It's been far too long since I have written in this space. The Gift of Aging blog sort of took over, I guess. But the truth is that for the past year, baking has been my safest space. There is something soothing about carefully planning a baking project, setting out the ingredients, and methodically following the directions. I have a continuously growing cookbook collection, which I keep trying to edit, but someone keeps buying new ones. As soon as I get a new one, I read through it, using tabs to mark recipes I think I might like to try. I can't say I'm methodical about it, as I'm often more influenced by what I have a taste for.
Those who have been to my kitchen know that I always have a "treat drawer." This is a pull out freezer drawer where I keep a variety of goodies. It began as I learned how best freeze desserts once the kids left home and we couldn't possibly eat things before they became stale. Over the years we've come to rely on it for small portions of different kinds of sweet things. I like to have something intensely chocolate, something buttery, something tart, something sugary. That way we can satisfy whatever taste prevails that day, and we rarely choose the same thing. I like to have something sweet for breakfast with my coffee as a way to tame my sweet tooth for the rest of day. So there will often be a scone of some kind, a pastry of some kind, and a biscuit. Steve is the bread guy, so there may be rugelach, babka, bagels, or sourdough bread, sliced for toast.
I got a new batch of baking books for Christmas, A Good Bake, by Melissa Weller, and Tartine, A Classic Revisited, by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson. Additionally, one of my sons and his wife gave us a subscription to Master Classes, and I've been watching Dominique Ansel (the inventor of the cro-nut). For the past month I've been keeping a baking diary, just to keep track of the recipes I've used, what worked, and what I want to do differently. There were some true disasters...we won't dwell on those. But there have also been some heavenly delights along the way.
I had been frustrated for a long time at my inability to roll out dough thin enough...at 74 I just don't have the strength in my upper arms and shoulders. When I watched Dominique Ansel demonstrate how to make croissants, I was consumed with envy when I saw how soft and malleable his dough was. Finally, about two weeks ago, I bit the bullet and bought a dough sheeter. It's Italian and can be used to make pasta, to roll fondant (which I promise you I will never do), to roll cookie dough and pie crust, and to make the queen of them all, croissant dough.
Like everyone else, we have been tethered to home for the past 11 months. We cancelled six major trips last year and for the first time in memory, we have not gone anywhere. If I'm honest, what we miss the most about our travels (in addition to the good company of friends) are the many culinary destinations we have discovered over the years. One of those is Tartine bakery in San Francisco. We've traveled to the Bay Area most years, and Tartine is one of those places (like Chez Panisse) that we have to go to. We like to get up early and walk there (it's about 2 miles from the hotel we like) so we can feel we've earned one of their gorgeous morning buns. For some reason, they did not include the recipe in their original cookbook, but it's right on the cover of the new one I got for Christmas.
So, once I got the sheeter, I had to make morning buns. It was such a thrill to be able to have a dough that looked just like Dominique's, and to reach the dimensions I simply couldn't do on my own. Here is what the finished product looked like, shortly before Steve scarfed it up:
Here's what's in the treat drawer right now:
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