Baking Regrets
Thank goodness I have a fabulous visiting teaching companion who is good at baking. My poor sisters I've been visiting have been quite baked goodie deprived until she came along. Don't get me wrong. I actually like baking. It's cathartic and relaxing. Nothing makes me wish I could bake more than this time of year when, if I was a good neighbor, I'd be bringing plates of cookies to my neighbors. But truthfully I worry that most of what I'd give them would be unpalatable. I am sure that the problem is that I just refuse to follow the recipe and even when something comes out great, I never write down what I did so I can reproduce it. I have a little bit of a control issue when it comes to food. I think that following a recipe is kind of cheating, for me anyway. If I follow a recipe exactly then I can't really call it my genius now can I?
I do have 2 cookie recipes I always follow when I want cookies and have disciplined myself enough to follow the darned recipe. PB cookies and sugar cookies. The problem comes when I'm wanting something besides those two (which is often), or if I want some other form of desert, or if I want to bake bread. Oh I wish I was a cookie genius. I wish I could make light and fluffy rolls... but I can't seem to bring myself to use only white flour so my rolls are always heavy bricks. I wish I could have chewy cookies... but how do you really know if a recipe is for chewy or crunchy cookies... maybe if I add a little ____. NOT! Sometimes I think to myself "I am craving some kind of cookie with nuts and citrus" so I make up something and it comes out like some kind of fruitbread instead of the cupcake I was hoping for. I really have baking issues. I think I need to attend some kind of baking boot camp to steer me clear of my wayward baking ways.
I do have 2 cookie recipes I always follow when I want cookies and have disciplined myself enough to follow the darned recipe. PB cookies and sugar cookies. The problem comes when I'm wanting something besides those two (which is often), or if I want some other form of desert, or if I want to bake bread. Oh I wish I was a cookie genius. I wish I could make light and fluffy rolls... but I can't seem to bring myself to use only white flour so my rolls are always heavy bricks. I wish I could have chewy cookies... but how do you really know if a recipe is for chewy or crunchy cookies... maybe if I add a little ____. NOT! Sometimes I think to myself "I am craving some kind of cookie with nuts and citrus" so I make up something and it comes out like some kind of fruitbread instead of the cupcake I was hoping for. I really have baking issues. I think I need to attend some kind of baking boot camp to steer me clear of my wayward baking ways.
Beya's little face in your your new picture is so so so so cute!
ReplyDeleteDon't beat yourself up too much...I don't even like baked goods after all these years without. Only the occasional cookie or cupcake does it for me. Cakes...not so much, pies...too much outside of once or twice a year...breads are nice. But I'm just not that into sugar unless my cereal is made of it. :-)
ReplyDeleteGo see Julie...that girl can bake. She gets paid to bake.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI recently came across your blog and would like to talk to you about an article I wrote that I think you would enjoy (on early childhood education). I'd love it if you could drop me an email quick.
Emily
epatterson@primroseschools.com