pan de bono, v3

After a long hiatus from exploring Columbian breads (and from writing entirely--holiday presents weren't particularly blog-worthy, given that I wanted them to be surprises at some level!), here's version 3 of the Columbian cheese bread I wrote about last year.

Pan de bono, v3
I think this is the best version yet.  They just came out of the oven, and are buttery on the inside but seem to have a harder shell than the ones I made before.

 340g (one package) of Honduran-style Queso Fresco (the package didn't give a brand, but was marked as Honduran and had a cute cow proclaiming it was "pura leche")
1/2 cup maseca brand masa (corn with lime)
1/2 cup julia brand cassava flour (farinha de mandioca, casabe)
1/2 cup Manoic starch (also cassava)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 eggs
water to moisten

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix flours and sugar in a bowl. Crumble cheese into the flour mixture by hand until the largest pieces are smaller than peas. Incorporate eggs and enough water for the dough to hold together (I did this by hand). Form into golf-ball sized spheres and place on a baking tray.  Bake for 20 minutes or until browned slightly.

Yield: 20

over the river and through the woods

I went on a lovely pair of hikes in New Hampshire's Franconia Notch State Park today with a group of friends and colleagues from IQuISE. New Hampshire is full of fall foliage right now, which made the woods especially beautiful.


We started the day hiking along the Falling Waters Trail (starting with a short bit on the Bridle Path trail from the trailhead across I-93 from the Lafayette campground).  The goal was Cloudland Falls, but, based on pictures, I think we turned around at Swiftwater Falls--it looked like a destination water fall.  This was a reasonable hike, but the path was a bit tough for our group with several stream crossings and lots of wet leaves on the trail.

view from the top of Bald Mountain

After a lazy lunch near the campground, we headed to the trailhead for a 1.5 mile loop trail up Bald Mountain and Artist's Bluff.  The trail was very rewarding--Bald Mountain provides beautiful views for a small amount of effort.  I'd do it again!