recipe.

I found one on allrecipes and tried it. After a few tests, here is my version; much moister than the original but some people have said it’s missing something, i will try with some orange flower water next time.

Here goes. Chuck in the bread machine :

  • 1 cup warm milk (microwave it for 45 seconds)
  • 1/2 stick of butter (microwave for 1 minute)
  • 2 eggs ( don’t leave the shell but don’t bother mixing them)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 6 – 8 tbsp sugar

On top of that, pour 3 cups all purpose flour, then 2 tsp bread yeast in one corner, and 1 tsp salt in the other.

Put some raisins in a cup, add boiling water and let it sit for a minute so the raisins get hydrated, then drain the water, and chuck the raisins in the pan.

Select the sweet bread program, Light cooking mode, press start and ignore it until it’s over (2hours 50 minutes for me). As soon as it’s done, take it off the pan and put a cloth towel on it so it does not dry out.

That’s it.

Variations:

  • Use candied fruits instead of raisins. I did that the first time and it works well but then i ran out of candied fruits. candied watermelon is my preferred option.
  • Try flavors like Orange flower water on top or instead of vanilla.
  • Try some natural yeast to get larger and less even holes in the dough.

 

My apps -familo.net

Uncategorized

Second part in this series about the apps I use.

Familo.net is an app (android and apple) that allows me to share my location with other family members. I can control how much is shared: only specific places – like home, school work- or any location.

It makes it easy for my wife to see when i reached the train station or have arrived at work. It makes it easy to meet outside.

It also useful when you went to remember when you left a specific place by looking at the history.

So the first step is to install the app on each device and register users, then decide how much you want to share, finally create a set of family places.
A user can only be part of a family.

You can associate notification when users enter or leave a family place.

I have asked them for a few enhancements; one of them is about creating a virtual place based on where my phone saw my car stereo last. it would make it easy to find my car again after shopping.

It’s a great app and i sometimes wonder how i survived without it before!

I am not sure what is their business model as they don’t seem to want money or do anything with the collected data.

My apps-Cozi

geeking

This year with some kid starting middle school, we have three school for as many kids. We need to set some order in this chaos. My wife and I both have android phones.

I thought i would list the apps i use and why i like them.

I’ll start today with the app we use for planning our family events: Cozi
I was looking for a way to handle everyone’s calendar. I asked at work and did some research on my own and tried a few. We ended up going with Cozi. It works as an app and as a website. One can enter school schedules, doc appointments, swim practices etc. It can be easily set up even if it’s something like every tuesday and wednesday from 4pm to 4:30 pm; each activity can be assigned to a set of people. When i update an appointment, my wife can see it almost instantly.

We can also share shopping lists, so she can add milk and bread when she sees we need some and i can check them off when i stop at the store.

Cozi is free, but they have a yearly subscription ($30) that enables a few bells and whistle. i don’t really need them but i went ahead a bought it anyway, hoping it will help them support the product better/longer.

what i like

  • printing weekly calendar
  • easy updates from the computer or the phone.

what i don’t like:

  • There is currently no way to customize printing and it’s always making just over 1 page! also the week starts on sunday in the US, but not in my family (monday). There is a trick they told me about: select the day you want to start printing, then selecting “print current week”
  • i wish we could see the week as busy/free lines similar to outlook.
  • i wish it would integrate with outlook so my work calendar could easily be merged. I think they used to have a plug in but it’s not available anymore.