OK, so as much as I LOVE to cook, I really hate to bake. When I'm cooking, I may read a recipe, but I never follow it exactly. It's a jumping off point for me, but I always add, subtract and edit as I go along. The imprecision is part of what I love for as people who know me well can tell you, I'm not a detail person. But with baking, you have to measure and follow recipes. I know that those who are truly skilled at it start to bake by feel, just like I cook, but I'm not at that point and not likely to ever get there.
So I prefer desserts that can be "arranged" or "assembled" and I'll share those as I go along. I've also found a few baked goodies that are pretty easy, or if not, still worth doing. One I highly recommend is the chocolate cake recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can. My husband worships chocolate, and chocolate cake in particular, and this is the one his Grandma likely used as the starting place for her own version of the chocolate cake (she could bake by feel, not just by recipe). It's fairly fool-proof and is moist and delicious.
And of course if you live in a place with great Italian bakeries (like Staten Island, NY where I grew up), you don't need to bake -- a platter of pastries is the best dessert you could ever put out. But here in Northern Virginia, the Italian bakeries are few and far between, so I've learned to make do with other ideas.
I'll happily share them as I go along, and for those of you who love to bake, please do share your yummy recipes with the rest of us.
Cheers! Judy
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I love baking for exactly the reason you hate it - precision! detail! It soothes my little rule-following heart. :-) (Conversely, I'm not an especially good cook - I can produce good stuff from a recipe, but I can't take a bunch of stuff and make yumminess out of it. I think that takes much greater skill.)
ReplyDeleteI think I am ambidexterous when it comes to the kitchen - I enjoy both cooking and baking - just like my abuela (Spanish grandma). I remember when I got my first apartment and I was asking my mother for her recipe for red beans and she would tell me add some tomato sauce and tomato paste, some onion,garlic, green pepper, etc. I would ask for measurements and she said I don't know I just put it in the pot. I never thought I would get there but finally I can just throw some things in the pot and have learned to improvise when my hankerings don't coincide with a less than stocked pantry.
ReplyDeleteThe Hershey's choc. cake recipe is wonderful! My hubby, sons and mom love it. I usually make it for a pot luck. Bake it in a 13x 11 pan instead of in layers and then you can frost it in the pan and it's heck of a lot easier to trasnport.
As for the lack of Italian bakeries in the DC area, I feel your pain. If only Alfonso's would open a branch down here. *sigh*