Huntsville visiting & INCARNATE baking

Hi guys! Guess what?? WHAT'S LEFT OF ME is now up for pre-order on Amazon UK! How cool is that? :) Especially if you actually live in the UK, hehe.

Before we continue, quick warning that this will be a very picture-heavy post. Apologies to everyone with slow modems, lol (trust me, I understand...)

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted, but I don't think it's been that long, has it? Anyway, here's a little of what I've been up to:

Because being a snowman is my day job, you know...

...when I'm not being an astronaut, that is ;)

And why, yes, that is Savannah in that picture with me! Sooz and I went to visit her and had a fantastic time. I wish I could have stayed longer!  :) But we're sure to see each other again soon!

Once I got back home though, I got started on a little baking project I'd been planning for a while...

I read Jodi Meadow's INCARNATE back during finals madness (which, if anything, ought to show you how good the book was, haha) and told Jodi I'd bake her up some INCARNATE-inspired goodies once I got the time. So, today, I'm sharing step-by-step pictures and a recipe! (why, yes, in addition to being a snowman and an astronaut, I also bake. Because I'm just that cool :P )

Butterflies are quite important in INCARNATE, and there's a very cute scene involving honey, so I decided to include both these things in this recipe. Well, not real butterflies...

Butterfly-shaped cookies! Although, they really turned out more like pastries than cookies... Either way, they're yummy :)

So, here's how you make awesome INCARNATE butterfly cookie/pastry/things.

INGREDIENTS:

-honey

-nuts (I used walnuts because that's what we had in the fridge. I think almonds would also work well, or pecans. Maybe peanuts. Cashews not so much, maybe, lol)

-puff pastry (you can buy this pre-made at the store)

And that's really it! Super easy. Here are my ingredients: 

why, yes, that is a giant rice cooker in the background ;)

STEP ONE: lay out the puff pastry smooth, trying not to rip any holes in it. If you do, just pinch it back together.

STEP TWO: Pour some nuts into a ziplock baggie. This is one of those sandwich-sized ones.

STEP THREE: Make like a neanderthal and smash those nuts with some heavy object on hand. I used the original walnut jar, lol.

STEP FOUR: Pour honey all over the puff pastry. You'll need quite a lot, as you see...

STEP FIVE: Smooth the honey out so all of the pastry is covered...

STEP SIX: Pour the nuts on top, evenly. I had two sheets of puff pastry, as you can see in the first shot, so I used about half the bag of crushed nuts for each sheet.

STEP SEVEN: Carefully roll up the pastry sheet.

STEP EIGHT: Using a serrated knife (dipped in water in between slices helps with the sticking problem), slice the roll into pinwheels. Mine were about an inch (2.5 cm) thick. Put them in a pan that has been lined with parchment paper. I used a glass pan for one sheet and metal for the other, as you can see below. The glass one worked better for the temperature I used.

STEP NINE: But where are the butterflies? Well, I wasn't quite sure how they'd turn out, so I only made 3 in actual butterfly shape :P Here they are, all positioned out. The middle bit is just a pinwheel cut especially thin (1/2 an inch? A little over 1 cm?) and then lengthened a bit by stretching it.

STEP TEN: You should pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F (204 Celsius). This worked great for the glass but resulted in the metal panned ones to get a little too browned, so if you only have metal pans, maybe try 375 F or just bake for a shorter time. I took the metal ones out after 12 min and the glass ones out after 15 min.

Here are the ones in the glass pan, cooling!

And here are all 3 butterflies from the metal pan! (as you can see, they're a bit more browned, and the honey on the bottom got a little burnt)

These pastries aren't very sweet, but I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so they were perfect for me :) Jodi says they don't use sugar in INCARNATE land, but if you don't care so much for bookish accuracy and want your pastries sweeter, you could sprinkle sugar on top before they cool all the way--or just squeeze more honey on top ;)

It's a little more than a month till INCARNATE releases, and you guys ought to all check it out! And maybe bake some of these to snack on while you read :D

 Hope you guys have a happy new years!!