If there’s one thing you
should know about me, it’s that I love to bake. And no, it’s not the kind of
love where I occasionally, when I have time, make a batch of cookies or two for
fun; it’s a downright obsession. I will pore over recipes for hours on the
internet, pay to take classes, diligently read through cookbooks, and end up
baking too many treats for those around me to eat while dancing around the
kitchen to the radio, wearing my flirty apron. I’ve even helped cater the dessert for some events at my workplace
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| Yep, that's me. |
Plus, I’ve recently started
my journey of baking my way through cookbooks! The first contestant is the
cookbook Flour by Joanne Chang. It was a Christmas present from my
sister – a compilation of recipes from our favorite pastry/coffee place in
Massachusetts. The first recipe was Oatmeal-Maple scones with a glaze on top:
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| Drool-worthy, indeed. |
I have to say that these
things are delicious. They turned out to be surprisingly fluffy as well as
filling. The maple taste is more subtle than I expected it to be, but that did
not detract from the overall deliciousness of the pastry. I’m definitely not
disappointed.
Okay, but now it’s truth
time: I am not some sort of a baking prodigy. In fact, until about a year and a
half ago, I was barely allowed in the kitchen. I had kind of built up a
reputation for burning everything I tried to cook.
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| Yep. That was me... |
But then there was the Christmas of my freshman year in college. I came home and was craving cookies so
much that I made (successfully!) so many batches that the top of my parents’
refrigerator was precariously piled with bags of Christmas treats. We couldn’t
get rid of them fast enough. I was baking and I liked it. More importantly,
nothing was burnt, the kitchen was still intact, and other people liked it too.
That’s when I fell in love.
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| Poems were written. |
It was also about that time
that Expressive Kitty was succeeding in taking over my life. I figured, he’s
pretty chunky. Pastries in excess result in said chunkiness. Naturally, I
should just combine the two! And so the dream was born.
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| I'm not sure there's anything pleasing about your plump, EK. |
Understand, between my
exercise, my vegetables, and my making of my own food, I can finally say that I’m
a pretty healthy person. When I first discovered my love of baking, I wanted
everything I made to be healthy too! Unfortunately, taking recipes and turning
them healthy, while completely possible, usually either changes or detracts
from the flavor. Also, I was struggling with the idea of what healthy baking
was. I wanted to transform mouth-watering cupcake and cookie recipes into ones
with no butter, barely any sugar, strictly whole-wheat flour, and no chocolate.
But then, what was I left with?
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| That's right! |
It took me a while to learn
this, but I’ve decided that recipes already in existence should be enjoyed as
they are. Sure, you could substitute oil and butter with applesauce or mashed
bananas, but then the entire flavor is changed. Not always for the better.
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| Why, indeed? |
If I’m going to have a
pastry, I want it to be a treat. A delicious morsel exhibiting its full
potential to my taste buds. I’ve decided to try my hand at inventing healthy
pastry recipes, ones that are made specifically to be healthy. But I’m going to
leave the butter-filled, flaky-crusted, chocolate-drenched pastries as they
are. Giving the power back to the pastries! A chocolate chip cookie shall be a
chocolate chip cookie once more!!
So, that’s that. The love
story. The whole shebang. Except I can’t put ‘The End’ on this story because it’s
not. With the vision I have for baking in my future, with my writing, and, most
importantly, with Expressive Kitty…it’s just the beginning.
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| And So The Brave Warrior Rode Off Into The Sunset. |
No. No sunset.
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