The Pepino Melon and Why It's Disgusting

In my quest to try one new fruit a week, I purchased a pepino melon. I don't know that I'd ever even taken notice of this fruit before. It was with the rest of the exotic fruits--papaya, mango, coconut, star fruit--in a little basket on the shelf.

Now, I haven't been researching fruit before I pick it up. I wanted this to be a spontaneous adventure in which I decide on the spot what fruit looks exotic and appealing. This is how I ended up with prickly pear spines in my hand.

So my point is that I had no idea if the pepino melon I bought was in season or even ripe. A little googling after I got it home told me it was indeed ripe and in season by the purple streaks on it's otherwise pale yellow/taupe skin. See.


But when I opened it up, it looked a little greyish by the seeds, which might have indicated that it was bad.


It certainly didn't taste good. The texture was blah. The taste was almost bitter. There was none of that creamy sweetness promised by Wikipedia. An incredible disappointment to add to my fruit experiment. Not even one winner yet. Papaya = bland. Prickly pear = dangerous and weird. Pepino melon = bitter disappointment.

So, boo! to the pepino melon.

Banana Walnut Muffins

I made these babies for breakfast this morning. It was snowing just enough to make everything beautiful and banana nut muffins seemed perfectly homey.

These are moist inside and crunchy on the top, like a perfect bakery muffin. The batter will be thick, but that helps to keep the nuts and bananas from sinking to to the bottom. Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup milk

1 ½ - 2 bananas, chopped into bite-size pieces

¾ cup walnuts, chopped

extra sugar for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and grease your muffin tin or line it with liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.

Add the egg, milk, and butter to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Then stir in the chopped bananas and walnuts.

Fill the baking cups nearly all the way for a substantial, bakery-type muffin. I sprinkled mine with a little extra sugar to make them crunchy on top, but a sugar cinnamon or streusel topping would also be delicious.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

I made about 9 good sized muffins using these proportions, but you could probably stretch it to 12 if you made smaller ones. I would probably reduce the baking time and start checking them after about 17 minutes.

The Raw End of the Deal: A Photo Essay

Here is my starter on day 5 with a glossy coating of alcohol on top. Nice and sour. Such promise.



Just after rising, ready to be shaped into loaves. Can you tell at this point that it would betray me?


All baked and ready to eat...you would think. It's a little too brown on top, but sounded hollow when thumped.



A raw bottom. Oh, sourdough! Are you worth the trouble?

Sourdough Fail

It's so sad. My sourdough starter looked fermented, smelled sour, but just didn't produce "sour" bread. First, I don't think I had the right equipment to make the bread, I didn't have a loaf pan, so I used a Pyrex bowl, thinking it would be virtually the same. Let me tell you, it was not.

What ended up happening was that the bread got very brown to the point of burnt on top and then didn't cook all the way through. I took it out thinking it was done only to find a disgusting gluey mess stuck to the bottom of the bowl.

I cut off the uncooked bits to see how it would have some out if it had cooked all the way. The bread just didn't have a good crumb to it. It was doughy and didn't have that zing you want in sourdough.

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed. I'm trying not to let it discourage my bread baking endeavors. Next time, I'll use better equipment (hopefully I'll get a Dutch oven for my upcoming birthday (this always makes the bf snicker..."are you sure you want that?")).

We have fermentation!

I've been interested in baking bread for a while and since I have some time on my hands, I figure now is a good time to start. Although I am a little worried that our kitchen is simply too chilly for dough to rise properly.

While trolling the internet for yeast-bread recipes, I came across this create-your-own-sourdough-starter post and thought I'd give it a shot. It sounded easy enough. 1/2 cup flour mixed with 1/2 cup water, cover, and let the wild yeast in the air make its way in. I was a little skeptical that there would be enough wild yeast in the air in winter, but tried anyway. And low and behold, it worked! When I checked it 24 hours later, it was bubbly and kind of gross, but in the best way.

I've been feeding it another 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour every day for about two days now. It creeps me out that it's called "feeding." That sucker is alive! Blech and yum! all at the same time.

Last night it was nice and stinky, sour smelling. We have another feeding tonight and if all goes well, it should be ready to use tomorrow, which is ideal because we're supposed to be buried under a foot of snow. And there's no better way to spend a snowy Saturday than baking sourdough bread from a homegrown starter! Wheeeeee!

Pictures of said such fermentation to come.