I practically jumped up and down like a 6 year old at Christmas when I saw the delivery driver arrive at my house. I knew he was bringing me the next step in my baking journey. I mentioned when I started baking on a weekly basis that one of my goals was to go through a cookbook "Julie & Julia" style. But the more I went through my recipe box and made a list of things I wanted to bake, the more I realized that I want to know why everything is actually in the recipes. I've found several from when I was young and copying out of my mom's box that I didn't write out correctly and I don't know how to fix it. If I know the technical aspects of baking, then I can make up my own, I can fix others, I can give advice when friends ask me (because they do and I can't always help them) and basically I can be free to really create. I even went so far as to check in with the only pastry "school" in my area which is at the community college. I found out they don't even teach the why - they only teach the students to follow a recipe. Sure, they make almost anything you would find in a bakery or on a restaurant menu, but they don't know why either. They can't whip up something from scratch because they don't know the formula, or ratio, or whatever it is that makes the great bakers great. I want to know that. So I did what I normally do - and have done with pretty much every craft I've ever wanted to learn - I started looking at the books that could teach me. I found many and I'm sure that I will go through several of them, but it was Alton Brown that drew me in. I am a geek at heart and no Star Trek or Star Wars reference slips unnoticed by any member of my family, so he seems to fit my needs. I have already started reading it and chuckled at myself for getting so immersed in the "molecular pantry" that I couldn't put it down :) This is no "cookbook" for sure. It is a textbook. I hope to do his teaching proud as I learn the techniques to all the different mixing methods and begin to be able to put my own spin on the desserts I want to make.
I also mentioned that as a whole I am an advocate of healthy eating. I've seen the results first hand of how helpful ridding our bodies of all the chemicals the big manufacturers put into foods can be. I've watched my youngest daughter become "cured" of ADHD and have the ability to focus and concentrate so much better in class that she is an honor student now, despite the fact that she is also dyslexic. I hope that by learning to know why recipes are made the way they are I can find ways to make the desserts I love just as tasty but in a much healthier way. But that is still down the road a ways. For now - it is into the classroom so to speak!
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