These past few weeks have been a little nuts. Firstly, I'd just like to say that - in between reading 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' - I finally got through all the introductory information in my CIA baking textbook. Yes, its printed by Wiley. That definitely makes it a textbook. (Brief aside: What don't they publish? I mean, really...). Plus, too, it’s published by the Culinary Institute of America (you know, the other CIA). I have to say that it was extremely information dense, but I learned some pretty useful stuff. Like why I've been sniffing honeydew melons since I was six. Apparently, my dad isn't as crazy as I had initially surmised.
When it came down to baking though, I'm afraid I had to shelve this book. It is certainly designed for an industry baker. After all, what does a home baker do with six loaves of bread?! I believe in generosity, but if I'm baking my way through a book, I think people are eventually going to catch on that I've baked oodles. And oodles. And, for emphasis, even more oodles. I could do the math, of course, but even their own introduction states that simply cutting ingredients in half is not sufficient for recipe success; the recipe must be tested several times. That would result in even more bread... Yeah, that wasn't going to work.
So I heaved the brick back to the library and set off into the baking/cooking section once more. Perhaps, when I am old and retired, I will finally own a bakery and I'll return to this book. Or, in all likelihood, a succeeding edition. That's right, I dream about owning a really tiny bakery in some small town. With a really nice ornate store-front like the one in the following picture that I passed while driving to a rented cottage with my parents in Canada!
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| Isn't it awesome? I mean, maybe a fixer-uper, but the windows are simply darling! |
Anyway, back to baking.
Round 2 of self-teaching is going to be conducted with Sur La Table's "The Art and Soul of Baking" (conveniently located also at the bookstore and! on Amazon => linkage!). I've read through the introduction and, so far, I have to say that I'm a little more at ease with this book in hand. The introduction makes the baking seem just as serious as the CIA, but has a more approachable method of communicating as much. Plus, the recipe yields seem a little more manageable!
Can I confess something else? I haven't been entirely faithful to baking chastity. Actually, I've failed horribly and completely! While, yes, I did break a promise to myself (bad news bears), it resulted in some yummy things!
First off, I didn't eat my bananas fast enough one week. So I had to selfish-bake - not my first SB and won't be my last - to make sure they went to better use than padding the bottom of my green bin. What sort of selfish bake, you say? Banana Oatmeal Cups with Dark Chocolate (I used 80%. Its pretty bitter, but very satisfying.). Thanks, GreenLiteBites!
I locked myself out of my apartment and my mom had to drive over with the key. That, in itself, wouldn't be so bad if she didn't live so far away. So, in an attempt to demonstrate great gratitude, I whipped up a batch of Lemon Poppyseed Madeleines using not a madeleine sheet but a slightly different one that my mom inherited from her mother. They turned out nicely, though I have yet to master the art of keeping them slightly crunchy.
Secondly, it was Martin's birthday. I had no idea what to get him. Guy friends, I've decided, are impossible to shop for. "I don't want anything special, really." Gee, thanks. =/
So, what was I going to do? What does any sane person do when they don't know? They ask more questions. This didn't occur to me until much later. I baked.
I whipped up Joy The Baker's Browned Butter Strawberry-Banana Loaf in a 9-inch cake pan. This made me incredibly anxious, which resulted in my hanging out for the entire baking time with a book in front of the oven during a heat wave. Crazy? Probably. But this is one of my bff's we're talking about and, for a birthday, you better believe this thing was going to be better than perfect before I was actually happy about the whole thing.
The baking didn't stop there, though. Everyone gets cake on their birthday, don't they? Even if its Black Forest Cake (which, in theory, sounds like a good plan but I, for one, am not a fan. Chunks of cherry? Where does that get fun?). Decidedly, I had to change the game. I also baked something a little more experimental on my part.
Ugh... okay, so sugar cookies aren't really all that 'experimental' per se. I used Emily's awesome recipe for sugar cookies from her blog (which you ought to check out, for serious). I know, not really all that racey and awesome. I tried to bump it up a notch with some red food colouring, but ultimately they turned out vaguely more orange. You can't really see it in the photo, however, I think that might have more to do with my camera. I'm going to have to pillage my sister once again.
But, you're right, the cookies. I used coconut extract instead of almond, which makes them smell amazing! So my slightly pink, coconut-ey sugar cookies hung out in the fridge while I contemplated how to make them a little more exciting. Until I noticed an uneaten dark chocolate orange from Christmas. Brilliant. I broke it up into small pieces and folded the dough around it. The result? Awesome cookies (thanks totally to Emily!) with a dark chocolate surprise on the inside. Score!
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| The Great Blog Round-Up: Showing you pictures of the trouble I got up to because when I said I failed at keeping away from the oven, I failed in a major way. Okay, clockwise starting at top right: Lemon Poppy-seed Madeleines for the mum who will drive miles just to let me back into my apartment because her daughter forgot (repeatedly) to stash a second key elsewhere; the SB Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate muffins (even better when frozen and then thawed in the micro); the Brown-Butter Strawberry-Banana Loaf in a cake pan (my first time browning butter!!!); and, lastly, the evolution of the sugar cookie (from harmless blob, it crawled from the watery depths and devoured some chocolate). |
Bff's birthday. Awesome. Wicked mum? Well, there's just no topping that.
p.s. The cake went over amazingly. Millions upon millions of thanks, Joy! <3
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