Baking


I’ve often been called an overachiever.  I don’t disagree.  Now that life has calmed down somewhat, I find myself looking for new things to take on (an Ivy League MBA, for example).  Some things, however, remind me that despite my high “D” (DISC profile) and my type-A personality, I’m really a lazy bum.  Baking is one such activity.

Baking is culinary arts for the lazy. 

The girls and I bake cookies most weekends.  It’s one of those things that breaks up the day and keeps Saturdays fun.  Ivy and Iris are most excited about licking the beaters, so sometimes, I’m on my own.  I almost NEVER start and finish in one sitting.  First, I get out the butter to let it soften.  Now, I’m committed.  Once the butter is out, it can’t be put back in the wrapper without serious complications.  Even so, I can’t possibly mix the batter with cold, hard butter, so I find a nice Law & Order marathon and settle in for an episode or two.  Next, the sugar.  Easy enough and can be done in a standard commercial break.  I might even break the eggs into the bowl…and unless those are room temperature too, I might as well watch another episode or the butter will harden up again. 

Forty minutes and one verdict later, the vanilla, baking soda and salt are blended in and by the time the “glung glung” is signaling the start of the next episode, the flour and chocolate chips are mixed in as well. 

A couple of years ago, my dad sent me an article that discussed different things making cookies (specifically chocolate chip) turn out better:  dropping larger cookies, sprinkling coarse salt on them before baking—things like that.  My favorite “tip” was refrigerating the batter for up to 12 hours before dropping them.  That would easily take me to the end of the marathon (most of the time—TNT and USA can be a bit obnoxious with Law & Order). 

When I finally do get down to the business of dropping cookies, I get a full 9 minutes of crime drama in between cookie sheet swaps.  It’s silly, I know, but the same methodology can be easily used for cheesecakes, layer cakes and even bread.  For example, I make a chocolate explosion cheesecake that bakes in layers—six to be exact.  Each layer has to be fully cooled and sometimes frozen before the next layer can be baked.  It takes DAYS!  But I never find myself rushing through baking or taking shortcuts—I’m just well rested in between steps.

Whether you like my method or not, I’ve never had any complaints about my cookies, so I say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easter

It’s Holy Week.  I remember being confused by so many pieces of Easter when I was young.  Why was it called Good Friday if Jesus died?  Wasn’t that BAD Friday?  Why did we eat so much fish?  Ick.  Why did it always seem to be a gloomy, rainy, week?  Did God do that on purpose?  How could Jesus ride into the city of Jerusalem with such fanfare on Sunday and be beaten so brutally just 6 days later?  As I’ve grown in my faith and age, I understand so much more.  When Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ played in theaters, I went to see it.  My sobs could hardly be heard over the sobs of others.  This wasn’t a movie where you munched on popcorn and sipped a soft drink.  This was a chore—a duty as a Christian to come face to face with the brutality endured by our Savior.  To come to terms with what He experienced so that I could, what?  Show up late to work with no excuse?  Watch movies with foul language?  Tell the occasional lie and not suffer the consequences?  Was it worth it?  What jus
Read more

Shoes=Outside

Image
When Nick comes inside from anywhere, he takes off his socks and shoes. He just likes to be barefoot inside. He also doesn't like shoes on the couch or beds, so when Ivy's inside, most of the time, her shoes and socks come off too. Naturally, this necessitates putting shoes on when we've been home and then decide to go somewhere. Ivy seems to understand this. She LOVES to be outside. She's tall enough to reach the door knob, so it's locked all the time now. She'll go up to the door, try to turn the handle and say "side" when she wants to go outside (which is all the time). When she sees one of us putting our shoes on, she naturally goes to the door and says "side". Yesterday, Nick took Ivy out to the pool for a while before I got home from work. They put their feet in the pool and splashed a bit, but no real swimming (water is still cold). When I got home, they were back inside, shoes off. Ivy wasn't quite done being outside for the day.
Read more

The Wonderful World of Meat Substitutes

I didn’t become a vegetarian until a little over two years ago. I used to think it would be absolutely impossible for me to do—I’m in love with chicken! Can’t give that up. No way. Well, clearly, I did give it up (although so many non-vegetarians say things to me like “you eat chicken, right? Chicken’s a vegetable.” Um, no.). I often encounter someone that is unaware of my food lifestyle and after the initial shock wears off, they want to know if I miss meat. The answer is a resounding no. I hardly notice it at all. I won’t go into why I don’t eat meat (not now anyway). There are different types of vegetarians. I am what is known as a lacto-ovo vegetarian—I eat eggs and diary but nothing that used to crawl, swim, walk or fly. No chicken, no cow, no pig, no lamb, no fish. (Nick and I went to a restaurant today that basically wanted to know how you want your beef cooked, but did include two of what they called “Meatless sandwiches”. They included fried fish and baked fish.
Read more