Legality, vetekran, and my first order

Thank you to all of those with your supporting words and messages! It's a relief to see so many people who seem excited about this... I know I am. :) As for negative comments that have come up... honestly, is this such a big deal? Small operations like these happen all the time, and I am not deceiving anyone and I am being upfront about the situation. If people know the situation and don't feel comfortable with it, that is perfectly fine. However, there is no reason to be so negative about it. And, in all honesty, wouldn't it be better to save your energy for something else more important?

Official "legality" is inconsistent and fickle. A person can be considered legally dead and legally alive at the same time in two different states (depending on the various definitions of "brain dead.") Our country has banned slavery, and yet, almost every banana that you eat is picked through slave labor. Each portable electronic devise that you use fuels the civil war that rages through the DRC. Every cup of coffee or bite of chocolate that you eat that is not Fair Trade robs farmers blindly. (More thoughts on my baking, eating, sustainability, and Fair Trade later.) Many pharmaceutical drugs are tested on the impoverished in developing countries with no informed consent and no compensation. And yet, these are all legal in the United States. I understand that rules and laws are in place to try and protect people, but seriously--my kitchen is a lot cleaner than a lot of places in Berkeley, let's just put it that way. There are better battles to fight.

That being said... let's jump to happier news! I received my first order on Wednesday afternoon, the day that I publicized everything. :) It was an order of a dozen ginger cookies. I had lots of fun making it all pretty with fantastically awesomely colorful scrapbooking paper... and it comes with a little card!



Close-up of the logo sealing the box! I haven't been all artsy for a while... it was fun! :)



The chewy ginger cookies in progress... icky gooey molasses!



And the final stack!



These thin, chewy cookies are slightly crispy at the edges, and chewy through the middle. They spread out a ridiculous amount... I don't have any other cookies that spread out as much as these. These delightful cookies are spiced mostly with ginger, cinnamon, molasses, and a smidgen of cloves (the cloves are optional depending on people's preferences...), and then rolled around in sugar before being baked.

I also wanted to work on something else... I haven't baked any since the light whole wheat bread, and my roommate hasn't brought anything into work (I live vicariously through him until I can finally get a job and distribute free treats there instead), and apparently, I still want to give out free food even though I'd like to charge for them. Anyhow, I wanted to make something a little more interesting than your usual boring muffin or zucchini bread (although, I have bananas that are going and zucchinis that need using soon...), so I decided to make a vetekran, a Swedish Tea Ring. It's basically a giant ring of cinnamon buns.



Unfortunately, I baked this at night and was in a rush (to eat it!), so I wasn't able to get a really good picture of it.

The dough is a little different in that the dough has cardamom in it, and requires little kneading, and the first rise happens in the refrigerator. After rolling out the dough and filling it with buttery, cinnamon-sugary goodness, you roll it up jelly-roll style, just like cinnamon rolls. Except, when you're done rolling it up, you pinch the ends together and cut almost to the edge, but not quite.



You're supposed to turn the cut faces upwards so it makes a pretty pattern, but my dough was too sticky, my baking sheet was too small, and I don't think I rolled it up tightly enough. So, my vetekran was kind of ugly and took longer to bake... and I even totally forgot to put the glaze on top (I was distracted by how ugly it was!)... but I still think it tasted great! I mean, it's bread and cinnamon... how bad could it be? :)



Yes, that is a ring of cinnamon-sugar goodness. I have another order for this weekend! :)