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Baking
I did some Christmas baking this weekend, and am currently trying to restrain myself (with limited success) from eating all the leftover cookies that I didn't give away. As you guys know if you've been reading my recent posts, I love watching baking competition shows. However, I know I would never be able to enter one of them because I'm way too lazy to do that much work. In general, kneading and/or rolling out dough is way more effort than I usually want to put in. I like making stuff like chocolate chip cookies where you can just dump spoonfuls of dough on the cookie sheet and be done with it. Or even better, bar cookies or brownies where you just dump all the dough in a pan in one go and cut them up after they're done! (Despite my laziness, the end products do turn out tasty, if not especially pretty.)
Although I love poring over cookbooks and looking at beautifully shaped cookies, cakes, etc, and thinking, "I should do that someday!" I have a whole collection of recipes for "someday"--and hopefully I will get around to doing a few of them one day. (Though it would have to be when I'm on vacation from work, because otherwise I'm just too darned tired to do anything complicated.)
A baking tip (or maybe just a bad habit) from me: I never bother sifting the flour and other dry ingredients (salt, baking powder, etc) together when making cookies. I just dump them in a bowl and stir them together, then add it as directed in the recipe, and it always comes out fine. I'd probably be more careful if I was making something tricky, like say a souffle that won't rise if you screw up, but it doesn't seem to make a difference with the basic cookies I make (mostly chocolate chip, and occasionally peanut butter, sugar, and spritz). Quickbreads like banana bread, muffins, and pancakes seem to be fine, too. Though I'm sure Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would tell me that I'm doing it wrong!
One odd thing about me: though I'm lazy about kneading and rolling dough, I do like mixing the batter by hand. I'm not sure why; I find it relaxing, and it's a pain to stop the electric mixer every so often to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the batter gets thoroughly mixed. (I only have a little handheld mixer anyway, not one of the big stand mixers they use on the baking shows.) I just find it easier to mix by hand unless it's something that really needs high-speed beating.
Will probably go back to posting about fandom stuff tomorrow. (And am trying hard not to go eat another cookie!)
Although I love poring over cookbooks and looking at beautifully shaped cookies, cakes, etc, and thinking, "I should do that someday!" I have a whole collection of recipes for "someday"--and hopefully I will get around to doing a few of them one day. (Though it would have to be when I'm on vacation from work, because otherwise I'm just too darned tired to do anything complicated.)
A baking tip (or maybe just a bad habit) from me: I never bother sifting the flour and other dry ingredients (salt, baking powder, etc) together when making cookies. I just dump them in a bowl and stir them together, then add it as directed in the recipe, and it always comes out fine. I'd probably be more careful if I was making something tricky, like say a souffle that won't rise if you screw up, but it doesn't seem to make a difference with the basic cookies I make (mostly chocolate chip, and occasionally peanut butter, sugar, and spritz). Quickbreads like banana bread, muffins, and pancakes seem to be fine, too. Though I'm sure Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would tell me that I'm doing it wrong!
One odd thing about me: though I'm lazy about kneading and rolling dough, I do like mixing the batter by hand. I'm not sure why; I find it relaxing, and it's a pain to stop the electric mixer every so often to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the batter gets thoroughly mixed. (I only have a little handheld mixer anyway, not one of the big stand mixers they use on the baking shows.) I just find it easier to mix by hand unless it's something that really needs high-speed beating.
Will probably go back to posting about fandom stuff tomorrow. (And am trying hard not to go eat another cookie!)