What baking is, is the snobbiest of the culinary arts. Talk to people who bake a lot. They can be very snooty. These dilettantes also truly believe baking is a science that requires exactitude. Sort of. When I do bake, I am hardly meticulous about my measurements.
The baked goods turn out fine and tasty enough. I have never killed anyone or sent them to the hospital to get their stomach pumped. Cooking real food, that is food that provides nutrients, is a lot more forgiving and free flowing. Soufflés excepted.
The worst of it is that it is a very time demanding pursuit. Letting dough rise, letting dough rest, blah, blah, blah. Also the mixing blows. Most baking recipes make assumptions you know what you are doing in the first place; while real cooking often tells you what that weird instruction actually means. I had to look up what "creaming butter" actually meant; I was going to add milk when it did not get creamy. Yeah, not happening. Oh, it got creamed, but by my means. Just like add: 3 very whipped eggs. Really? I am using a mixer, they will get whipped while I am creaming the butter.
Why am I bitching about baking in the first place? Our Scouts who are going to the Canada Jamboree this summer have a fundraiser involving selling "elephant ears", aka beaver tails. So, I made seven batches of dough today to break up tomorrow morning and fry in oil at the Kars Family Fun Day in the afternoon.
It it also our annual Baden-Powell banquet this Wednesday and I drew dessert. Easy, so I thought. I decided to do four different cookies. You know what, they are pretty much all the same I now realise after making them. Sure, they are not identical, but close enough. Some, batches required resting though.
chocolate chip cookies from my first batch of cookie dough
You know what though, I am going to figure out which recipe is the easiest and just change things like chocolate chips, or dried fruit, or shape, or adding cinnamon, or glazing, or throwing in oats, or whatever. Baking cookies, like Groundhog Day, is a scam.
drop cookies with chocolate chips, basically the same as the first batch, but twice as easy and twice as many cookies
Truly though, my hat is doffed to those who bake and share. It does eat up a lot of time. Now I know why when my mum baked she baked lots over a few days. You get a rhythm and you can make bigger batches.
So, I just finished two different batches in three tranches in the oven. The next batch was supposed to be Belgium cookies: two layers with jam in the middle, glazed on top, and a piece of candied fruit on top of that. Na-ah. Just making simple, single layer cookies now. I have yet another batch of more complicated cookies and a roast to make to today.
batch number three, what a bitchy batch to roll out
After baking cookie batch number three, what a pain to roll the dough out, under counsel of the wife, I have decided to bake the last batch of cookies tomorrow. Over six hours handling dough, I have had enough. Plus I still need to cook that roast and make a ton of elephant ears tomorrow.
seven batches of elephant ears in my fridge waiting to be made and one batch of cookies i am dreading to bake
At least I have cracked the code. There are only a couple/few basic doughs for cookies and bread doughs are mostly the same, something I figured out years ago. I will confirm these basic cookie doughs and use them as my base from now on. It will be less time consuming and more relaxing, like when I cook food that sustains life. At least the cookies taste good and my taste-tester is still alive and not being rushed to the hospital.
the roast with potatoes waiting to go in the oven
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