This weekend was Round One of turn-ins for the Indiana State Fair and it was definitely a much less hectic affair than county fair turn-in!
My items due in by Saturday July 22, 2023 at 7pm were Brownies, Dietary Restrictions, Breads, American Dairy and my crochet items. The Dietary Restriction category is food for people with dietary restrictions such as gluten free, vegan, etc. The American Dairy category requires that you use at least two dairy products in your item. I had a total of six food items and two crochet items due in.
I worked on finishing my crochet items as soon as I was done with Johnson County Fair baking so they were done by Thursday. I'm entering my Lost in Time shawl in the Adult Crochet Accessories category and my Advent Wreath in the Crochet Household Items category. I love how the shawl turned out. I really like my wreath too but I'm worried it might be too busy. All the stuff is what attracted me to the wreath pattern in the first place but now that it's done, well wow, it's a lot...
I entered two Classes in the Dietary Restrictions Category - "Cookies" and "Other than Above", meaning something other than cookies or cakes. I actually didn't have any recipes until Thursday night. I finished my crochet wreath on Thursday then went scrolling around the internet for ideas.
Friday July 21, 2023
For the "Other than Above" Class I settled on No Bake Coconut Lime Balls.
These were the first things I made on Friday. The balls hardened in the freezer while I melted the chocolate coating. I then dipped the balls and put them in the fridge to set up. I am really happy with how they look. My biggest concern is that they get super soft at room temperature, and they will be judged at room temperature.
Next I made Oatmeal Date Sandwich Cookies for the Dietary Restrictions Cookie Class. These are gluten free, vegan, diabetic friendly and heart healthy. The recipe made exactly nine sandwich cookies. My experience is that gluten free cookies tend to be very dry - like sawdust dry - and these looked dry to me. The date filling though is suppose to offset the dryness. Once you make the sandwich cookie they are suppose to sit for a day so the flavors can meld and the filling is suppose to soften the cookie. Since I only had 9 cookies and I have to show 6, I decided to wait until Saturday to actually taste the cookie so there will be no second chances with this one!
The final item I made on Friday was the Coconut Stuffed Fudge Brownies; the same brownies I had made for the County Fair. Once these were cooled I took the whole thing out of the pan in one piece and wrapped it in wax paper, then put it in the refrigerator to cut on Saturday just prior to bringing them to the fair. The food won't be judged until Sunday and I want it to taste as fresh as possible.
I decided not to make my Loaded Potato Rolls, Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Biscuits, and Brown Sugar Sweet Potato Cornbread until Saturday. Again, I wanted them to be as fresh as possible for judging. I felt pretty confident I could bake all three items and get them turned in on time on Saturday.
I did go ahead and bake and puree the sweet potatoes on Friday and slice all the onions for the biscuits on Friday. I also typed and printed all the required recipes and tagged my crochet items on Friday night. I even had time Friday evening to grill burgers and hang out with my older daughter and her boyfriend. Definitely a different Friday night compared to a week ago!
Saturday July 22, 2023
Up at 7am. Made coffee and fried bacon.
I need two tablespoons of bacon grease and a cup of chopped bacon for my rolls. For some reason I was barely getting any grease to drain off the bacon. In retrospect I think I didn't cook my bacon long enough to render enough fat off of it. Usually I cook the bacon very crisp. Once things cooled down I could see that my bacon was not as crispy as usual. I actually got out my backup bag of frozen bacon grease but ended up having exactly two tablespoons of fresh bacon grease.
Made my yeast roll dough. This is my go to recipe and I know EXACTLY how it should feel as I knead it. Today the dough was unusually sticky. Humidity has a lot to do with how moist the dough but this dough also has a lot of stuff in it, including bacon and mashed potatoes that could be affecting the moistness. Maybe my bacon wasn't crisp enough? Maybe my mashed potatoes weren't dry enough? All these thoughts crossed my mind as I continued to knead the dough. I added a couple handfuls of flour but didn't dare add too much more because too much flour will make it tough... so I kept kneading, and kneading, and kneading. I think I kneaded for over 10 minutes. The dough was springy and I could stretch it window-pane thin, but it still felt sticky. Nothing to do now though but put it in the proofing box and see how it rises. In the back of my head though, I was calculating whether I had enough time and ingredients to make this again...
Next I started caramelizing all the onions I had sliced the night before. I need room temperature caramelized onions for my biscuits. I tried making them ahead of time in the past and storing them in the refrigerator but the butter hardens up and it changes the consistency of how I want my onions when I put them in my dough so now I make them the day I need them and plan enough time to let them cool down to room temperature.
While the onions were cooking I started making the cornbread. I got to whisking the dry ingredients together when I suddenly realized I didn't have enough cornmeal. UGH!!! How could I have overlooked that? I looked at the clock... 9:15am. I needed to shape my rolls at 9:30 am, then let them rise for another hour. Ok, I'd run to the store while my rolls were rising.
9:30 am. The yeast dough had risen beautifully. Phew!. I turned it out on my mat to shape and noticed the edges had stuck to the bowl. I made the first cut with my dough scraper and the dough stuck. I had a slight moment of panic and grabbed the flour to dust, then remembered it was better to dust with rice flour at this point and grabbed it instead. I sprinkled a little teeny weeny dusting on the dough and the mat and everything was fine again. Big sigh of relief. I put the trays in the back of my SUV to rise, then drove it to the grocery store to get more cornmeal.
Home by 10am. I finished making the cornbread by 10:15 am and put it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. The rolls were suppose to be finished rising at 10:45 am.
Cornbread out. First tray of rolls in.
First tray of rolls out. They looked good. I anxiously bit into one.
Perfect!
Got all the rolls baked and then picked my six best.
By now it was noon. One bake to go.
I started grating frozen butter for my biscuits but by the time I got done it was so hot in my kitchen that I noticed all the butter was starting to stick all back together so back into the freezer it all went.
Fifteen minutes later I got everything back out and finished making the biscuits.
As soon as the biscuits cooled I loaded up the car and was on my way.
I left the house at 1:45pm. Pulled into the state fairgrounds at 2:35pm.
Got everything turned in and was back on the road at 2:50pm.
I got back home and realized I was STARVING! Had leftovers from dinner, then sampled the oatmeal date sandwich cookies - pretty good. Cookies are crumbly and dry but the date filling makes up for it. I'm happy with it. Had another loaded potato roll. Ate some brownie scraps. Had a coconut lime ball...
So happy everything went relatively smoothly today!
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