Digital Life

The weather's turned, more or less, and fall is settling in for its relatively short stay before winter's frigid grasp. Which means it's officially the start of baking season. Not that there's ever a bad time for baking, but something about doing it when the temperatures are near 100F is just not appealing.

And for once I'm actually excited about it, because within the past year I've discovered that I enjoy baking. So far I only do bread and cookies but hey, it's bread and cookies. Plus it makes my apartment warmer.

Bread is what I started with, having reasoned that it being literally one of the oldest recipes in the book, it can't be all that difficult. I mean, people were making it before ovens were invented. Sure enough, it's easy, just a bit time intensive. I mean, I'm no artisan baker (yet) but every loaf I've made has been edible, so there's that. I do keep a bread diary in which I make any and all notes I feel are relevant about every loaf I make in the hopes of improving. If you've never tried making your own bread, give it a whirl sometime. Just be warned, you may never go back to the commercial crap they call bread again.

Cookies, well they take a lot less time and are a lot easier to share, at least until I get around to making rolls. Plus it's a lot easier to experiment. I think the fact that I try to make a different recipe every time actually makes it more difficult from the standpoint of trying to improve technique. Cause if you make a shortbread one week, then a drop cookie the next...yeah. Maybe I'll make another batch of those cinnamon cookies later this week.

I don't think I'll be branching out much from these two things, at least for the time being. Bread alone will take years to master. Especially working without such basics as a good baking stone or a dutch oven. Just me, a bowl and an oven.

So, what do you like to bake?